Norcold 12cu Drains Battery on LP

dougrainer wrote:
I state digital because the Analog meter(needle type) are OFF by up to 25% when reading Genset voltage. For years I had customers come in with that cheap Analog meter scared because it showed 109 to 113 volts with their 7k Onan running. I would use my Fluke meter and show them that the ACTUAL voltage was 123 volts with both AC's running. Real world Experience does wonders for using the correct tools. Doug

PS, in your yellow meter, what had them worried was because it SHOWED RED.

That one was from a quick search, many other analog meters similar to the one I found which might show a wider range and better accuracy if you look around..

I mean like another quick search came up with this one..



Looks like 113V-127V as green or good which IS normal and acceptable voltage range..

Typically acceptable voltage drop of +(-)5% from 120V is 6V or 114V to 126V so that meter range is actually correct.

+(-) 10% is 12V or 108V-132V which is the outer limits of normal line voltage which should be avoided..

"110V" is a "figure of speech", 120V is actually what the grid is suppose to be. My home voltage typically hovers around 120V-121V day and night. Recently was camping in high heat, the campground voltage was 110V and was dropping to 108V at times.. Not a good idea for most items if you want it to last.

Digitals can be problematic since the reading refresh is often very fast, it shows "peaks and valleys" in the voltage too easily, meaning folks can get spooked when the display jumps or drops a few volts while they are looking at it.

Not to mention, I don't know of any digital meters which are going to alert the user when the voltage goes out of normal range.

Analog meters are naturally dampened by the meter movement and react far slower averaging out the voltage fluctuations.

There are times when analog meters are more helpful for troubleshooting since they tend to average quick changing voltages.