I am waking upon to dead batteries on the new house batteries. The last two nights I have been turning everything off when going to bed and waking to not enough charge in the batteries to start the generator. Where to begin looking for problem. Any advice would be helpfull

Were they absolutely fully charged?

Any chance the fridge heater is on?

What is the voltage just before going to bed?How are you charging the batteries each day? What converter? How many hours?Basically you need to get the battery voltage over 14.2 for at least two hours to call them charged.

First off, take your battery to Auto zone and have it load tested. I've seen brand new batteries that were bad. Proceed to the next step if the battery checks out good:If you have an amp gauge, disconnect the positive post of your battery and put the leads on the positive post and the cable. Shut off all of your circuit breakers, and turn off everything in the RV and turn the breakers back on one at a time. If you have a short, the amperage will go up when you turn the breaker on for that circuit. This will help you isolate where the problem is.

Sure might be handy if we had some idea what these batteries are in?What is voltage at night and what is voltage in morning? Measure right at the battery.If a trailer, is the breakaway pin pulled out?We can post WAGs all day but unlikely to be much help without more info to work with.Golf Guy wrote:I am waking upon to dead batteries on the new house batteries. The last two nights I have been turning everything off when going to bed and waking to not enough charge in the batteries to start the generator. Where to begin looking for problem. Any advice would be helpfullNew batteries? Odds are they weren't connected correctly.

waking to dead new batteries | Good Sam Community

MrWizard
Moderator
Nov 12, 2014
fridge on auto !

set fridge on LP and leave it there

you very likley have an inverter
and the fridge is running on 120vac produced by the inverter
SUCKING the batteries dead in a few hours
Shadow_Catcher
Explorer
Nov 13, 2014
A good starting point http://www.solar-electric.com/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html The only way to know what is happening with your batteries is with a battery monitor which measures current going into and coming out. The two current best choices are The Victron and from Bogart Engineering. I chose the Victron and once calibrated can be set to display %SOC (percent state of charge). You do not want to go below 50% SOC. http://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors
jrnymn7
Explorer
Nov 13, 2014
The OP has at least 216Ah's. And a furnace blower cannot go thru 108 Ah's in one night, unless it's running continuously... which it is not.

After "charging" for 12 hrs, there is no way a 216Ah bank can be anything less than full. And by charging, I mean charging... not trying to float the batteries to full with a converter at 13.6v. If you're gonna boondock, you need a real charger, not a converter set to 'normal' operations. I can charge one of my 215Ah banks, from 50-95%, in less than 4 hours with a 60 amp charger.

Having to turn the heat down to 45F, and run the genset for 12-24 hrs a day, is absolutely absurd, and completely unnecessary.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 13, 2014
I came home late, and encountered this thread on the 2nd page. Wow! The avalanche of suggestions is almost overwhelming. Maybe starting with some basics is not a bad way to begin the hunt for the problem...

OP how do you rate your mechanical aptitude? Good? Fair? Poor?
How do you feel about using a new handheld volt meter the kind with the black and red wires sticking out of it?
Do you feel comfortable finding where things are like the inverter battery terminals, and battery terminals?
If you are going to be camped or on the road do you have reasonable access to an auto parts store, or Sears store?
You need to purchase a meter to do any troubleshooting, assumptions are the mother of frustration
Would you feel comfortable going a getting an inexpensive hand held test meter?
RJsfishin
Explorer
Nov 13, 2014
There is so many reasons to have dead batteries, I wouldn't know where to start.
These just to name a few..........
1) charging has never seen 14 volts (batts never seen a 80-90% charge)
2) like said above, fridge (WH?) maybe running on inverter
3) furnace running all nite,...starting w/ 1/2 dead batteries

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