will frig drain battery

Almot wrote:

NinerBikes wrote:
The last 1.5 hours gets you so little recharge with a generator and your stock charge controller.

Yes. This is inherent problem of a generator. Same noise for the last 1.5 hours and very little charge. Because batteries can't take more current.

Getting a "better" charger to bring ti faster to bulk is TAD a wishful thinking. There is a recommended limit of charging current, usually 0.25-0.3C. If your existing charger is capable of 0.3C, you should not try "improving" it because you will kill your batteries sooner.

NinerBikes wrote:
For optimum results, a good charge controller on a single Group 24 Deep cycle battery for an hour in the morning, and a solar panel that will put out 7 to 10 amps for 5 to 8 hours daily to top charge the battery off on sunny days is a good solution to the never ending parasitic draw

An hour on generator and charger is not necessary for fridge and sensors if you have a 7-10 amp solar. 50 Ah hours daily that a mid-size solar will harvest on a sunny day, would be the energy sufficient for "living" off the solar - which is a bit higher than a "parasitic draw" that people have in storage-like conditions. My LP fridge, lights, furnace (not much), pumps, and small electronics draw 40-50 Ah in 24 hours.

Parasitic draw, even if we include LP fridge, is normally under 20 Ah. If you have a 7-10 amp solar, it will put 15-20 Ah a day in a battery even on cloudy days, so there is no need to run a generator in this scenario. Definitely no need on a sunny day.

Yes, but this is before we account for losses from it being a cloudy dark day, and running the lights longer, earlier in the evening and night, due to cloud cover, and the losses from consumption running lights, be they incandescent amp suckers or efficient LED's. I need bright light to tie nice flies to fish.

well.. if you read this thread
did you see the part about the 12v power for the 'control board', the 12v LP gas valve, and the 12v heat strip in the freezer door..to stop the frost built up

its not a huge amount of power, but you just can't walk off and leave it running with NO battery recharge and expect it to last

Why does a fridge on propane draw on the battery so much?

NinerBikes wrote:
The last 1.5 hours gets you so little recharge with a generator and your stock charge controller.

Yes. This is inherent problem of a generator. Same noise for the last 1.5 hours and very little charge. Because batteries can't take more current.

Getting a "better" charger to bring ti faster to bulk is TAD a wishful thinking. There is a recommended limit of charging current, usually 0.25-0.3C. If your existing charger is capable of 0.3C, you should not try "improving" it because you will kill your batteries sooner.

NinerBikes wrote:
For optimum results, a good charge controller on a single Group 24 Deep cycle battery for an hour in the morning, and a solar panel that will put out 7 to 10 amps for 5 to 8 hours daily to top charge the battery off on sunny days is a good solution to the never ending parasitic draw

An hour on generator and charger is not necessary for fridge and sensors if you have a 7-10 amp solar. 50 Ah hours daily that a mid-size solar will harvest on a sunny day, would be the energy sufficient for "living" off the solar - which is a bit higher than a "parasitic draw" that people have in storage-like conditions. My LP fridge, lights, furnace (not much), pumps, and small electronics draw 40-50 Ah in 24 hours.

Parasitic draw, even if we include LP fridge, is normally under 20 Ah. If you have a 7-10 amp solar, it will put 15-20 Ah a day in a battery even on cloudy days, so there is no need to run a generator in this scenario. Definitely no need on a sunny day.

riven1950 wrote:
Almot, I hear you about the solar. Been reading up a little on it. Not a lot of good boondocking choices close to home on NC coast. We have only had the TT 1 year and always have camped with power. Thinking about a longer trip out west and considering solar / genny, although the genny would not help where we are at now. Neighbors in subdivision may not appreciate it. Genny would be good add on at home because we are in hurricane alley ( for power outages ).

re installed battery last night about 10:30 after a 2 1/2 hour charge. Just checked and it is 12.65V. Will charge for about 3 hours this afternoon and it should be good till we leave at 7:00AM tomorrow. Thks for all the advice. Did not realize it would drain that fast.

The last 1.5 hours gets you so little recharge with a generator and your stock charge controller. Take a look at your electrical panel and see if you can get the model number and brand of Charge controller in your rig, and post it up here. WFCO's are noted for being fine on your battery if you are plugged in at a full hook up campsite, but they are not a very good application for dry camping, or when travelling in route and keeping things charged up.

Do a search on dry camping charge controllers and and names like Progressive Dynamics, Iota's and 3 or 4 stage charge controllers will come up regularly. Why? Because they flat out work better, charge more efficiently, can be programmed to charge in bulk mode quickly, and allow you to enjoy more options besides babysitting your generator for 3 hours 2x a day.

For optimum results, a good charge controller on a single Group 24 Deep cycle battery for an hour in the morning, and a solar panel that will put out 7 to 10 amps for 5 to 8 hours daily to top charge the battery off on sunny days is a good solution to the never ending parasitic draw on a battery day in and day out while camping.

Your other option is to get more amp hours in the form of batteries to get you through the cloudy days by having more ampere hour capacity before dropping the voltage on the battery excessively. More battery capacity will also get you through more road time to your destination before needing a recharge due to low voltage. 2 group 24 batteries will get you about 150 amp hours. 2 6v golf cart batteries will get you 210 to 224 amp hours.

The set up I now use on my 21 foot travel trailer consists of a PD 9245C with 3 stage pendant, and a 120 watt folding portable solar panel and controller from Solar Blvd.

Very happy with the results after camping over a week near Las Vegas and at Quartzsite off the grid. Still debating as to whether I even need more solar yet with this set up. 45 minutes to an hour in bulk mode first thing in the morning, then let the solar do the rest of it to top things off during the day seems to keep my battery happy, so far. Eventually, I will go with a pair of GC-2 6v batteries.

Almot, I hear you about the solar. Been reading up a little on it. Not a lot of good boondocking choices close to home on NC coast. We have only had the TT 1 year and always have camped with power. Thinking about a longer trip out west and considering solar / genny, although the genny would not help where we are at now. Neighbors in subdivision may not appreciate it. Genny would be good add on at home because we are in hurricane alley ( for power outages ).

re installed battery last night about 10:30 after a 2 1/2 hour charge. Just checked and it is 12.65V. Will charge for about 3 hours this afternoon and it should be good till we leave at 7:00AM tomorrow. Thks for all the advice. Did not realize it would drain that fast.

Though harder to realize in a small trailer, but a medium size solar system takes this worry out - forever. Mine collects 30-40 Ah on a really dark low overcast day. This by far exceeds what my fridge and other semi-parasitic loads like sensors drain over 24 hours.

To compensate for a typical 10-20 Ah drain of a frig and detectors in the worst weather possible, short of a non-stop torrential rain or snowfall, a solar array of total 250w will be sufficient. This is - on the worst day. On a good day it will keep running all devices that an average camper would carry, with exception of (maybe) microwave, and will harvest enough to compensate for the previous bad day. It may or may not work as a reliable source of energy for all your daily needs - depends on the location and your needs - but will definitely eliminate the need to run a genny for LP fridge.

I decided to check it tonight. Was 12.4V so I pulled it and am charging it for about 3 hours, then need to re install to keep frig. going. Will check it again tomorrow. Hopefully it will be ok till Mon am. after the charge, then we will be on the road again, plugged into the TV.

My 21 foot Palomino Gazelle, dometic frige, co and LP sensor, will drop my group 24 dc in a day and a half. I need to charge it up, pretty much every morning. I tend to now just start my eu1000i gen with a direct PD 9245 to the single battery and run it an hour or so in Bulk charge mode with the smart charger pendulum to get it up rather quickly. The stock WFCO 8955 charges way too slowly, at too low a voltage, it doesn't really get and hold bulk charge mode..

riven1950 wrote:
No usage other than frig on lp and maybe CM detector.

Question : Do it need to worry about battery going down in 2 and 1/2 days?

CO/CM detectors and smoke detectors are usually on their own batteries. It's LP detector that needs 12V. Though each rig is different.

Yes, the frig alone "might" drain 90 Ah battery to dangerously low level (which is commonly considered 49%) in 2.1/2 days.

Frig drain depends on the frig.

My 6.3 cu.ft Norcold draws 0.4A when running. So, at 50/50 cycle it would drain 5 AH over 24 hours, or 12.5A over 2.1/2 days. Plus, LP detector, plus radio on standby, plus inherent self-discharge of the battery - it loses charge even when completely disconnected. So, with my modest frig drain I still lose about 10 Ah a day in total, or 25 Ah in 2.1/2 days. So my particular situation is not threatening.

Some frigs drain more, but seldom over 12-14 AH in 24 hours. Some very old LP frigs with mechanical thermostat don't drain anything at all.

A tip - if it's a 2-door frig, disconnect the defroster that keeps the wall between the doors warm. Dometic should have a switch for that. Norcold doesn't, but there are ways to cut it off. See this article