Battery life, fridge only

opnspaces wrote:
Yes.

But as usual the true answer is it depends. There are more phantom loads on the battery than just the refrigerator. But typically a good battery will last about two weeks before going completely dead. If the battery is older it might not make it quite that long. If your battery is in fairly good shape though it should make it for at least a week.

What is your plan for recharging the battery after the two days? Are you relying on the tow vehicle to recharge it? Or are you getting an electrical hookup once you get to your destination?

This is a good answer and others who answered too.

I will add a few things not yet mentioned to help the cause.

1. The gas detector in your camper is normally wired live all the time. That is one of the small loads being talked about that you cannot turn off.

2. If your camper has a roof TV antenna with a booster amplifier, and that amplifier is left turned on, it will draw power all the time. Most of these have a small button you can push to turn it on/off. Turn it off to make the battery last longer.

3. The radio in the camper, some have a backlight screen that sucks power, not a lot, but it is still power. Most times the only way to unhook this load, is take the fuse out of it on the back.

4. Here is a power sucker, not sure what model/brand fridge you have. Some of the Dometic's have what they call a "Climate control" feature. That is a heat strip that warms the freezer door gasket area to not freeze up on humid days. Some of these have a rocker switch up at the top door gasket area of the freezer door to turn it "off". Make sure that is off. On the RM2652 fridge at least, that heat strip can be live all the time even with the fridge main switch turned off if the climate control switch is left on.

Battery size, type, age, and what state of charge it was in when it started all plays into how many days.

Many of the older campers never had a battery disconnect switch at the battery. You had to unhook the battery cable to stop these parasitic loads from draining your battery in a week or two. Now a days, campers do have disconnect switches, just the owner needs to remember to turn it off when the camper is not used. The ideal thing, you have shore power close to the camper being stored. Plug in a battery minder with a desulfate mode and the battery stays maintained at 100% all the time and in good condition if you have a lead acid battery. If you do not have power near by, then the solar charger just for the battery takes care of it as the other poster stated.

Hope this helps

John