My "new" LiFePo battery doesn't seem to be fully charging. Help!

[showme]

We have a 2000 Keystone Montana at our property that we use (for now) as a break room/tool room as we prepare to build a new home on the land. This summer I bought a lithium iron phosphate deep cycle battery to replace our old, bad battery. We don't use anything that's 12v in the 5th wheel these days, and the converter hums, so I had assumed all was well until I checked it yesterday. Using my Fluke 115, when I checked the battery while hooked up and shore power coming in, it showed only .814v. When I disconnected the cables from the battery, it reads 10.53v. What is going on here? When we bought the Montana used 5 years ago, we took it to a local shop and everything checked out ok. We don't use the furnace, hot water or fridge currently. It seems the DC lights work, but not all of them. The 12v lights from the steps to the front (bedroom) don't come on. There has been some damage to the wires in the front battery compartment from mice, but I thought I had that straightened out. 

So my question is, what could be keeping this battery from getting a full charge when the power to the converter is left on (we have a residential solar set up for the house and shop when they're finished) full time? 

The battery is a Grener 100ah LiFePo. I plan on adding a second one later, but since we seldom use any 12v power, I figured I'd try this brand out before I purchase a second. It has great reviews on Amazon, where I bought it. Also, all the 120v lights, outlets and AC work fine, so there's no problem on the AC side. Thanks for any suggestions and ideas. I was really surprised to find it not fully charged, and even more confused about the nearly non-existent reading of .8 volts when hooked up.   Lee

[Theorid]

Dude, that's weird. .814v with shore power connected? Sounds like something's sucking the juice out of that battery while it's charging. My guess is a short somewhere, especially given the mouse damage. Even a tiny short can drain a LiFePO4 battery pretty fast.

[showme]

Thank you, Stircrazy. This is what I was thinking, also. The wire damage I found was up in the battery compartment between the hydraulic pump and the outside wall. When I found the chewed wires a few years ago, I got on the forum trying to find the schematic for this 5th wheel, and mostly was told that Keystone is infamous for either not giving out that information or that they just didn't have the schematic in any form. One thing I'm not looking forward to (and never have been) is pulling those belly sections to get to the wire. Although I have noticed that there is a least one long section of wiring that was 'draped' along the outside of the belly panels. Because we do have the 5th wheel in the woods, there are mice and wood rats that get in. (We use a commercial mint spray to deter them, but there's no way to get that stuff between the inside of the trailer and the belly sections). 

I have the battery at home now, and when I checked it after I got it here, it's still reading 10.5. I will charge it up again and see what happens. I'm also going to have to do a little homework on how to get to the converter, which I'm assuming is behind the electrical panel by the entry door. 

Kind of strange that I've spent the last few years building our solar set up, including wiring and computing voltage drop off and re-wiring and getting new breakers for some of the equipment, with a lot of emphasis on my two Trace SW5548 inverters. Now I get to learn about converters and go the opposite direction! 😐 I'll let you know what I find out on this. But first, I have a septic system to finish before the weather changes on me. Thank you again! Lee

[StirCrazy]

ya I don't think there is a company that releases their schematics.  to me they are more of a design idea and the actual feild fit by the workers may differ, but it they say this is it then you find somthing different then they could be on the hook for issues.  

[StirCrazy]

sounds like you have more issues than you think.  I would start with the A/C side where it goes into the converter and make sure that has power.  then the output of the converter for 12V power.  then I wold start looking for what I suspect is a good short thats sucking all the power away.  take the LiFePO4 battery to a different charger and charge it and leave it out untill you find out whats going on.   realy this is two hard for someone to tell you somthing spicific, so you going to have to check every wire for mouse dammage and that is every bit of it till you find some dammage, fix it, test again, if its still screwwed look for more dammage..  might get luckey, might take forever.....  sorry I can't be more help but what ever is going on is what killed your previous batteries.