Do you leave MH plugged in for power at home?

Mine stays plugged in all the time. Keeps the batteries charged. Plus I start it every so often and hang out in it and watch TV, you know, to give the misses a break. I did lose the start battery, found a parasitic drain that killed it. Found a stupid relay under the sofa that went to the DC TV's once upon a time. It was still energized. I unplugged it, no problem.

whether in storage or at home it has plugged in continually for 18 years.

Just put in AGM batteries several months ago. Have replaced the batteries about every five years as preventive maintenance.

Never had a battery failure so far but I was tired of always having to add water.

ArchHoagland wrote:
Mine has been plugged in by my house for 12 years. So far, so good.


You need to check your batteries for water once a month or so.

Are you on the same set of batteries for the last 12 years?

Have always done that in one form or another. As previously noted, you'll need to verify you have a converter that won't overcharge your batteries. Regardless what converter you have, its a good idea to keep an eye on your batteries water/acid level and occasionally top it off when its plugged in all the time.

When I lived in an apartment temporarily about 2 years ago and could not keep it plugged up to power, I had to make it a point to crank up the generator and run it for an hour or two about once a week to keep the batteries charged. If I did not, the house batteries would drain and have issues.

Every house I've owned (total of 3 now), one of the first things I've done is had an electrician install an RV outlet for the Motorhome. We just moved last month back to NC, and just had a 30 amp outlet installed at the new house here. Would have preferred a 50 amp like had at the previous house in Georgia, but that proved way too costly.

If you just want to keep the batteries charged and won't need to run air conditioners inside, then there is no need to install a 30 or 50 amp outlet - You can just use adapters to plug into a regular 110V outlet. Did that for a while, too, before I got the RV outlet installed. However, here in the South where it gets really hot in the summer, I like to be able to run the air conditioners when loading/unloading the Motorhome or working on stuff inside it, in which case you need a 30 or 50 amp outlet.d

24/7 when not on the road.

Devocamper wrote:
Depends on your inverter / charger , if you have a 3 stage that will adjust your charge rate and not boil off your batteries then it Should not be a problem leaving the power connected . If not then you would need to keep an eye on your batteries to prevent boiling off the water again that is if your running wet cell style batteries.

Just so you know.. I think any RV made this century (Which means 2001 or later. not 2000 though it would be a very low end in 2000) you should have a decent converter.

1980's you might get a Magnetek 6300.. (Very bad) known for killing batteries fast.

but Parallex bought out Magnetek if I'm not mistaken and did a few "Upgrades" so

Parallex 7300: Single stage good regulation may be left plugged in but the first time check batteries both voltage and fluid level (if flooded wet cells) from time to time. Voltage daily for the first 2 or 3 weeks should do it)

Parallex 7300T: This unit has a TIMED boost period (T for Two or Timer) slightly better.

WFCO this unit has a high failure rate but when it's workign it's a good 3 stage (Boost/Absorption/Float) when it "Fails" Well see note below but usually it fails safe (Float only).

FOrget the name of the one with IQ4 Technology (Ilco?)

Progressive Dynamics With Charge Wizard

These are the best of the best in my book.. 3Stage +

Most Inverter/Converters.. I'd give them about a 9.5 on a scale of 10. also very good.

NOW: failures
Any converter can fail in one of 3 ways.
Fail to go into boost (WFCOs most common failure mode)
Fail to charge at all (my PD did that)
Over charge. This last is rare but it does happen.

If you are just maintaining things, your 20 amp hook up is fine. I use one myself but do have it on a timer so it just gets a squirt of electricity in each day.
bumpy

In Florida our RV is our life boat during hurricanes, tornadoes, so it must be ready to go at all times. We always leave it plugged in and never had a problem. We have had to bug out and we have had to use the RV generator to supply power to our house freezer and refrigerator when without power for a few weeks after a storm passed. Our fresh water tank is always full and our fuel tank is always full, and we are always connected to shore power to insure that the batteries are fully charged. We also keep a trickle charger hooked up to keep the chassis batteries fully charged since our inverter/charger only keeps the house batteries topped off.

Mine has been plugged in by my house for 12 years. So far, so good.


You need to check your batteries for water once a month or so.