best practices for long battery life

[mrad]

I cannot get more than 3 years out of my battery on my TT. Original battery was an interstate. It was replaced under warranty going into its third year. The replacement lasted two years. I then tried the walmart brand. This was it's third year. When putting it away for winter storage this year, it would not raise the tongue jack when not hooked up to shore power. When I checked the battery indicator in the TT, it showed it had no power 15 minutes after being disconnected from shore power.

I leave the TT plugged in all year once we start using it. Usually May- October. After that it goes in my basement and gets a charge every 2-4 week until ice fishing season. Then I take it to the fish house every weekend (Mid December through the end of February). I use it with a 750 watt inverter to run the tv and lights/ ceiling fan when I tune the generator off. I can usually get 6-7 hours on the battery before it needs to be charged. I then start the generator and charge it with my vector smart charger until it is full.

Should I be turning the disconnect switch off in the summer when it is plugged in at home, or is 2-3 years the average life span for a deep cycle battery?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

OK I need more info. You are stating the Vector has no float or was configured to default to never go less than 2.2 amperes charge rate. The Vector is capable of continuous 2.2 amperes output?

[mrad]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You were doing multiple things wrong. Incomplete charging will kill a battery faster than overdischarge and complete recharging.

Mex,

To teh best of my knowledge, I almost always put a full charge back into it according to my vector smart charger. if it wasnt full, the charger was at least in trickle (2.2 amp charge) mode.

The batteries were always labeled deep cycle. The interstate ones also had a pic of a boat and RV on them next to the deep cycle label.

[time2roll]

mrad wrote:
Not sure. Where would I look for this?

Open the breaker/fuse panel and post the model number.
Probably a WFCO again chronically undercharging the battery.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

You were doing multiple things wrong. Incomplete charging will kill a battery faster than overdischarge and complete recharging.

[Naio]

It makes sense that a small load like a ceiling fan would run your battery much lower than it ought to go. A large load would just refuse to run at about 50% discharge.

I don't know if it's relevant to your situation, but it is also easy to kill batteries with too large of a load for a short time. For example, if you run a fridge or freezer, it will have a large start-up load for a short time, just a few seconds, but that might damage your battery.

Mex is a retired battery engineer, and really knows his stuff. So do a lot of the other guys on this forum 🙂

[old_guy]

sounds like you are using starter batteries and not deep cycle

[mrad]

beemerphile1 wrote:

mrad wrote:


...When I am hooked up to power at home, should I turn my disconnect switch off....

You have left out a key piece of information. Assuming that you mean the RV stays plugged in, what converter or inverter is in your RV?

Not sure. Where would I look for this?

[beemerphile1]

mrad wrote:


...When I am hooked up to power at home, should I turn my disconnect switch off....

You have left out a key piece of information. Assuming that you mean the RV stays plugged in, what converter or inverter is in your RV?

[mrad]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I have a couple of questions:

What do you meant when you ask if I have equalized it?

When is was said to charge for an extended period of time, what is considered extended period? I would leave my vector smart charger hooked up for six plus hours, sometimes 12 hours. I would usually wait until it shut off and said full.

When I am hooked up to power at home, should I turn my disconnect switch off?

Again, I think my biggest problem was running a ceiling fan for 8 weekends a winter and letting the battery come close to a total discharge.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Easiest solution and it isn't perfect...

Switch to AGM batteries. A pair of group 31's

When you get home plug into a MEGAWATT or MEANWELL power supply set at 14.4 volts. Let the batteries charge overnight.

The next day shut down the power supply and connect to your regular converter.

This may well extend battery life into the 10-14 years of service.

No it isn't cheap.

No it isn't hand's free

But it is rational and yes what I wrote will occur. You can bank on it.

[pianotuna]

Add a modest solar charging system. Increase battery capacity.

[red31]

mrad wrote:

red31 wrote:

mrad wrote:
I usually check water in spring and fall and have not had to add so tht should not be the issue.

a death of repeated undercharging.

What do you mean by undercharging????
From reading the posts, I it looks like I ran the battery too low before charging, but the battery always received a full charge before being used.

Your JCI iterstate likely requires 14.8v (bubbles and water loss) held constant for extended period of time to be FULL it might take more from time to time, hydrometer.

http://www.trojanbattery.com/tech-support/battery-maintenance/

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Ever been lied to?

Status reports of battery state of charge is like staring at the 52 gleaming teeth of a used car salesman's smile.

It takes an amp hour meter, with mathematical correction for efficiency of charge to even BEGIN to address a battery's true state of charge.

I played with SMART CHARGER reports of state of charge versus reality several years ago and reported the results on this forum. It started the great power Megawatt/Meanwell supply movement then merged with the superior management potential and advantages of solar controllers.

You are victim to politicians who have decreed energy waste to be The Grand Enemy at the expense of wasting tens of thousands of batteries.

Long ago I penciled out the complexity of designing a hands-off 100% automatic charger control circuit. The cost was enormous. Totally automatic is not feasible nor rational.

[grizzzman]

So did you equalize the battery after it was full? Every time you run it to low?

mrad wrote:

red31 wrote:

mrad wrote:
I usually check water in spring and fall and have not had to add so tht should not be the issue.

a death of repeated undercharging.

What do you mean by undercharging????
From reading the posts, I it looks like I ran the battery too low before charging, but the battery always received a full charge before being used.

[profdant139]

For what it is worth, let me add another tip to those above -- whenever we are not actually on the road, I take my two group 31 batteries out of the trailer and put them on a Battery Minder Plus. I do not trust the converter in the trailer to maintain the battery.

The Battery Minder supposedly pulses to avoid sulfation of the plates. Some very knowledgeable folks say this is a hoax. But it works for me. I get five years or so out of a set of deep cycle batteries.

I never let them get to less than 12.1 volts, measured in a resting state (not under load).

Hope this helps!!