Maintaining Battery Life

[SweetLou]

Looking to maintain battery life in my RV batteries while hooked up and in storage. I don't know which product is best so I wanted your opinions. Battery minder as well as battery tender come to mind. Are there better units out there, or which of these two are better?

[BFL13]

13.2v is supposed to be the right voltage for 80F to just keep ahead of self-discharge on the batteries (ie a proper Float) Some people live where it is 100F, so 13.2 would be too high and water would need to be added once in a while. The OP seems to be aware of that.

[HiTech]

doughere wrote:
My Progressiv Dynamics keeps my batteries at 13.2, going to 14.4 for 15 min every 21 hours. A gallon of distilled water lasts over 3 years keeping my 2 GC's topped. They are now 6 years old and appear to be in excellent health.

Regards,
Doug

Is that a low amount? I don't really have a feel for volume per year.

If it is the same energy to perform electrolysis on water as electrolyte, that is 16.5 kilowatt hours of energy beyond charging pumped into the batteries over 3 years.

Jim

[Chuck_Gail]

IMHO the BatteryMINDer is better as it automatically desulfates. BatteryMINDer on our TT is solar powered, so best of all worlds IMHO.

No I do not carry around acid filled boxes unless buying a new one. Charged batteries freeze at about MINUS 90 degrees F per Trojan.

Have AC powered BatteryMINDer on several vehicles also, great inventions.

[SweetLou]

Lets just say I want to take batteries out of the trailer and put them on a bench. They would be stored over winter. Which option is best, a Battery Minder, or a Battery Tender? Also is there another brand which would works as well or better?

[wa8yxm]

Most modern RV's have good 3 stage converters and those are the best.

Some have older single stage (Parallex 7300 without the "T" suffix, and on those I might consider a secondary solution.

Some older rigs have a Magnetek 6300 series, and on those I'd consider an upgrade of the converter section of the power distribution panel.

The secondary solution would be a battery Minder (TM) or Battery Tender (TM) and no, I'd not say one is better than the other.

[doughere]

My Progressiv Dynamics keeps my batteries at 13.2, going to 14.4 for 15 min every 21 hours. A gallon of distilled water lasts over 3 years keeping my 2 GC's topped. They are now 6 years old and appear to be in excellent health.

Regards,
Doug

[taviking22]

ksg5000 wrote:
Depends of what kind of converter you have and how long your going to store. A modern "smart converter" like a Progressive Dynamics will adjust voltage to mitigate evaporation - if you have a smart converter I would top off the batteries, plug in, and forget.

I agree!

If I remove my batteries from the RV I put them on a Battery Minder. I've had my 2 Group 27 Interstate deep cycle batteries for 3 years and still get excellent service from them.

[time2roll]

SweetLou wrote:
in any case maintaining something at 13.2 will cook the batteries over time

You better revisit the Battery Minder and Battery Tender specs.

[mena661]

RJsfishin wrote:
13.2 won't hurt a battery in any temps, and is even too low in cooler temps.
But 13.5 will hurt in very hot temps.

X2, 13.2V will work just fine in most temps.

[ksg5000]

Depends of what kind of converter you have and how long your going to store. A modern "smart converter" like a Progressive Dynamics will adjust voltage to mitigate evaporation - if you have a smart converter I would top off the batteries, plug in, and forget.

[RJsfishin]

13.2 won't hurt a battery in any temps, and is even too low in cooler temps.
But 13.5 will hurt in very hot temps.

[SweetLou]

Golden_HVAC wrote:
If it is your RV, then just plug it in. The battery charger should keep it at around 13.2 - 13.5 volts, and that will keep the battery charged, yet is not such a high voltage to overheat the battery and boil out to much water.

Keep an eye on the water level, and add every 2-3 months - only distilled water.

As for the truck, if you are not running it at least once a week, the battery tender will keep the battery full, while not using a excessive amount of power. It will stay well ahead of the battery draw caused by any security system or the radio clock and radio station memory.

Fred.

Fred
Not really an option. I may pull batts out, in any case maintaining something at 13.2 will cook the batteries over time and I will not be able to fill them as I will not be where unit is stored.

[Golden_HVAC]

If it is your RV, then just plug it in. The battery charger should keep it at around 13.2 - 13.5 volts, and that will keep the battery charged, yet is not such a high voltage to overheat the battery and boil out to much water.

Keep an eye on the water level, and add every 2-3 months - only distilled water.

As for the truck, if you are not running it at least once a week, the battery tender will keep the battery full, while not using a excessive amount of power. It will stay well ahead of the battery draw caused by any security system or the radio clock and radio station memory.

Fred.