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Battery Drain

gemde
Explorer
Explorer
We have a 2013 Palomino S238 that we bought new. When dry camping, we have to use the generator to charge the battery every AM, as it drops to about 30% power overnight. This is while using the fridge(in propane mode)only. I have checked the battery at Autozone and they say it holds charge well. It recharges to 100% rapidly. I have checked to make sure the emergency brake to make sure it is not tripped. m We use the lights very little at night (only to get in bed or get beverages. Any ideas on other power or battery drains??
6 REPLIES 6

Chuck_S
Explorer
Explorer
Something is turned on and/or your battery isn't fully charged.

The "standard 80 amp hour," 140 minute reserve capacity deep cycle battery that is probably on your trailer tongue really only has about 58 (not 80) useful amp hours at the discharge rates in campers and boats and the remaining are when the voltage is too low to run anything. One of these batteries is lucky to last the night, especially when indifferently charged. A 10 amp battery charger can't possibly fully charge an 80 amp hour battery in 4 hours. At best you can put back 10 x 4 = 40 amp hours and only if the current flow stays at 10 amps. Since the current flow reduces as the battery voltage increases it's best to plan on 24 hours to charge this battery.

The best your tow vehicle do is trickle charge the battery, just like is being done to the vehicle battery.

Useful amphours is the Reserve Capacity (in minutes) divided by 2.4. This rule of thumb was developed over many years in cruising sailboats without generators and is remarkably accurate in our campers if conservative.

The most important piece of info on the battery is the RC, not the amp hours.

With the refrigerator anti-condense heater on the 12v overhead is just over 19 amphours a day to power the hardwired LP detector, radio memory, and the little light on the water pump. That's a third of useful battery capacity before you turn on the first light or open a water tap. Without the anti-condense it drops to a more manageable 7 amphours.

Fully charged battery (24 hours) to start the weekend. Electrolyte topped off. All extraneous power turned off. The trailer overhead power drain starts as soon as you disconnect the charge unless you turn the battery off. Put a switch on the negative pole.

-- Chuck
'06 Roo 23SS behind '17 Expedition out of Richmond
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bikendan
Explorer
Explorer
have the battery cells tested with a hydrometer.
Dan- Firefighter, Retired:C, Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur:W, Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever(RIP:(), 2014 Ford F150 3.5 EcoboostMax Tow pkg, 2016 PrimeTime TracerAIR 255 w/4pt Equalizer and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes

ryanw821
Explorer
Explorer
gemde wrote:
I'm using an external charger, and by "rapid" I mean about 4 hours.
I'll have to check the Dometic. Thanks!
I haven't switched to LEDs yet.
Water heater off when not awaiting a shower


It could still be other things besides the fridge, but I know that is something that is frequently overlooked, because most people don't know about that "feature" of dometic fridges. If that doesn't pan out, you may need to get a hold of an amp meter and start testing all the 12v circuits, should be able to test across the fuse terminals for each one with an amp meter and find which one is drawing your batteries down.

LED lights will make a HUGE difference, but with your described sparse usage of lights, I doubt that is your issue here, we went LED in our last rig, and never worried about using the lights again. Our new rig came factory with LEDs which saved me a bunch of hassle, I think we could have every light in the rig on lighting it up like daylight and still use less power than ONE single incandescent light lol. I installed these cheap LED's in my old rig, and was quite impressed with them, the double sided adhesive on them sucks, but for the price that was a minor gripe, I installed them with some 3M VHB adhesive and never looked back, just as bright, and same color as the bulbs I replaced, a nice worthwhile upgrade for under $20.

gemde
Explorer
Explorer
I'm using an external charger, and by "rapid" I mean about 4 hours.
I'll have to check the Dometic. Thanks!
I haven't switched to LEDs yet.
Water heater off when not awaiting a shower

mbopp
Explorer
Explorer
How are you determining the state of charge on the battery? Using the indicator panel is all but useless. Measuring the actual voltage right at the battery is much better.

"Charges to 100% rapidly." Even with a good converter (not WFCO) mounted close to the battery with heavy cables it'll take 3 hours to go from 50% to 80% charge. All bets are off if you're relying on a WFCO mounted near the rear of the trailer. Again, how are you measuring the charge?

My old Dometic had a switch for the door heater but the new Atwood is hard wired (sigh.)

Do you have a radio with a backlight display that's always on? I put another switch in the line to totally kill any parasitic draw.

Converting to LED's in the lights uses 1/7 the power of a 921 bulb.

I turn the water heater off when we're away and at night.
2017 Grand Design Imagine 2650RK
2019 F250 XLT Supercab
Just DW & me......

ryanw821
Explorer
Explorer
Some of the Dometic fridges have a 12 volt electric defrosting heat element that can and will drain a battery in short order. Sometimes there's a switch to disable it, sometimes you need to open it up and clip the wire.

I am not sure if I should link to it, since its on a competing RV forum and I think that's against the rules here, but there is a lengthy thread on the other popular RV forum on it search "Dometic - How To Turn Off Heating Element For Seals"