Keeping battery charged

[mgpassport]

Ok, here's my question, Dose it hurt to keep your HT plugged into the house to keep battery charged...

[randallb]

Buy a battery maintainer. I use BT Jrs (.75A) on everything I own and do not have battery problems. This size is more than sufficient to keep your battery(ies) fully charged and ready to go. I had two on my previous Class A to take care of 4 batteries. Low an slow is the best way to charge and maintain batteries. High discharge and recharge rates are what shorten battery life and they get enough of this abuse while camping.
Randy

[Chuck_S]

Constant charging is not helpful if you don't monitor the electrolyte level periodically. And isn't necessary anyway. I've killed enough boat batteries by "boiling" out the electrolyte so just disconnect my camper battery from the trailer when I'm done using it.

New Rockwoods (maybe others) are coming with a battery master switch and it's easy to retrofit one to any camper, just put it on the Negative/Ground wire to stop the parasitic discharges from things like radio memory and LP detector that are hard wired to the 12v system. You can go months without much self discharge with a switch like this. Just top off the charge the day before the next camping weekend.

Unless you disconnect or constantly charge the battery expect it to be dead in 3 or 4 weeks of non-use in summer temperatures.

-- Chuck

[harold1946]

mgpassport wrote:
Ok, here's my question, Dose it hurt to keep your HT plugged into the house to keep battery charged...

If the onboard charger is of the automatic type, (which most are)it will be fine to leave it plugged in.
If it is a manual charger it will over charge the battery.

[harold1946]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

harold1946 wrote:
A fully charged wet cell battery does not begin to freeze until temperatures drop below -70 F.

And you just HAD to post that correction.......
since -70 is definitely not "something like -60".

But you certainly may have the last word if that is important to you: Go ahead.

OK. It was not a reply to your post, just gave the correct temperature. Why get upset:@

[Vulcan_Rider]

harold1946 wrote:
A fully charged wet cell battery does not begin to freeze until temperatures drop below -70 F.

And you just HAD to post that correction.......
since -70 is definitely not "something like -60".

But you certainly may have the last word if that is important to you: Go ahead.

[harold1946]

A fully charged wet cell battery does not begin to freeze until temperatures drop below -70 F.

[Vulcan_Rider]

wing_zealot wrote:
and I take the battery out and put it inside for winter.

Excellent post. Except for this.

A fully charged wet cell battery won't freeze until something like -60 F......and moderate cold is actually good for their long term health.

SO.....unless it gets REALLY cold where you live, removing the batteries in the winter is just a waste of time.

[wing_zealot]

You don't say anything about what kind of camper you have and I don't care look back and see if I can find it. So, I will say this. Generally most newer campers have a 3 mode Converter. There is no harm in leaving your camper plugged in if it has the 3 mode converter (or in some instances known as a smart charger). So look up the brand and model number of your converter and check the manufacture's website. If you have the older style converter, yes you can overcharge your battery and toast it.

If you don't have a smart charger and don't leave it plugged in then you need a battery disconnect. Because what will happen is the battery will drain when not plugged in. Repeatedly depleting the battery will also damage it. A battery disconnect stops the parasitic loads in the camper from draining the battery. I have the disconnect and don't plug my camper in between uses and I take the battery out and put it inside for winter.

[llowllms]

I use a battery disconnect during the summer and supply 110 to the rig during the winter + I purchased a gel battery four years ago and it is still going strong.

[gbopp]

If you don't want to leave it plugged in 24/7, use a timer.

My RV is plugged in all the time. I had the house batteries freeze one time because the charge dropped too low.

[Vulcan_Rider]

mgpassport wrote:
Ok, here's my question, Dose it hurt to keep your HT plugged into the house to keep battery charged...

Over charging is not good; neither is letting it go flat.

If there is no OTHER reason to stay plugged in all the time, connecting it for ~24 hours once every 14 days or so should be plenty. Assuming that there is a battery disconnect switch to ensure no parasitic loads while not connected to the house.

[time2roll]

Lead acid likes to be at 100% between use. The harm comes from letting it run down, not from keeping it charged. Do watch the water level.

[Dakota98]

You may want to read 12 volt side of life

[2oldman]

No it dosent'