Baidy
Walkerton On
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Joined: 07/29/2005
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Here's the scenario. New battery in May. Last two nights camping the battery went completely dead over night. Was charged fully on the genny in the morning. Had the battery tested. Perfect battery. The only thing running was the fridge.Its usually about half charged everty morning when I run the genny. Looking for ideas to try.
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rrupert
NW PA
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If you are running the fridge on 12 volts it will kill a battery in short order. How long did you run the generator? It takes a long time to bring a battery up to full charge.
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skipnchar
Topeka or somewhere else
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When you say "completely charged in the morning" I assume you mean about 8 hours on the generator? That's about how long it would take to COMPLETELY charge your battery. IF you're using the generator 12 volt circuit to charge then make than 24 hours.
You ALSO need to be aware that if you have a Marine/RV battery it will only withstand two or three COMPLETE discharges and it'll be toast. Basically those are starting batteries and never meant to be completely discharged.
Good luck Skip
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RoyB
King George, VA
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X2 on Skips comment - We always monitor our batteries to make sure they don't get down below the 50% charge state which is around 12.0VDC. I use smart-mode charging techniques here and can bring my batteries bank to their 90% charges state (12.5-6VDc) in as little as 2-3 hours of running my 2KW generator.
We planned it all out and are able to run almost everything we run at regular camp sites with electric service with the exception of the Air Conditioner and high wattage microwave. For us we use around 250-300WATTS between dark and 8AM the next morning when we re-charge again. My battery bank has around 250AHs capacity.
Works out for us pretty good camping off the power grid... It does take some pre-planning and also some beefing-up of the battery system. We found you cant just do one thing and be successful.
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Baidy
Walkerton On
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I used it the same way for 8 years and the new battery since May.Its always worked perfectly until two days ago. So I don't think it has anything to do with the battery pack or the lengh of charge. Some thing is draining it. That's what I'm tryting to find out.
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RoyB
King George, VA
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This is a typical drawing showing most of the 120VAC and 12VDC power distribution items. maybe you can start with each one of the items listed here especially connected to the 12VDC battery circuits and see if it is engaged... Might give you a clue on what to look for...
photo from google images
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bikendan
Napa, Cal.
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rrupert wrote:If you are running the fridge on 12 volts it will kill a battery in short order. How long did you run the generator? It takes a long time to bring a battery up to full charge.
hybrid trailer fridges don't run on 12v, only the electronics.
they are either 110v AC or propane.
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f150camper
WA State
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RoyB wrote:X2 on Skips comment - We always monitor our batteries to make sure they don't get down below the 50% charge state which is around 12.0VDC. I use smart-mode charging techniques here and can bring my batteries bank to their 90% charges state (12.5-6VDc) in as little as 2-3 hours of running my 2KW generator.
We planned it all out and are able to run almost everything we run at regular camp sites with electric service with the exception of the Air Conditioner and high wattage microwave. For us we use around 250-300WATTS between dark and 8AM the next morning when we re-charge again. My battery bank has around 250AHs capacity.
Works out for us pretty good camping off the power grid... It does take some pre-planning and also some beefing-up of the battery system. We found you cant just do one thing and be successful.
If you use 300W after dark, you would draw your batteries down to 50% in about 5 hours, and completely drain them in less then 10 hours, right?
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RoyB
King George, VA
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Taco6spd - my biggest draw on the batteries is between 8PM and 11PM of course with all the lights and home entertainment center items. After that between 11PM and 8AM it is a nite light, motion detectors, and sensors... When I get up at 8AM my batteries are reading 11.9-12.1VDC before I go into re-charge mode... I make it just fine with the three Interstate 85AH batteries in parallel (255AHs) setup. That is a good average 17-20AMPs (250-300Watts at 12.5vdc) draw for around three hours and then practically nothing for the remaining 8 hours. All of this would go out the window big time if we had to use the furnace. That's when I drag out the Mr Buddy heater...
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1150ap
canada
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bikendan wrote:rrupert wrote:If you are running the fridge on 12 volts it will kill a battery in short order. How long did you run the generator? It takes a long time to bring a battery up to full charge.
hybrid trailer fridges don't run on 12v, only the electronics.
they are either 110v AC or propane.
If your running your fridge on propane it still requires 12v power to run the control board.
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