Ok I am hoping someone out there has had a similar issue with an Evolution E3 trailer. It seems that I can't get any life out of the battery. I thought it might be the radio which always has the back light on so I installed a switch to shut it completely off. I also added another battery 1 80ah and one 100ah giving me 180ah total. I can turn everything off except the fridge and the battery will still be dead in less than 8 hrs. I can't believe the refer draws that much juice. does anyone have any idea of what should be expected. I would love to hear from other E3 owners as to what they are getting out of there batteries.
Thanks
Your fridge does indeed draw more amps than you realize. It has a heating element, and on 12V, it will draw your battery down in the time frame you describe. Operate the fridge on propane when you do not have hookups - it is the most efficient mode for the fridge and actually uses very little propane. Use 120 AC to run it when you have hook ups.
The only time you MAY want to run the fridge on 12 volts is when it is hooked up to the TV, and even then, if you don't have large enough wiring between the TV and the PUP, it can draw from the battery.
Jim & JoAnne
2007 Toyota Tundra Double Cab
2004 Starcraft 11RT
Is the fridge on propane or 12 volt power? Needs to be on propane.
Once the battery is low it can take 6 to 48 hours to fully charge depending on the converter. Are you giving enough time to get it fully charged?
hobiesailor wrote: I can turn everything off except the fridge and the battery will still be dead in less than 8 hrs. I can't believe the refer draws that much juice. does anyone have any idea of what should be expected.
Not sure of you exact model of fridge, but a common compact Dometric fridge is rated
DC Heating Element - 115 watts, 9.58 amps.
AC Heating Element - 115 watts, 1.2 amps.
BTU's Gas Burner - 695/293 high/low or 186 watts on high.
I'm sure you've gotten the idea by now and that is to only use DC when you're hooked up to the TV and are on the road. Otherwise, a dead battery. I left Phoenix one day after putting my refrig on DC and four hours later had a dead battery. Seems I didn't push my trailer connector snug into the socket recepticle on my TV resulting in no power from my TV battery or alternator to my trailer therefore the trailer battery wasn't being charged. Then, since my trailer was a Hi-Lo I had to use jumper cables to my TV battery to get the top up. If I learn through mistakes I must be a genious. Again, that refrig will sure draw the battery down when on DC.
Just "tenthing" the other comments and to add, it's not an E3 problem. You need to understand, and to be able to calculate, amp-hours to know how much draw your electrical appliances have. And, you should never draw down more than 50% of your battery (I assume it's a deep cycle battery, not a starter battery).
If you dry camp, as ourselves, you'll find that basic lights (and your propane detector that runs 24/7) will draw down the battery pretty quickly, depending on your usage.
Pup: 2007 Jayco 1206 w/slide-out + shower
surge brakes, 54w solar panel
TV: 2005 Nissan Xterra 4X4, manual trans
25 years tent camping, 4000+ miles of hiking, lots of biking
One other note about those that say run it on 12 while connected to the TV, you need to check that your TV has the charge circuit connected under the hood to then supply 12v power at the trailer plug. 99% of pre-wired vehicles will not have this wire connected because you do run the risk of draining the TV battery if your camper is connected and the vehicle is off.
I have my charge circuit connected, but I wired in a relay so the charge circuit is only live when the vehicle is running. This came in VERY handy on our last trip to South Dakota, I forgot to put the fuse in my battery box when I plugged in the trailer to prechill the fridge, so my battery did not get recharged and was down to almost dead (electric tongue jack barely worked).
I put in the fuse right before we left and drove for about 7 hours and at fuel/potty stops I would check the battery status in the trailer and could see it was being charged while we were driving.
Very bad thing to not have a charged battery while towing, especially if you have electric brakes. As you know, if the trailer breaks away from the TV, the battery is there to power the emergency brakes...no power = no brakes.
Like was said before, set your fridge to auto (if you have the option) and it will run off of 110 while plugged in, and will auto switch over to LP while disconnected (towing). Set it and forget it. One other nice feature is if you have a DSI fridge and you have it set to auto (with lp tanks open) and the power goes out overnight...it will switch to LP automatically and you don't lose any food to spoilage.
People often avoid running the fridge on propane because of an unfounded fear of propane, or a misguided notion that it's "cheaper" to run on 12V.
Propane is VERY safe. There are multiple failsafe devices in the system from the tank to the fridge. A safety valve in the tank will shut it off if it detects excessive flow. Propane sinks to the floor, and stinks to high heaven. You'll know when you have a leak. The concentration of propane in a bad leak will prevent it from burning because it displaces all the oxygen (kinda like dropping a lit match into a bucket of gasoline, the match goes out).
Repeatedly killing your battery by running the fridge on 12V will cost you a new battery. Plain and simple. Even so-called "deep cycle" batteries are not meant to be drawn down repeatedly.
12V on the fridge is only for emergencies, when you're not near shore power, and you've run out of propane.
Thanks for all the feedback, I did an amp draw test and some cals and it looks like having the refer on over night killed it. It draws 9.5 amps. 180Ha battery power means I was lucky I didn't lose food since I expect it was dead in about 7 hours or less given lights stereo water pump etc. Pump draws 2 stereo 1 and I have a draw from semsors LED's etc of about .006.
Oh and I do charge while underway and will kill batterys if I leave it hooked up with the TV off.
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