I'm battery baffled

[cpaharley2008]

6 volt batteries are built differently, they have thicker lead plates, thus are heavier, they are made to be constantly charged and discharged and generally last longer. That said, 12v batteries can be found that will do the same, at a somewhat higher cost. Remember you need 2x6 v batteries vs one 12v battery which could be a backup for your tow vehicle.

[J Mac]

Jim, should I be using two 6Volt batteries in conjunction with my solar panel instead of two 12 Volt batteries?

[cpaharley2008]

depends on your solar panel, what your 24 hour demands are, cost comparison, weight comparison, amp hour capacity. If you have the stock Escape 90 watt solar, then they average 6-7 a/h for 6 hour average means your solar will recharge 30-40 a/h per day. If you use less than that, then one battery is sufficient. There is a site here http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm
that will help you figure you needs. If your solar does not replenish your batteries then you start to withdraw from your amp hour bank. This is the magic number that limits your stay. Your bank gets it deposits from the solar and withdraws from your use. At any given time it will fluctuate. Just remember not to draw more that 40% from your bank, then your will be overdrawn!!

[J Mac]

I just noticed a lot of corrosion on my exterior battery. My inside battery is encased in an enclosure to keep gasses from getting in the trailer. How often should I open the enclosure to check for water in cells, corrosion etc?

[cpaharley2008]

I check mine every 6 months, use distilled water only, put some grease or oil on the terminals for corrosion, if real bad pour some coca cola or pepsi on them, amazing what they do to a battery, imagine what your stomach feels like??

[J Mac]

I cleaned all the corrosion off the exterior battery terminals and had the battery tested. The battery is good. The interior battery is new and incased. Here's my question: will a corroded battery run down a newer battery? I have a 95 w solar panel on the roof and in bright sunshine the batteries seem to be always topped up. Once dusk hits the Fantastic Fan and LED Lighting run down the batteries at an alarming rate. Is this standard?

[cpaharley2008]

All a corroded battery will do is cut down on your battery output due to the cables/posts creating resistance and your output is decreased. If cleaned and tightly connected then you will be fine. There is nothing wrong with your battery use depleting your a/h over night and then the solar replenishing it the next day, this is normal, as long as you do not deplete below the 60% rule. This is around 11.90 volts.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 (jim)

depends on your solar panel, what your 24 hour demands are, cost comparison, weight comparison, amp hour capacity. If you have the stock Escape 90 watt solar, then they average 6-7 a/h for 6 hour average means your solar will recharge 30-40 a/h per day. If you use less than that, then one battery is sufficient. There is a site here http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm
that will help you figure you needs. If your solar does not replenish your batteries then you start to withdraw from your amp hour bank. This is the magic number that limits your stay. Your bank gets it deposits from the solar and withdraws from your use. At any given time it will fluctuate. Just remember not to draw more that 40% from your bank, then your will be overdrawn!!

Hi: cpaharley2008... Thanks for this explanation. Now I know why there's so much month left, at the end of the money!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[blugene]

Took our new 19' out on its maiden voyage and may have fried the batteries? They were OK until return from trip. Left the fridge and the DC switch on, figuring the vehicle would continually charge the DC. But I forgot to turn off the water heater (I did turn off the gas so it couldn't heat, & didn't drain the hot tank).
After about 45 min. driving we stopped for lunch, I forgot to turn off the fridge or DC, but remembered at end of lunch. Battery indicator showed batteries down to "L" (low?) Turned off water tank + DC entirely. Drove another 2 hrs, checked batteries, they partly regained to "F" (fair?) Turned on DC to see if truck would charge it, then another 30 min. home, batteries were back down to "L".
Hooked up to trickle-charger for 4 hrs, made no difference.
Next day I hooked up to AC power & turned DC switch on, that's how Escape says to charge batteries.
But the converter kept making a loud "click" every 30 seconds or so, when its fan would come on, then another 30 seconds and "click" - the fan turns off. WFCO converter. Turned off the DC and the fan and clicking stop, but no battery charging that way.
Test panel continues to show batteries low, and the (new) batteries test at about 1150, which is indeed low.
Can anyone shed light on what's going on?
(PS - I'd have started a new threat about Batteries & Converters" but I don't see any "new thread" button even though the forum tells me I have permissions to do that. So I'm using the closest-related thread I can find.)

[barry]

It's normal for the fan on the convertor to cycle on and off when charging especially if it's hot or the batteries are very low and the charger has to work hard.

A trickle charge of 4 hours wouldn't make much difference in a very low state. I'd disconnect the batteries from the trailer wiring and trickle charge them for at least 24 to 48 hrs. Also, make sure the water is not low in the batteries; use distilled water only if you need to top them up.

Barry

[rvomaha]

It's disappointing to have an electrical problem, especially on the maiden voyage. The refrigerator uses very little DC, and only for control power, since the heat source is either AC or propane (unless that has changed since our 19 was built in 2012). The water heater uses little or no DC, so neither of those appliances should have been a factor. The symptoms suggest either a battery fault or a wiring problem. I like Barry's suggestion of disconnecting the batteries and seeing if they will take a charge from a battery charger. If they won't, there is a fault in at least one of the batteries. If they do, it will probably be necessary to look for a short or ground in the camper wiring. Good luck.

Jay

[gbaglo]

I considered getting a 3-way fridge in my 17B.
Reace advised me ( since I was getting hitch and wiring for my RAV4 ) that I would need a #10 ground enable enough power to reach the fridge while towing. He also advised that if I ran the fridge on DC while towing, no power would be left over for the battery.
I got the #10 ground installed for $25 extra since the installer had to buy the wire ( heavier than he would normally install ). And, then I ordered the 5 cu. ft. AC / propane instead of the 3-way.
Did you happen to check the condition of the batteries prior to heading for home? Might provide a clue if you did.

[LeonW]

I have the three way dometic fridge--but never use the DC. because I am afraid I will forget to turn it off and wear down the batteries. I just leave the gas on. (see other threads on running the fridge on propane while driving). I wonder how many other folks don't use the DC option?

Leon

[btroxell]

I run my fridge on DC while traveling and have little problems. I charge the batteries using solar while camping so they only need to be charged for the little I used during the night. Last summer while driving through Nevada and Idaho, it was very hot and it didn’t seem that the DC was able to keep up with the heat so I switched to gas. It seemed better but the fridge was in the high 40’s when we stopped at night. As a side, on outdoor digital thermometer works great to monitor the fridge temp from the car.
Some cars have an automatic cut-off so when the engine is not running, the car battery is disconnected. I did not hook my RAV4 up with one so I had to remember when I stopped that the fridge was on DC (but I never did figure out if it used the trailer’s or car batteries). My new truck does cut-off so no problem.

Ben

[schmucko]

The DC option was useful when we were on Ferries up in the Puget sound. They won't let you use gas or run your generator on the boat..... They do draw down our dual six volt batteries quickly - in a little over two hours, the charge level was down to low sixty percent.

The refrigerators do have a heavy DC draw.

[nealmccarter]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: All...As far as I know the battery in the trailer is only charged by the converter. That means when it's plugged into 110V. power ie: your house or campground. To make it charge from the tug battery you must have the proper wiring from the charging system of your tug thru the connector to the trailer battery. This is how I set up the system in our former Boler so the fridge would run 12V. under tow. The danger here is stopping for lunch or shopping you should shut the fridge off or run the risk of two dead batteries. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie p.s. The only battery I really care about is in my Pace Maker. How will I know if it's dead

Made the mistake of leaving the fridge on 12V while picnicking once. Dead batteries are no fun.

[J Mac]

Shouldn't the refrigerator's own insulation keep food goods cold for 2 or 3 hours without power?

[LeonW]

I think the refrigerator's own insulation will keep the food cold in most cases. We took the ferry from Nova Scotia to PEI last August. We turned the propane off while we were waiting in line, and it turned out they loaded the RVs last, so the wait was about 30 minutes longer than we expected. Anyhow, when we got to PEI and were able to turn the fridge back on, the food was still cold. We had a fair amount of food in the fridge and freezer, so I am sure that helped to keep things cool. I have an Accurite fridge/freezer thermometer that records the low and high temperatures, and while I don't remember the exact numbers, I do know that I wasn't worried about food spoilage.

[gbaglo]

A pint of ice-cream, hard frozen, in the freezer for four hours without power, was soft enough to scoop easily.
I easily go five hours with the fridge off.

[JimJ]

We travel with our fridge off and have the same experience as gbaglo. We also use a couple of those blue plastic frozen rectangle/cube things (?) to help the situation.