Community Forums

Mathisw · 05-12-2018, 10:56 AM

Hello I have a 2014 Canyon Star. When I store it at the storage facility I turn off everything including the master battery kill switch. I plug into shore power (just a 110 style plug, i have a 50amp to 110 adapter). I do this becauee i’m assuming this will be trickle charging my batteries. Maybe im wrong? Anyway, How many amps should this pull? The storage unit people say the maximum I should really be pulling his 5 A or less for battery charge. But my coach is pulling 15 A. I don’t know why it’s pulling 15 A when everything is off. Any Ideas why juice is bei g used?
Hot water heater off, AC off, refrigerator off... and again, master battery kill switch (in mynservice panel insiide) is also off.

Thanks in advance for comments suggestions.

Mahis

MontyL · 05-12-2018, 11:12 AM

First thing popped into my head was a block heater, but with your Canyon Star being a gasser, that went nowhere...

Start throwing breakers until you find it?

Deucenut · 05-12-2018, 11:14 AM

I’m pretty sure with your battery kill switch off you won’t be charging your batteries cause you’ve turned off the charger.

Jim T. · 05-12-2018, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mathisw

Hello I have a 2014 Canyon Star. When I store it at the storage facility I turn off everything including the master battery kill switch. I plug into shore power (just a 110 style plug, i have a 50amp to 110 adapter). I do this becauee i’m assuming this will be trickle charging my batteries. Maybe im wrong? Anyway, How many amps should this pull? The storage unit people say the maximum I should really be pulling his 5 A or less for battery charge. But my coach is pulling 15 A. I don’t know why it’s pulling 15 A when everything is off. Any Ideas why juice is bei g used?

Hot water heater off, AC off, refrigerator off... and again, master battery kill switch (in mynservice panel insiide) is also off.

Thanks in advance for comments suggestions.

Mahis

I discovered on my 2013 Newmar Canyon Star that the subwoofer was still drawing amps. Solved the problem by unplugging it. Permanent solution would be to add a conveniently located off/on switch, which I may have someone do for me someday.

vsheetz · 05-12-2018, 12:22 PM

The battery charger should be active because the inverter/charger and alarms are wired directly to the batteries - the house battery cutoff switch therefore does not turn off the charger.

Yes, typically one would expect less than 5a draw - 15a something is still operating.

Check the inverter is turned off. The charger will continue to operate.

I'm wondering if the charger is pulling the excessive current. Is it in float mode? Batteries have full water? Limit the current draw of the charger to lowest setting and see if the draw at the shire cord reduces.

I have a clamp on meter - handy in this type of situation.

Mathisw · 05-12-2018, 01:39 PM

I’m not even sure where the battery charger is. Are there controls for it?
Batteries do have full water, I check that often.

Does anyone else do what I’m doing ... take the 50amp shore power plug, use 50a to 110a cord adapter and then plug to 110?

I like the through breakers until amp drops idea, I’ll try that.

PaulTNaples · 05-12-2018, 04:05 PM

My Bay Star is plugged into 30A service at my storage facility. It draws 1 amp when at rest. When the a/c unit kicks on it draws a few more. Never an issue and batteries are always at 12.3 to 12.5 amps on the monitor.

Luv2go · 05-12-2018, 05:57 PM

It is very unusual to be drawing 15A with nothing on. 15A is 1800W, if it is going where it should not be it could be dangerous, please do take care!

We have a power monitor that constantly measures the power draw from the outlet that powers our coach and records it. Our coach draws less than 200W with batteries charged, master switch on, fridge and everything else off. I agree with the "throw the breakers until it stops" idea.

Newmar is pretty good at hiding inverters, they usually are mounted upside-down on the ceiling of one of the compartments.

Mike and Cha · 05-12-2018, 06:17 PM

I have the 2014 Canyon Star and when you have it plugged in you need to keep the battery disconnect switch in the on position, just like you would if using the MH, for the chassis and house batteries to charge. I keep mine plugged in 24/7 on a 20 amp connection. The batteries will float at around 13.2, and when fully charged it shouldn't be drawing any amps. When initially plugging in after a trip home ect, it usually draws about 2 amps while charging, as many as 5amps when charging and cooling down the fridge. I would check and make sure you didn't leave the tank heaters on. The switch is in the half bath and I have found that people frequently turn that on thinking it's ne of the light switches. Another source is the outside entertainment system. You can accidentally turn on the TV, when using the remote inside the MH, and if you leave the radio faceplate on, the stereo can draw some power. Also check and make sure you turned off the electric hot water heater, that alone draws about 12 amps. 15 amps is a lot to be pulling so it may be more than one thing. I would bet on the Hot water heater.

Mathisw · 05-13-2018, 07:35 AM

Thanks for comments. Great ideas for me to check. I’ll check floor heater in bath... agree sometimes it does get accidentally turned on. Hoping thats it. Question: in the service panel, if the inverter battery power is “on” then I’d see green light there, right? That’s how I think it works. When I press the on/off it turns green. Press again and no green. But LCD always shows something.

Mike and Cha · 05-13-2018, 11:00 AM

The green light is showing that you have power coming into the MH whether it be from being plugged into shore power or from the generator. I would have to look again but when you turn on the inverter, I think it has it's own light. Either way that green light should be on when you have power coming into the MH.

Mathisw · 05-17-2018, 05:50 AM

Thanks... I was referring to the little green light on inverter, it does have its light. So when I see that little green light I think that means inverter on. And when I press on/off the green light goes off, but the LCD panel for inverter still displays status and such.

Mike and Cha · 05-17-2018, 04:01 PM

That's the way it is supposed to work. As long as you keep the Main switch in the "on" position. It should keep your batteries charged and only have a minimal amp pull until the batteries are at float charge, then go to zero. I just keep the inverter in the off position(no green light) unless I need it for some reason. Thinking about it I would bet you have the electric HW heater on, that pulls 12 amps on it's own. That plus the fridge, if you have it on would be about 15 amps. Just a guess though.

Mathisw · 05-28-2018, 09:48 AM

Update: I discovered that my inverter panel (the remote located in the service panel inside coach) has a setting to regulate the amps while charging. It was set to 15amps and I changed it to 5amps. I called Magnum (manufacturer of my inverter) to ask about this and they confirmed changing to 5amp and saving will prevent higher amp draw. Now it pulls a max of 5amps when charging. WooHoo! Just wanted to post this remedy I discovered in case someone else out there has same issue I had. Thanks again to all those who chimed in with suggestions and info share. This forum is SO valuable. :-)