House batteries

[apfrizz]

I HAVE A 2010 NEWMAR THE QUESTION I HAVE WHEN DRY CAMPING USING ONLY LITES, TV AND WATER PUMP CAN ONLY GET 4 HOURS BEFORE I GET A LOW BATTERY ALARM.

[TechWriter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apfrizz I HAVE A 2010 NEWMAR THE QUESTION I HAVE WHEN DRY CAMPING USING ONLY LITES, TV AND WATER PUMP CAN ONLY GET 4 HOURS BEFORE I GET A LOW BATTERY ALARM.

Is your fridge all electric?

[apfrizz]

It's gas or electric and on gas when dry camping.

[Lug_Nut]

Probably your batteries are not being fully charged. A an earlier Newmar after it was about a year old I experienced short running time on the house bank. Thinking I had run them too low several times and therefore may have damaged them I replaced them. I then found that made very little difference so I looked at how they were charged and at what rate and voltage. I determined they were not getting a proper charge with the current charger/converter. I replaced the charger with a TruCharge. What a difference. It was like adding a larger bank of batteries. Lots of power for at least five times longer.
I concluded that the supplied charger/converter was insufficient to do the job. Best $650 I spent.

Peter

[TXiceman]

Is the inverter running the frig and what else? Also, how many light are you operating?

How big is your battery ban?

Is the battery bank fully charged?

Ken

[Dunner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechWriter Is your fridge all electric?

Quote:

Originally Posted by apfrizz It's gas or electric and on gas when dry camping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXiceman Is the inverter running the frig and what else? Also, how many light are you operating? How big is your battery ban? Is the battery bank fully charged? Ken

Ummm...

[Mr_D]

With our 2002 we can go about 8 hours before needing to charge...BUT we're running the TV, lights, U-Line ice maker, Refer on gas, and a 100# freezer in a storage bay along with a laptop and anything else we need. This is on 9+ year old Interstate U-2200's and the standard 2000 watt MSW inverter/charger.

I think the OP should have better battery life than what he reports BUT, we don't know what is battery bank is. Some models only came with 2 house batteries.

[Ronnie Bledsoe 2006 Dutchstar 43']

Let your batteries stabilize and check voltage with a DVM. Your fully charged batteries should read about 13.3 volts, if you are below 12.5 I would think you had insufficient charge. It takes a llloooonnngggg time to charge those batteries even with an external charger.

[Skip426]

Check all battery cells with a hydrometer, one weak cell will draw the whole bank down/stop them from getting a full charge. Check your invertor/charger paperwork, for info on charging rates. My unit is manually switched from low>high( for fast charging a low battery) I know mine is an older unit , but worth knowing what your units spec's are before you proceed. On my last unit (5th with 2 golf cart batt) low batteries needed 4 days to come back up to full power with an auto charger.

[Dunner]

From Trojan

TABLE I. State of charge as related to specific gravity and
open circuit voltage Percentage of Charge Specific Gravity Corrected to
80º F Correct the readings to 80º F:
• Add .004 to readings for every 10º above 80º F
• Subtract .004 for every 10o below 80º F.

Open-Circuit Voltage 6V 12V

% SG 6V 12V
100 1.277 6.37 12.73
90 1.258 6.31 12.62
80 1.238 6.25 12.50
70 1.217 6.19 12.37
60 1.195 6.12 12.24
50 1.172 6.05 12.10
40 1.148 5.98 11.96
30 1.124 5.91 11.81
20 1.098 5.83 11.66
10 1.073 5.75 11.51

[tncruiser]

same problem on my rig
dealer determined a dead cell
waiting for forest river to approve warranty i am asking for 2 new batteries
as was told always replace the whole bank(after shopping for price i understand why batteries are called banks)
brianj