Battery drains in one evening

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by Yarddroid

Wow! I wonder if that feature can be turned off temporarily? I’ll try to research that.

I remember reading about this online. Check your unit carefully for a switch or setting to turn this 'feature' off. If my memory is correct, the older models had such a switch and the newer ones do not. It was intended for people in dry climates that were not worried about condensation and/or frost.

[cavie]

Originally Posted by richard5933

That's what it sounds like. And the answer is yes, the fridge can drain the batteries overnight if the fridge is running on 12v and the battery bank isn't large enough.

The fridge in Most MH's Do not run on 12 volts. It only uses 12 volts as a control device. VERY little draw on the 12 volt system.

Is the fridge operating correctly? It may be in run cycle and Defrost at the same time. That will deffinatly run a battery down.

[Bcondrey]

Originally Posted by wildtoad

If like mine, there’s not enough room in the engine area to hold 2 6v batteries, and not so much anywhere else for that matter.

Early on with my Bay Star I found that they sucked juice pretty quickly out of the house batteries. While not quite as bad as the OP states, there wasn’t a lot of boondocking capacity. A couple of obervations though:
1) I don’t recall if the dash radio is powered by the chassis or house batteries, but this is a known battery sucker on Bay Stars. Many have either installed a switch to really kill the power or just pull the fuse if you’re not going to use it. Sorry, don’t recall the exact current draw but it’s surprising and significant. Fuse is the upper right on the interior firewall fuse.
2) the Bay Stars have both the engine battery and (2) house batteries under the hood. It’s pretty easy to swap for a pair of 6v GC batteries. You will need to make 1 cable but others will all fit. A great upgrade is to make the leap and put in either Lifeline 4CT or 6CT batteries. Either will give you more AH than the stock group 24s. Here’s a thread with pix on this upgrade
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/bay-...nt-344760.html

[Yarddroid]

Originally Posted by cavie

The fridge in Most MH's Do not run on 12 volts. It only uses 12 volts as a control device. VERY little draw on the 12 volt system.

Is the fridge operating correctly? It may be in run cycle and Defrost at the same time. That will deffinatly run a battery down.

Thank you. I found a pdf that seems to address this but not clearly. Possibly I need to do a factory reset of the software...hard to read online so I saved it to read when get home and next to a printer.

[Yarddroid]

Originally Posted by Bcondrey

Early on with my Bay Star I found that they sucked juice pretty quickly out of the house batteries. While not quite as bad as the OP states, there wasn’t a lot of boondocking capacity. A couple of obervations though:
1) I don’t recall if the dash radio is powered by the chassis or house batteries, but this is a known battery sucker on Bay Stars. Many have either installed a switch to really kill the power or just pull the fuse if you’re not going to use it. Sorry, don’t recall the exact current draw but it’s surprising and significant. Fuse is the upper right on the interior firewall fuse.
2) the Bay Stars have both the engine battery and (2) house batteries under the hood. It’s pretty easy to swap for a pair of 6v GC batteries. You will need to make 1 cable but others will all fit. A great upgrade is to make the leap and put in either Lifeline 4CT or 6CT batteries. Either will give you more AH than the stock group 24s. Here’s a thread with pix on this upgrade
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/bay-...nt-344760.html

Thank you! This is very helpful as well. Simply because it’s good to know I’m not the only one!

So, these 6v batteries allow you to boondock a bit now?

[Bcondrey]

Originally Posted by Yarddroid

Thank you! This is very helpful as well. Simply because it’s good to know I’m not the only one!

So, these 6v batteries allow you to boondock a bit now?

Yes is the short answer. A pair of 12 volt group 24 batteries (in parallel) gives you about 160 amp-hours total. A pair of 6 volt U2200 or Lifeline CT (in series) will give you about 220 amp-hours. A pair of 6 volt Lifeline 6CTs in series will give you about 300 amp-hours.

The 6 volt batteries, in addition to being more amp-hours to start with, are also true deep cycle batteries and therefore meant to be deep discharged on a regular basis (think golf cart use). The 12 volt batteries tend to be marine batteries, and while labeled as deep cycle, they are really a combo start & deep cycle battery. What this all means is that you can deeply discharge the 6 volt batteries on a regular basis but with the 12 volt batteries you really shouldn’t go below the 50% level.

Finally, the Lifelines are AGM so they are maintenance free - no adding/checking water level and no corrosion.

[EddieJ]

Originally Posted by Searching_Ut

That was true on every rig I've owned until the current one that has a Norcold PolarMax 18cf unit. It's a power hog on DC power, actually drawing approx 3.5 amps off the batteries depending what it's doing. They have built in fans in the freezer and and main refrigerator compartment that run pretty much all the time when it's hot outside. They also have built in fans for air circulation in the rear, plus they don't have any means to turn off the dew control. Unfortunately, they drink propane pretty heavily too, and pull 600 watts should you run them on AC power which is significant if you're paying elec separate. They're real pigs compared to previous units I've owned.



As for the troubleshooting of this unit, this is one of those areas where a battery monitor of some sort is really useful, and might be worth installing for you. This will enable you to have a better idea of whether or not you're actually getting the batteries fully charged, and figuring out what you're using power wise. They're of great help in tracking down assorted power drains, which just seem to pop up from time to time.

We also have a Norcold PolarMax 18cf and yes, it pulls down the batteries pretty far in 12-16 hours. Where we store the coach does not have electricity, so the night before a trip I go fire up the fridge on propane. I also make sure the inverter is off as well. The batteries will be at 12.4 to 12.6, but by the time I go to load up the fridge, they are usually in the 11.8 to 12 volt range.

[Reacher]

Had a similar setup on my old DP. I had to change the mode setting on the refer from AU(automatic) to LP (propane) when dry camping when you want the inverter on. Otherwise it will run off your batteries and drain them fast.

[StageCoachDr]

Check your batteries at one of the chain stores. If you have ever let them go low, below 10.5V, they may have been damaged and will not take a full charge.

[walkinspirit]

I am curious, as to why you are asking about the fridge. The fridge doesn't run on batteries, it is AC or Gas power only. Check your converter/charger. We had to replace ours when the batteries would seem to be lower than required on the Ohm meter. As well as the batteries not charging when plugged in to AC power. We replaced batteries every year before we realized it was the Converter/Charger that was bad.

[twinboat]

The fridge, wheather running on gas or 120 volt power, needs 12 volt battery power for the controls and light.

Originally Posted by walkinspirit

I am curious, as to why you are asking about the fridge. The fridge doesn't run on batteries, it is AC or Gas power only. Check your converter/charger. We had to replace ours when the batteries would seem to be lower than required on the Ohm meter. As well as the batteries not charging when plugged in to AC power. We replaced batteries every year before we realized it was the Converter/Charger that was bad.

[walkinspirit]

Ahh true I wonder if the light is staying on in the fridge when the door is closed. Mine was doing that for a while. Also, my refer issue is still not resolved. Went on our 3 week trip out west and it was fine on Gas, but still wouldn't cool properly on AC power. Looks like the great suggestion I got here, for the Amish Cooling Unit purchase is going to have to happen. But, all in all it was a great trip!!

[Diesel-Lover]

Some RV fridges do run on Gas, Battery, shore power making them 3 way.


But if every thing is off, the batteries should last like month or longer.


If the batteries are good, can get em tested for free at most auto and or big box where they sell batteries.


Then its time to go hunt down the heavy drains on the system, perhaps the inverter is one of your culprits.


Best of luck and let us know what the issue was before closing the thread!

[bird6465]

Always, Always, Always have the batteries tested, or get a hygrometer and test them yourself. I assume they're the correct ones for the application. You cannot do any kind of other tests until you know the batteries are good and fully charged. It sounds to me like you might have a bad cell in one of them. Once you do that and don't find a problem, remove fuses one by one to find your culprit