Community Forums

Jmcphear · 03-19-2017, 02:23 AM

I have a 2014 Entegra Anthem. The house batteries will not last more than 5 hours without recharging. Too short for quiet time when dry camping.

Any suggestions? Replace 4 batteries? Replace all 8 batteries?

nothermark · 03-19-2017, 03:29 AM

Replace all the house batteries. They were probably mis treated at the dealer before you got it. No idea what you have done with them. Running them down below 50% significantly shortens their life. That is the dealer issue and may be yours. When the whole bank is bad there is no good side to only replacing part of them.

As far as that goes a 2014 can date back to 2013 so by now you have 3-4 years of service. Depending on how much you use the unit you may be well into the life expectancy. Capacity falls off with use. Still comes back to replace all of them in the house bank.

You should also be aware of how much power you have vs what you are using. IF you are sitting there watching TV with microwave popcorn while somebody is running their hair dryer off the inverter that may be your problem. Inverters are notorious for flattening battery banks.

Toribk · 03-19-2017, 05:11 AM

Jmcphear,

Nothermark brings up a good point about RV dealerships and how batteries are used and abused on the lot and various shows before the unit is eventually sold.

However, just based on your 5 hour life expectancy when dry camping, you should not arbitrarily decide to replace all the batteries, at a considerable expense, without having them tested and ruling out an excessive amperage draw somewhere on the DC side?

Of course, knowing your total combined amp hour capacity of your house batteries and what you are typically drawing per hour is critical if you want to dry camp for a considerable amount of time without charging.

With that being said, I think it would be prudent to have the batteries tested and a skilled technician to determine if power consumption is commensurate with demand. After all, I'd hate to see you fork out quite a few Benjamins for batteries only to discover it is an excessive power draw causing your issue.

Anyway, if it is determined that the batteries are in fact the culprit, consider replacing them with no maintenance Lifeline or Fullriver AGM batteries.

It would be nice to hear back from you on the resolution and BTW...nice coach!

jimbo2013 · 03-19-2017, 05:20 AM

keep the batteries for now add solar, let it run a few weeks then see if the all equalize.

If not get a est of T-105's, with solar 4-5 years of life

you can add solar if you Diy for $759

tmw188 · 03-19-2017, 05:40 AM

I would have the batteries checked replace if needed. Try to do a rough quiet time energy audit and make some changes if needed. Check into some solar if needed.

All_Mountain · 03-19-2017, 08:23 AM

Does your charger/inverter have the ability to perform an equalization charge? You might try that first, it is possible it could rejuvenate your batteries.

Gary RVRoamer · 03-19-2017, 08:51 AM

High line coaches typically have a lot of power demand, especially if the inverter is active and supplying 120v power. You didn't say what power loads you typically use, so its impossible to say whether 5 hours is unreasonable or not. A typical 400 amp-hour battery bank (about 200AH usable) can easily be depleted in 5 hours of consumption if there are lights on, maybe tv playing, probably a residential fridge running, etc. It's fairly typical to run the genset twice a day for an hour or two to keep nice coaches like that powered up.

however, if its 5 hours of daylight time usage with few loads active, you may have one or more bad batteries. It happens, even in 3 year old coaches. A battery load test will usually detect that.

t55watson · 03-19-2017, 09:03 AM

You have received some good answers.
As new to the forum we don't know your experience with RV's. Don't take offense buuttt, have you serviced the batteries regularly? Add water keeping connections clean?
I ask because I had a fellow in a campground say his batteries were always dead. Turned out he never serviced them. 3 years worth.

Tha_Rooster · 03-19-2017, 09:10 AM

I had my ages replaced under warranty within the first year, probable cause was being killed so many times on the sales lot.

brokenrule · 03-19-2017, 09:26 AM

Test each cell with a hydrometer as a bad cell will case the battery to discharge and bring the bank down.

Mac99 · 03-19-2017, 09:32 AM

Throw your batteries away and start over with a fresh
set of AGM batteries, preferably LIfeLines.
I completely agree with post#2 by nothermark.

Navy80to04 · 03-19-2017, 09:36 AM

should I leave my RV plugged in all the time at my house? to keep them charged up? I keep my RV indoors above freezing when not camping. new class c only 500 miles on it now.

Sweetbriar · 03-19-2017, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brokenrule

Test each cell with a hydrometer as a bad cell will case the battery to discharge and bring the bank down.

This would be my first test. Hydrometers are inexpensive and you might not have to remove the batteries to take a sample. One bad cell in one battery of the bank will take the entire bank down quickly.

Lv2Roam2 · 03-19-2017, 10:16 AM

Navy...

As usual - it depends. With a good multi-stage charger you could leave your RV plugged in to maintain the batteries. Without such a charger - highly recommend you not leave it plugged in.

A good alternative in either case: charge the batteries up fully and then shut the battery system down using the battery switches. You'll still have some phantom loads and will need to check / charge the batteries as needed. An even better way is to charge the batteries and then remove the <negative> post cables. The batteries should then hold their charge for a longer time.