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Old 09-28-2024, 12:28 PM   #1
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charging house batteries?

32 ft. Seabreeze 2004
I have a question and I thank you all in advance. I have a 50 amp plug and cord at my home for when I am storing my RV at home. Do I leave my the connect switch in the coach connected or disconnected? I have been disconnecting it and my batteries have been draining I guessing leave it connected? thanks
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Old 09-28-2024, 01:10 PM   #2
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Yes, your charger needs to be connected to the battery.
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Old 09-28-2024, 01:39 PM   #3
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Connected to the battery

The switch inside the coach say's connect and disconnect... when it's in the disconnect mode none of the 12 V lights work in coach but the tv and microwave do have power. When the switch is in connect mode the 12 v power is on and lights work. I should leave the switch in the coach in the connect mode while in storage? so the 12 v system has power and the batteries for house and motor are being charged? thanks
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Old 09-28-2024, 02:12 PM   #4
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Charging house batteries

You likely have an inverter/charger set up. Most likely when you open the battery disconnect almost all accessories are cut off. The Inverter may still be connected but the controls are not, so the charger will not energize. When plugged in leave it on. Also, most of the National RV products used a voltage sensing relay for combining the house and chassis batteries. When plugged in the charger/inverter should also maintain the chassis battery.
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Old 09-28-2024, 05:03 PM   #5
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leave the coach connected

Thanks for getting back to me, I'm gonna leave the switch in coach in the connected position so that it has 12 V power throughout the coach giving power to lights ect. that way it will have power, to the inverter charger and will be charging the batteries. thank you
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Old 10-08-2024, 05:14 PM   #6
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You are making me think

Ramster I am not sure that is the answer. I would not think leaving everything energized during storage is the best thing to do. I don't use the Freedom Charger/Inverter to maintain the batteries during storage. That is an expensive device to use for keeping batteries charger for storage time. For me, I pull my batteries and put them on a battery tender for AGM batteries.

Now you are making me think about if the charger will charge the batteries with the 12 volt switch disconnected. Never done that, but you say the batteries drained when the switch was disconnected. My first thought is that it should not matter if the rig is connected to shore power. Once connected to shore power the charger/inverter should energize and charge the batteries even with the 12 volt switch disconnected, but not ever having done that exact scenario, I am not sure. I would do some voltage testing at the batteries to see what is going on. I will definitely be testing that theory soon.
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Old 10-08-2024, 10:13 PM   #7
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I'm not sure I am following this question right, but I just discovered something very similar, if not the same...? When parked, I have been plugging my incoming power cord from the house via 120v adapter to the 50A cord, leaving my inverter, master kill switches and 12v disconnect all on. I thought that this would just be in "trickle" mode thru the inverter to keep the fridge running and the batteries topped off. However, yesterday I discovered that my two chassis batteries are completely fried and swelled, and the four coach batteries were also almost dead (might be ruined too...?). I know my rig has a solar panel on the roof, so are the two competing with each other, or doubling down on the charging issue...? Should I just let the solar panel do the trickle charge if that is what it is designed to do...? Is this kind of what you are describing Ramster...? I am thinking I will need to NOT plug in any external source, and disconnect every kill switch in the system to prevent this from happening again during storage. Even though my chassis batteries are 4 years old they have only been used just a few times. They are not just dead... they are fried crispy critters... (
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Old 10-08-2024, 10:31 PM   #8
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It's possible your converter/charger/inverter overcharged, or the solar overcharged, or it's possible one of the batteries shorted out and caused the overcharging. Can't tell without measuring the voltage of each. A GOOD charger will drop to a low 13V range for float, BUT a shorted battery will draw more amps and keep the charger from dropping to float. A solar controller could be set for use, where you would WANT to push as much solar into the batteries as possible, instead of a low 13v float setting like you want for storage.
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Old 10-08-2024, 11:45 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Julia2005 View Post
Ramster I am not sure that is the answer. I would not think leaving everything energized during storage is the best thing to do. I don't use the Freedom Charger/Inverter to maintain the batteries during storage. That is an expensive device to use for keeping batteries charger for storage time. For me, I pull my batteries and put them on a battery tender for AGM batteries.

Now you are making me think about if the charger will charge the batteries with the 12 volt switch disconnected. Never done that, but you say the batteries drained when the switch was disconnected. My first thought is that it should not matter if the rig is connected to shore power. Once connected to shore power the charger/inverter should energize and charge the batteries even with the 12 volt switch disconnected, but not ever having done that exact scenario, I am not sure. I would do some voltage testing at the batteries to see what is going on. I will definitely be testing that theory soon.
Why not leave your batteries in the RV, use the battery disconnect and clip your external charger to the AGMs? Electrically, it is the same as what you are doing, but a LOT less work.

We've owned our TropiCal for about 12 years. It is always plugged in when stored, so I have never disconnected the batteries. I replaced our 8 year old 6v flooded cell house batteries a few weeks ago in preparation for our winter trip. No issues with them, just being cautious, and I'm moving two of them to my tractor.

It would seem that leaving the batteries connected to the inverter/charger has worked out well for us.

We rarely dry camp, so solar and LiFePO4 batteries don't make much sense for us. I went with AGMs to get out of the battery watering business, and my Magnum inverter/charger has an excellent AGM charging profile. It even removes battery conditioning from the menu (AGMs should not be conditioned).
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Old 10-10-2024, 03:25 PM   #10
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Battery level

I've been checking my level on the house battery, and the chassis battery with the disconnect switch in the on position as suggested. I have two 6 V deep cell brand new batteries for the house one brand new 12 V battery for the chassis. over the last 5 or 6 days the level on the house batteries have dropped from 12.1 to 11.8 then to 11.6...the chassis battery started at 12.1 went to 11.8. I started up the engine for 10 minutes. The battery for the motor went up to 12.1. I started the generator for about 20 minutes. The battery level stayed at 11.6

I now have the disconnect switch inside the coach to the off position. Hopefully this will charge all three of the batteries better than in the on position. I'll check it daily.
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Old 10-10-2024, 03:54 PM   #11
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If you ran the generator, had the switches on and the house batteries didn't charge, the charger is not working. If you leave your batteries discharged, you are wounding them.

Find out why your charger is not working.
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Old 10-10-2024, 04:41 PM   #12
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Yes, you're damaging the batteries leaving them discharged like that. You don't need days to see if the batteries are charging. If they stay above 13V after a couple hours, OR with a light load, then they're being charged. If they drop to 12.5 or lower with a light load, then they're not being charged.
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Old 10-10-2024, 10:52 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbrandt1402 View Post
Why not leave your batteries in the RV, use the battery disconnect and clip your external charger to the AGMs? Electrically, it is the same as what you are doing, but a LOT less work.

We've owned our TropiCal for about 12 years. It is always plugged in when stored, so I have never disconnected the batteries. I replaced our 8 year old 6v flooded cell house batteries a few weeks ago in preparation for our winter trip. No issues with them, just being cautious, and I'm moving two of them to my tractor.

It would seem that leaving the batteries connected to the inverter/charger has worked out well for us.

We rarely dry camp, so solar and LiFePO4 batteries don't make much sense for us. I went with AGMs to get out of the battery watering business, and my Magnum inverter/charger has an excellent AGM charging profile. It even removes battery conditioning from the menu (AGMs should not be conditioned).
My RV is not at my house where I can keep a close eye on it, that is why I remove the batteries and charge them at home. Also, I want my Freedom Charger/Inverter to last as long as possible so using Battery Tenders to me is way cheaper to replace if they fail than the Freedom is. I have solar on the roof that more than covers the house batteries, but I cover my RV so the solar is useless.
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Old 10-11-2024, 07:35 AM   #14
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charger

Thank you for the replies. How do I check my charger? Is there a way to find out if it's charging my batteries or not?
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