Winter Battery Storage

[JeffSage]

Picking up our new to us Jayco Embark 392T shortly. We have had a TT up until now and battery storage was easy, take it inside and put it on a slow managed trickle charger.

1. New unit has 2 x 12v Lithium Ion House batteries.
2. Will be storing outside in upstate cold NY
3. Can get 15a 120v to the unit
4. If recommended, will start it and possible drive it once a month, but no expected camping

What is the best practice for the House batteries, throw disconnect and leave in coach (leave at what SOC) or take inside?

Also, on the chassis batteries, should I leave them in and put the trickle charger on them?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Biljol]

I believe your lithium are much less affected by cold but prolonged exposure will cause them to degrade. Will the coach be anywhere that it can be plugged in. If so a battery heating pad should work.

Of course the best option is to remove and keep inside like your chassis battery’s.

Also keep an eye on there charge they will lose a lot less than any other type but don’t want them to go dead.

[Mark_K5LXP]

Depends on the battery management system built into the particular lithium batteries. It should cut off charging and discharging to prevent damage during cold storage. Key word, "should".

I wouldn't trust that power would be reliable in that scenario to keep the batteries heated, if that's even provided, and charged. It's simple enough to remove them and keep them in a protected place. Self discharge won't be a problem, so just top them off and put them in a basement or other storage that won't go too far below freezing. If you're OK with experimenting with over a kilobuck's worth of batteries to see if they winter over on their own then just park it and see. I would bet the warranty doesn't cover that, so think about why that might be.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[Soppy]

I never bring the batteries in or keep them on a charger. I just make sure they are fully charged , then disconnect them when the motorhome is in storage. They survive the cold Canadian winters just fine. My current AGM batteries are 12yrs old and still going strong. I own lots of heavy equipment and the same rules apply for their batteries.

[Lowflyer1]

Originally Posted by JeffSage

Picking up our new to us Jayco Embark 392T shortly. We have had a TT up until now and battery storage was easy, take it inside and put it on a slow managed trickle charger.

1. New unit has 2 x 12v Lithium Ion House batteries.
2. Will be storing outside in upstate cold NY
3. Can get 15a 120v to the unit
4. If recommended, will start it and possible drive it once a month, but no expected camping

What is the best practice for the House batteries, throw disconnect and leave in coach (leave at what SOC) or take inside?

Also, on the chassis batteries, should I leave them in and put the trickle charger on them?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I would not start it until you actually need the coach again as starting and running until normal operating temp is hard for the engine.

I removed all the batteries and store them in the garage so that I can periodically check and charge them as needed and also check the fluid levels until it's time to take the coach out again. That just goes to my old farming days as we always did that on machines that were not used during the winter.

[Winemaker2]

Originally Posted by Soppy

I never bring the batteries in or keep them on a charger. I just make sure they are fully charged , then disconnect them when the motorhome is in storage. They survive the cold Canadian winters just fine. My current AGM batteries are 12yrs old and still going strong. I own lots of heavy equipment and the same rules apply for their batteries.

Thats fine w/ FLA or AGM but LiFe are another story completely. I don't have the knowledge or experience so won't comment there. I would be careful taking advice for other batty systems and putting much faith in it.

[Biljol]

Best bet call the mfg and see what they say.

[LSC9901]

I find it pretty easy to remove the batteries. Just put them in the garage and reinstall in the spring. Better safe than sorry !!

[Tahoejeep]

I have no experience with lithium batteries, but I throw the disconnect switch on the house batteries and walk away. I’ll bring out a generator to the storage building and charge both house and chassis batteries at least once during the winter. Northern Minnesota here where mid-winter temps dip to -30°. Been working fine for years.

[Mark_K5LXP]

No one has to guess or wonder. There are spec's for these things.

I contacted Battleborn at one point and this is their temp range. Different batteries may have different spec's so the datasheets for them rules.

"At 25 degrees our batteries will continue to discharge but will stop accepting a charge and at-4 degrees the batteries will turn off to prevent any damage."

What I read into that is if your house batteries are still connected to the house and you're float charging with the converter or a charger, below 25F any parasitic or other loads are going to completely discharge the battery because it will self disconnect. Technically this won't hurt a lithium but at a minimum in most northern climates the battery will be in a constant state of discharge or disconnect.

"The storage temperature range is -10F to 140F(-23c to 60c). We recommend bringing the battle born batteries to a 100% charge and then disconnecting them completely for storage. After 6 months in storage you should still have 75-80% charged batteries. Storing batteries in sub zero weather(-15 or more) has the potential to crack the abs and more importantly could cause a faster loss of capacity, in some cases drastically more than the typical 2-4% per month loss."

I'm guessing there isn't enough history with any of the lithium topologies to know what the "best" and "worst" profiles are yet but if you go with just what you know, I'd be leery of storing any lithium battery in subzero temperatures. At a minimum I'd disconnect it as I would a lead acid.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM