Something is Draining My Battery

[KemoSabeFLG]

I have been dry camping in Colorado for over a week. Last Monday I took my battery to a NAPA store to have it charged. It had a bad cell, so they replaced it. That battery was showing "low" this morning so I took it to NAPA again. They were able to charge it and it tested fine, with 12.63 volts of charge. When I installed the battery it read "good," but not "charged" as I would expect a fully charged battery to show. I have my fridge on propane, I ran my water heater on propane for about 15 minutes, and ran the water pump for a few minutes to was a few dishes. I have kept everything off except the fridge when not in use. The battery is now showing "fair." I've been all through the rig and cannot find anything that could be draining the battery. Is there something I am overlooking?

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Jeff,

Welcome to our Grand Design Owners Forum. Something is discharging your battery . . . or you have a second bad battery. What size and type of battery are we talking about? A good tool to invest in is a Clamp Ammeter. This is placed around either the negative or positive cable from the battery and measures the current flowing. This will tell you whether the cause is current draw by the trailer or lack of supply by the battery. Make sure to get a meter that can measure DC current. The less expensive ones can only measure AC current.

Rob

[acoleman43]

I have been dry camping in Colorado for over a week. Last Monday I took my battery to a NAPA store to have it charged. It had a bad cell, so they replaced it. That battery was showing "low" this morning so I took it to NAPA again. They were able to charge it and it tested fine, with 12.63 volts of charge. When I installed the battery it read "good," but not "charged" as I would expect a fully charged battery to show. I have my fridge on propane, I ran my water heater on propane for about 15 minutes, and ran the water pump for a few minutes to was a few dishes. I have kept everything off except the fridge when not in use. The battery is now showing "fair." I've been all through the rig and cannot find anything that could be draining the battery. Is there something I am overlooking?

Welcome Jeff. First, an excellent choice of floorplans. The 17MKE is a great layout.

A 2 way fridge and water heater actually uses DC electricity from your battery when they are running on propane. Also, any lights you use, inverters in use or on standby, solar charge controllers, any monitoring equipment, etc.

With my system I have a constant 50-55W (4-5 amps from the batteries) draw just to keep the inverter and other electronic accessories on - that is not running the fridge or anything else. That is my trailer sitting on my property in "storage".

When we dry camp and are running the fridge, using lights, charging phones, etc, we can use up to 3000W a day.

I know this probably doesn't answer your question, but, if you have an energy monitor, look how many watts is being used at any given point It may help you isolate the energy hog.

[Yoda]

I have been dry camping in Colorado for over a week. Last Monday I took my battery to a NAPA store to have it charged. It had a bad cell, so they replaced it. That battery was showing "low" this morning so I took it to NAPA again. They were able to charge it and it tested fine, with 12.63 volts of charge. When I installed the battery it read "good," but not "charged" as I would expect a fully charged battery to show. I have my fridge on propane, I ran my water heater on propane for about 15 minutes, and ran the water pump for a few minutes to was a few dishes. I have kept everything off except the fridge when not in use. The battery is now showing "fair." I've been all through the rig and cannot find anything that could be draining the battery. Is there something I am overlooking?

You have gotten some excellent advice. Other draws are the radio/stereo, even when off, and the safety devices like the Propane and CO detectors. For dry camping you need at least two or three batterys, or 200AH usable power. For flooded batterys you need 400AH advertised rating (50% usable). . Do you have solar? A generator (example Honda 200i)? Or a DC to DC charger where you can use your truck to recharge during the day or while towing. BTW it takes a while to charge a battery. I doubt that NAPA got it to 100% before you left the store.

Use the search feature to research batterys, solar, DC-DC, etc.

Welcome and I hope this helps.

Keith

[Jkwilson]

1. 12.63V is not fully charged.
2. Voltage based battery charge indication is only useful when the battery has been resting for an hour or so. No draw at all.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Just a guess... maybe have the tank heaters on?

[Jlawles2]

As mentioned by Rob, something to measure the amp draw would help you dramatically. I have and use a https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (not extremely expensive by standards). Owing and knowing how to use one you can trace down to the circuit that has the most drain.

Until you can test the draw on the system with everything truly OFF (hint not everything is off even with the disconnect key pulled) will start the baseline of draw. From there build up using the system you use on a standard basis.

Also a fully charged lead acid deep cell battery should be about 13.2 volts.

[KemoSabeFLG]

Thanks for the helpful and informative responses. While I am new to RV ownership, I did own a houseboat on Lake Powell for over 25 years. Basically, an RV on pontoons. So I am familiar with 12v system management … to a point. My first task regarding my current power issue is to add a second battery (using group 24 size at present). I am going to get two good batteries like the Interstate batteries I had on my boat. My rig is wired for solar so that will be the next upgrade.

My concern is this: up until this week, I was able to go 4 to 5 days without needing a charge, with judicious power use. Yesterday I went from fully charged to zip in less than 10 hours.

Do I have tank heaters? Nothing in the OM about those.

[Yoda]

Thanks for the helpful and informative responses. While I am new to RV ownership, I did own a houseboat on Lake Powell for over 25 years. Basically, an RV on pontoons. So I am familiar with 12v system management … to a point. My first task regarding my current power issue is to add a second battery (using group 24 size at present). I am going to get two good batteries like the Interstate batteries I had on my boat. My rig is wired for solar so that will be the next upgrade.

My concern is this: up until this week, I was able to go 4 to 5 days without needing a charge, with judicious power use. Yesterday I went from fully charged to zip in less than 10 hours.

Do I have tank heaters? Nothing in the OM about those.

If you do I believe there would be a switch on the convenience panel - but not sure

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Do I have tank heaters? Nothing in the OM about those.

My Reflection does...Don't know about yours. Mods will likely know.

[Yoda]

I have been dry camping in Colorado for over a week. Last Monday I took my battery to a NAPA store to have it charged. It had a bad cell, so they replaced it. That battery was showing "low" this morning so I took it to NAPA again. They were able to charge it and it tested fine, with 12.63 volts of charge. When I installed the battery it read "good," but not "charged" as I would expect a fully charged battery to show. I have my fridge on propane, I ran my water heater on propane for about 15 minutes, and ran the water pump for a few minutes to was a few dishes. I have kept everything off except the fridge when not in use. The battery is now showing "fair." I've been all through the rig and cannot find anything that could be draining the battery. Is there something I am overlooking?

I just noticed you have the 12v fridge with solar. is the solar working? Check you charge controller and make sure it is working. If not that fridge will kill a stock 75AH battery very quickly.Also what was the weather like. If overcast - no sun, the solar cant keep up either.

Hope this helps.

[howson]

Yoda Scott'n'Wendy and KemoSabeFLG

Even if the trailer had tank heaters unless there's a failure on their thermostat feature (or it's very cold where the trailer is located) they shouldn't be causing an issue.

The 17MKE apparently doesn't come with a battery monitor from the factory (disappointing). If the budget will allow it, consider a Victron SmartShunt or BMV-712. There's a wealth of information on battery monitors on this site (a search will find it) and also on YouTube. A familiar video (to me) is AMSolar's. A bit dated, but still applicable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV055vmZgvY

With the battery monitor it is very easy to keep track of power usage, power draw, charging, etc. Highly recommended.

Howard