Battery Drainers

[Charleen-HILO]

Hi, I need some help with my 93 hi-lo and its battery life. I just purchased a brand new marine battery three days ago. Because I thought my other battery was dead. However, my new battery is doing the same thing but the last one did. I charge it and it dies within a few hours, and I have my suspicions that it has something to do with the heater that I'm running, or I know this sounds crazy when I plug in a phone charger to the DC power outlet by the cable set up. Does anybody have any idea what would be killing my battery so fast?
Any help is greatly appreciated as I am at a loss what to do to be able to
Keep the battery charged, run my heat because I'm freezing and be able to charge my cell phone.
Thanks,
Charleen

 

[Brianagee]

A couple of questions....What type of heater....do you have any input power (solar, plugged in) any other DC loads.....

 

[cva34]

If you have no incomeing power Heater fan and lighting can drain battery pretty dang quick

 

[JackandJanet]

Charleen, if you're living in your trailer, using heat, lights, possibly the water pump and the refrigerator, you are using battery power to run the fans for the heat and refrigerator and for the other items I listed. You will have to have some source of battery charging power to keep things going. The obvious and easiest way is to plug in to "shore power". This will activate your onboard converter which will keep the battery charged, if it is working. I have another thread in the forum that gives you troubleshooting ideas for a converter that is not charging the battery.

If you don't have access to shore power, you will need to use a generator to keep the battery up. You can purchase an inverter generator at places like Costco, Home Depot or Lowes for less than $500 that should do the trick and they are pretty quiet. Another alternative is solar panels, but you will need a setup that can produce at least 200 Watts to keep you comfortably charged.

- Jack

 

[Charleen-HILO]

Hi Jack,
Thanks for the help. I am running a generator daily and its telling me that its fully charged and then before the next day its completely dead. So as you can imagine its shutting off the fridge and I end up freezing.
I don't have access to shore power at the moment so any other suggestions as to keep it charged? Thanks!

 

[Charleen-HILO]

Very quickly!

 

[Charleen-HILO]

Hi,
It seems to be an hydro flame heater and it works really well actually. When I can use it! I am running power off a generator. The only thing I know that was running off DC power is the electronic jack and the charger station when in plug it in for me to charge my phone.

 

[JackandJanet]

Charleen, you say the fridge is shut off when the battery dies? That suggests you are running the fridge on DC (battery) power. You should run the fridge on propane, like you are using for the furnace. It will cool BEST on propane (even better than on AC power). If you run the fridge on DC, you will drain the battery very quickly, and, your generator may not even be able to keep up with the demand.

I suspect the fridge demand is the source of your problems.

- Jack

 

[Brianagee]

As stated in many of the posts....anything that produces "heat" will cause a large drain on the batteries....