low voltage warning alarm

[MNtraveler]

You were using quite a bit of power. You probably need to recharge an hour in the evening and an hour in the morning, at least. A voltmeter will give you a roughly good reading on status of charge, but don't try to read after charging as it always looks good them. Read before charging or an hour or more after charging. Keep your batteries up for their own sake and also this will avoid problems with the CO alarm.

[MilCop4523]

Originally Posted by bikendan

When dry camping or boondocking, even with two batteries, using the furnace over a weekend(along with lights, water pump, fans, fridge, water heater) can deplete the batteries down enough to activate the alarm.
Furnace usage is the BIG battery drain.

agreed.

I wonder what style of lighting is in the trailer.
I switched ours over to LED lighting and got rid of the battery draining original yellowish lights.

They say 16 LED's running for one hour consume the same as 1 incandescent bulb.
We opt for polar fleece blankets vs the furnace if its only chilly.
I also turn the water pump on only when needed.

[pmsherman]

You need to shed some of your load on the battery when boondocking. If you have a Dometic fridge, check the circuit board that's accessible from the outside inspection panel. If there's a connection labelled "light/heater" pull the wire off of it when boondocking. The heater this wire feeds is the door seal anti condensation heater strip that draws around 1A/hour. That's 50A over two days, a significant drain on the battery. Do not remove that wire if you're plugged into shore power. The fuse located near it is for the 110V heater and its exposed contacts can give you an unexpected jolt if you touch them.

That wire goes to the interior light and from there to the heating strip. If you boondock a lot, you could install a switch for the heater portion next to the light fixture inside the fridge. Many years ago, Dometic had a separate switch to shut off the heater but it disappeared sometime before 2010.

Phil

[bpa098]

Pretty sure my lights are led. I know someone else comment but I haven't used furnace and don't have res fridge

[MilCop4523]

Originally Posted by bpa098

Pretty sure my lights are led. I know someone else comment but I haven't used furnace and don't have res fridge

power drain somewhere else?
with all items off at the panel check your battery state,
then check teh draw off each breaker in stand by mode.

following one at a time, add one more item at a time and recheck.
there has to be something drawing the battery down.
tV during the day or evening? Stereo on for the radio?

we (my wife means I) killed the trailer and truck battery at the NASCAR races in NH in 2012 while plugged in. lights did me in along with the water pump and watching TV.
Tow Vehicle needed a boost.

[bpa098]

In an earlier post on this thread I listed stuff..... inside lights, 3 bed fans, stereo day and night, awning led lights, water pump, think fridge draws some, bathroom vent fan,

[MilCop4523]

thats a lot of power used
time to invest in a suitcase generator perhaps = problem solved.

[bpa098]

I know. Guessing you didn't read all the posts lol. I added a second battery this year, was testing it out. We normally conserve much better

[TURBS]

Your fridge draws a good chunk especially from the defrost heat strip that cannot be turned off, however it can be bypassed


2015 Columbus 320RS
2008 2500HD Duramax
2015 nights camped "34"
2016 nights camped "10"

[pgandw]

Originally Posted by bpa098

In an earlier post on this thread I listed stuff..... inside lights, 3 bed fans, stereo day and night, awning led lights, water pump, think fridge draws some, bathroom vent fan,

My suspects for power usage are the fans and stereo. Each could be anywhere from 1 to 5 amps. You can measure with a multimeter that has a suitable DC amps range. You do have to break the circuit to insert the meter to get a current measurement.
Fred W

[nodrawers]

shouldn't let your battery get below 50%. love my trimetric battery monitor, allways know exactly where my battery is. showes draw as low as.o1 amp. 2 6 v 132ah interstate, 200w fixed solar, 2oow portable can runin parallel

[jeffbeagley]

I have a 2017 Forrest River Ultra Lite 34' and the 2nd time out it got cold so of course the heater turned on at 2 or 3 in the morning. By the 2nd time the heater turned on the beeper was going the rest of the night even though my battery indicator was on 2/3 power. My trailer came with dual deep cycle batteries from interstate. The service guy at the dealer said to have the batteries checked by interstate so I did. They were fine. I don't understand the low voltage warning at all and maybe someone could explain a bit better as to why I cant get a co/LP detector and mount it right next to the one I have and why I cant just disconnect that damned beeper. My old trailer also had a heater but with one battery never had a problem if the battery was dead in the morning I just started the generator and recharged it. Are they just way over engineering this stuff today because there are really really stupid people or what would the reasoning be i cant run my heater on battery power, litterally ever. I start the generator every day and fully charge the batteries and I don't see why that stupid thing starts beeping with the battery indicator still showing 2/3 charge.

[WolfWhistle]

Seeing how much you can conserve is a good thing, but boondocking without a monitor is kind of like driving your car without a gas gauge. I recommend Trimetric TM-2030 but there are others that I am not familiar with. They run about $165 and you will need a Shunt wired in properly.

Most people run out of battery during the night simply because they start the evening with nearly dead battery (batteries).

Strange that the only way you know your batteries are critically low is when the CO detector is warning you to do something. I have heard of people that when their interior lights get too low to read by, then they do something.

That factory monitor panel... especially the battery indicator, is a "guess" gauge; kind of an idiot light that reads full when its not and low when its too late. When reading low you have already greatly diminished the life of batteries, at best. If you can afford batteries every year and don't mind running out during the night; and don't mind that a CO detector beeping, then don't get a good battery monitor and just keep guessing. That is what I used to do, but learned how to take care of my batteries, I went fairly low dollar on them, but I still can't afford $500 every year or two for new ones.

I have four GC-2 at 460 amp/hour (230 usable) and a 100 amp charger, not to mention a Honda 2000 that I use to charge when needed.... Oh, and 450 watts of solar. For my needs this is an economical setup and a bare minimum.
WW

[MNtraveler]

The furnace is a huge current drain and the batteries are probably lower than you think. As mentioned, the panel lights are unreliable. A voltage reading, while not perfect, will be closer to the truth.

https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/filed...9&d=1441906368



Land of 10,000 Lakes
2016 Forester MBS 2401R
Nights camped 2016: 32; RV to date: 35

[seagrace]

I think nodrawers makes a good point. I have the same problem with the idiot beeper. Here's a thought - maybe I just don't care if my batteries are low. I cannot image a detector that can and should run off of a tiny 9v battery for at least six months, connected to two 12v house batteries with what 90Ah each, triggering an alarm.

The draw should be so minimal on this detector that I should never hear it until it is absolutely on its last amps. Adding more batteries, solar panels, generators and plugging in seems ridiculously like overkill just to deal with a greedy monitor.

[WolfWhistle]

I think it draws too much for a 9 volt. Seems like I measured .2 - .3 amps but might have included the load center. I wonder what voltage it sees when beeping starts?
WW

[seagrace]

Home Depot carries a battery-powered dual CO/Gas detector for $49. Guess what I'm getting for Christmas?

[SidecarFlip]

Trimetrics are nice but expensive...

My Xantrex Pro-Sine gas that (low voltage) feature builr in and notifies me when the threshold voltage drops below 11 volts.

It's not visual but I sure can hear the alarm. Nice thing is, it works whether the inverter is running or just on standby.

..........and audible gas gauge... lol