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Old 05-21-2017, 06:39 AM   #1
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New Battery Drained!

I am new to Camper camping and my, new to me, pop up had a Brand New marine battery drained in 5 weeks of just siting in my garage!
Since there is nothing drawing power, should this happen or am I supposed to unhook the battery in between usage?
This was from Easter weekend till yesterday --- brand new deep cycle marine battery.
It was not drawing power since the pop up main panel was off and it's mostly used for the electric lift system in the pop up! Or could I of drained it last time I used it for 2 nights in the driveway?

Help--- give me the battery basics
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Old 05-21-2017, 06:47 AM   #2
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There are other things that draw power that are not controlled by the batter cut off. You could/should disconnect one cable and/or attach a battery tender to maintain charge. That's my advice others may advise differently.
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Old 05-21-2017, 06:56 AM   #3
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There are other things that draw power that are not controlled by the batter cut off. You could/should disconnect one cable and/or attach a battery tender to maintain charge. That's my advice others may advise differently.
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Old 05-21-2017, 07:01 AM   #4
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There are small drains to the battery even with the panel "off".

There some items powered constantly like the radio power (to keep time), the propane leak detector, power to the lift system, front jack, and something called "internal resistance" which will discharge a lead acid battery just sitting on the bench. (about 1/2 amp total).

Running the top up and down can draw 15-20 amps each time you open and close it.

Popup batteries are usually about 75AH of capacity. That means at an average constant 5 amp draw it will go from full to empty in 15 hours (75AH).

So even a new fully charged battery (which yours was not), will be dead in a few weeks just sitting there.

If you plan on keeping the battery disconnected from a charging source, you can expect to find your battery dead every time and it won't last very long discharged as the plates will be covered with a lead compound called "sulphates" that is very hard to remove in the normal charging process and may never come off if it is thick (permanently destroying the full rated capacity of the battery.

Install a battery disconnect at one of the terminals. That will give you another week or so, but in 5 weeks even a disconnected battery might be dead or very low.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-ID220S-6...ery+disconnect

I suggest in addition to the disconnect, you either remove that battery to the house and put it on a constant maintainer (like below) or just run an extension cord to the camper and let the on board Converter convert house current to keep the battery trickle charged.

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SE...ery+maintainer

That way you will always find your camper "ready to go" with a fully charged battery.
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Old 05-21-2017, 08:58 AM   #5
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I have plenty of Vehicles that "Sit" for a much longer time than "5 weeks" and they start right up,and I don't "Disconnect" the batteries! I do disconnect the RV battery but it "Sits" also and still runs the Jack,which takes Lots of Power! Youroo!!
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Old 05-21-2017, 09:36 AM   #6
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I have plenty of Vehicles that "Sit" for a much longer time than "5 weeks" and they start right up,and I don't "Disconnect" the batteries! I do disconnect the RV battery but it "Sits" also and still runs the Jack,which takes Lots of Power! [emoji106] Youroo!!
Yeah, I just switch my trailer battery off while it sits between trips and never a problem. Battery is in its 4th year. I average 5 or six weeks between trips, year-round.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herk7769 View Post
There are small drains to the battery even with the panel "off".

There some items powered constantly like the radio power (to keep time), the propane leak detector, power to the lift system, front jack, and something called "internal resistance" which will discharge a lead acid battery just sitting on the bench. (about 1/2 amp total).

Running the top up and down can draw 15-20 amps each time you open and close it.

Popup batteries are usually about 75AH of capacity. That means at an average constant 5 amp draw it will go from full to empty in 15 hours (75AH).

So even a new fully charged battery (which yours was not), will be dead in a few weeks just sitting there.

If you plan on keeping the battery disconnected from a charging source, you can expect to find your battery dead every time and it won't last very long discharged as the plates will be covered with a lead compound called "sulphates" that is very hard to remove in the normal charging process and may never come off if it is thick (permanently destroying the full rated capacity of the battery.

Install a battery disconnect at one of the terminals. That will give you another week or so, but in 5 weeks even a disconnected battery might be dead or very low.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-ID220S-6...ery+disconnect

I suggest in addition to the disconnect, you either remove that battery to the house and put it on a constant maintainer (like below) or just run an extension cord to the camper and let the on board Converter convert house current to keep the battery trickle charged.

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SE...ery+maintainer

That way you will always find your camper "ready to go" with a fully charged battery.
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Old 05-21-2017, 09:58 AM   #7
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My neighbor gave me his Battery Tender yesterday and it's been plugged in for 15 hours and it's finally charged

Yes it was a new battery

I just bought a Battery Tender, he told me he keeps his plugged in all the time.
For my fridge it has 2 types of power connect, Propane , AC and D.C. I get so confused on what to use. Maybe it was left on AC for Battery power?
Who knows.
One thing I need to understand is how this all works. A good job for Google.
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Old 05-21-2017, 10:35 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heymirth View Post
My neighbor gave me his Battery Tender yesterday and it's been plugged in for 15 hours and it's finally charged

Yes it was a new battery

I just bought a Battery Tender, he told me he keeps his plugged in all the time.
For my fridge it has 2 types of power connect, Propane , AC and D.C. I get so confused on what to use. Maybe it was left on AC for Battery power?
Who knows.
One thing I need to understand is how this all works. A good job for Google.
12 volt and propane is one way to run the fridg. AC is what is in your house. All your lighting, fridg, water pump, heat w/propane work on the 12 volt side. That doesnt include emergency braking for trailer if it gets disconnected or the power needed to put top up. Make sure the pin did not get pulled from the emergency brake/away switch, has a thin line attached to it. If that was pulled that would drain your battery.
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Old 05-21-2017, 12:13 PM   #9
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Can a fully charged 12V battery get drained while at a campsite? How easily can that happen?
I didn't realize I need to monitor my battery while camping all weekend. Since they don't have alternators.
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Old 05-21-2017, 12:40 PM   #10
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Were you connected to shore power? Did all of your 12 volt circuits work? Or were you boondocking?
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Old 05-21-2017, 01:06 PM   #11
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I installed a voltage meter next to my switches at the door.
This helps me monitor the battery.
Not mentioned earlier is the heater that is in the door of your frig.
When you open the door, it turns on and uses power.

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Old 05-21-2017, 01:47 PM   #12
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One thing to keep in mind is...

Once you discharge a flooded cell battery (or AGM) which is a flooded cell of sorts, below 50% charge, it starts gassing off and repeated discharges below 50% capacity will render the battery useless after a while.
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Old 05-21-2017, 01:54 PM   #13
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I used the pop up in my driveway for 48 hours. Plugged into my garage 110 Then back into the garage for storage for 4 weeks.
Came out to a dead battery yesterday.
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Old 05-21-2017, 01:55 PM   #14
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Sounds like something was left on.
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Old 05-21-2017, 02:08 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heymirth View Post
Can a fully charged 12V battery get drained while at a campsite? How easily can that happen?
I didn't realize I need to monitor my battery while camping all weekend. Since they don't have alternators.
You need to understand how RV electrical systems work.

Google "the 12 Voltage Side of Life"
Though not the best, it's an easy read for newbies.

Also start posting in the Tent Camper/Popup section of the Forum.
Other popup owners can help you understand the unique features of popups, especially your 3-way fridge(not 2-way).

Popups are the easiest, most basic RV made.
They don't have many parasitic power drains like other types of RVs have.

Bottom line is that the popup's CONverter will keep the battery charged when plugged into shore power or a generator.
If you leave it unplugged, the power drains will empty a battery in just a few days.
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Old 05-21-2017, 02:18 PM   #16
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Sounds like something was left on.
Since the OP doesn't know how things work, they could've left the 3-way fridge in 12v DC mode.
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Old 05-21-2017, 05:38 PM   #17
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This is what the fridge was on. Click image for larger version

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I will
Keep the battery on a Battery Tender in my garage from now on and have it hooked up for Usage or the campsite plug (shore power)
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Old 05-21-2017, 06:10 PM   #18
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Battery saver

I installed one of these....................
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Old 05-21-2017, 08:06 PM   #19
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I have an A-frame which is the same frame and appliances as a pop-up, just different upper walls and roof.

A pop-up does not come standard with a battery shut-off. Most of us, when new to pop-ups did not realize the parasitic drains would completely do in the battery in a couple of weeks. For most pop-ups and a-frames, the 2 parasitic drains are the stereo and the LP/CO detector. I put a switch in line with the stereo power leads so I could stop it from turning itself on. But I do lose presets and clock time.

To prevent the battery draining while the pop-up is stored, you can disconnect all the wires off one battery terminal or the other. Or you can install a battery disconnect switch that disconnects ALL loads. A photo of my marine 2 battery disconnect switch (about $25) is below. A fully charged, disconnected battery will hold most of its charge through a whole winter (I disconnect my lawn tractor battery in November for the same reasons, and the tractor starts fine in April or May).

My method is to plug the camper in when I arrive home to charge the battery and provide light while I clean it and empty food and other stuff we want out of the camper. After a couple of days, I fold it down, disconnect the shore power, and then turn the battery disconnect off (take the cables off one terminal before the disconnect switch was installed).

When getting ready for a trip, I like to pop up the camper, plug it in to top off the battery, store stuff inside for the trip, and pre-cool the fridge.

The fridge has 3 modes. The green switch is AC, and the dial beside the switch adjusts the amount of cooling. I use AC for the fridge when we are at a campground with electric, and when we are pre-cooling at home. You have no AC power in the trailer unless you are plugged into shore power or a generator.

The red switch is DC, and runs the fridge off the battery. There is NO control of the amount of cooling on DC. The fridge will drain the battery very quickly (a few hours) unless the battery is being charged. The A-frame fridge draws 13 amps in DC mode. So I only use DC mode to keep the fridge cool while we are driving. Even then, the high current creates enough voltage drop that my tow vehicle alternator will not keep the camper battery fully charged, especially if we make any stops. So I use an AA battery-powered wireless outdoor thermometer ($10 at Walmart) to monitor the fridge temp from our minivan. Due to the airflow from driving, the fridge is usually down in the high 20s by early afternoon. So I turn off the fridge for the rest of the drive, which allows the minivan to top off the camper battery. And the fridge stays below 40.

When dry camping (no electric available), the fridge runs on propane. Both the red and green switch are off. You have to manually light the propane burner; the propane controls and ignition switch are down in the lower part of the outside fridge compartment. The fridge uses very little propane; the heater and stove use a lot more.

When setting up at the campsite, if the red DC fridge switch is still on, I turn it off before disconnecting the camper from the tow vehicle to save battery charge. After setup, I turn the fridge back on using either AC or propane (depends on whether site has electric power).

Hope this helps
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Old 05-22-2017, 04:54 AM   #20
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Great Explantion! Thanks for being so detailed and clear !
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