Power Drain

[billparker23]

We are newbies. We just purchased a 2014 Coachmen Encounter 37TZ. Our house batteries are discharging almost completely (down to 1/3) on a daily basis, while the coach sits. We have to start and run the coach for an hour or more, or take it on a short trip, each day, in order to recharge the house batteries. We have no lights left on, or anything else we can think of, that would cause a battery drain. This does not seem normal. Any ideas on the cause? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Flybob]

Are you sure you are reading your monitor panel correctly. Many monitor panels have one scale for tanks and another for Battery. Running the RV ( assume at idle) for an hour should not take batteries from 1/4 to full.

[billparker23]

Thanks for the reply. I believe I am reading it correctly. It is the battery monitor for sure. It has four red lights from 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full. Running it an hour to an hour and a half gets it to 3/4. But, the next day, it will be down to 1/4.

[Cypressloser]

Running the engine for an hour or so does very little to charge the batteries, it takes likely a full day to charge them completely. Also a low SOC (state of charge) is bad for the longevity of the batteries.
You have a few options here:
-Solar panels
-Battery disconnect (no option - a must have)
-keep the MH plugged in to keep the batteries charged and maintained
Also with constant charging and discharging water will evaporate at a high rate from the batteries and needs to be checked often (unless you have AGM batteries).

[wanderingbob]

Get a real battery meter , those lites are a joke !

[Loraura]

You're getting a surface charge reading from running the engine. You need to 1) get a battery charger and charge it to full, this may take a couple of days if it's at 1/4. 2) when you reinstall the battery, disconnect the negative cable when not in use or install a battery disconnect switch.

There are many things that will put a parasitic load on a battery, such as the CO2 detector, radio, TV, antenna , microwave ( all have little red lights or clocks on them).

Your first problem is that you're not truly getting your battery back to full. Use a good three stage charger for this.

Second you have parasitic draws. You can isolate me and pull the fuses, or simply leave the negative cable off so it can't drain down the battery.

[billparker23]

Thanks much for the very informative responses. You provided much information that I was unaware of. We will get a good battery charger and a means of switching off or disconnecting the negative terminal, if necessary.

[Crockett]

one parasitic drain covered in an earlier post, the dometic refer no longer has a switch on a heat element for condensation on the door sealing surface.