Battery drain-okay to disconnect?

karrun · 07-06-2015, 08:37 AM

Last weekend we camped with electric service, so the battery should have been fully charged when we got home. After two days parked at home with pretty much everything off (except for those sneaky things that use battery without you knowing), the CO monitor was alarming and couldn't be attributed to any propane leak or other source. A search here indicated it could be a low battery. We plugged in the Roo and the alarm stopped after a bit.
I read here that it is good to leave your unit plugged into AC when sitting, but for us that just isn't practical. I disconnected the battery terminals and plan on storing it that way in between trips. My question is two-fold. Should a new battery drain within two days, and is there any reason why disconnecting the battery between trips would be bad?

jeff64 · 07-06-2015, 09:07 AM

Probably not drain that far down in two days but two weeks maybe. No doubt there is a parasitic load on the battery from CO detector and clock radio. My super V has a battery disconnect switch. does yours? When in doubt, you can always test out battery and see if you got a good one to start out with. This will require some knowhow, a charger, a capacity tester and a hydrometer, or go to someone who knows how and has the tools.

Beyond that, Is the water up over the plates in the cells? Here is one application that I prefer/ recommend the use of distilled water. Is there a coating of slime on the surface of the battery between the terminals? That will also cause self discharge and you can measure this with a voltmeter. Any corrosion on the terminals. That will keep the charge from the converter or charger from doing its thing.
I see no reason that you can't pull a ground cable or the inline fuse from the battery

karrun · 07-06-2015, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the reply. I do have the battery disconnect switch, but I don't think it works. I can still turn on some lights when it is shut off. I did check the water level and it is good. Contacts look fine. I assume people disconnect their battery when winterizing, so I also agree that this should be fine.

Davylee · 07-09-2015, 07:58 AM

Karrun, Was the fridge on while stored? I'm guessing not, but just in case. The fridge has a anti condensation heater in it that is always on (unless the fridge is completely powered off) Since it is a heater strip it will draw down the battery along with other things like the radio, co2 detector and anything else.

And if your disconnect switch is not working, you should get it fixed while under warranty. If you are on battery only and push that switch in, there should be no power in the camper. If you push that in while hooked up to electric you will not see any difference.

**Flybob** · 07-09-2015, 08:06 AM

Did your use elect tongue jack on battery while in storage? If you can get an extension cord ( not heavy duty) you can attache a battery Tender that will supply parasitic loads and keep battery topped off. I have them on all my 12V batteries.
Robot Check

OldCoot · 07-09-2015, 08:08 AM

If your battery is full charged, it hurts nothing to pull one cable off the battery for storage.

comfun1 · 07-09-2015, 08:15 AM

In my previous toyhauler I installed a battery cut off switch. I bought my present toyhauler a little over a year ago and thus far I just keep it plugged in. I am wondering what effect it will have on the life of the battery and converter?

ebemis · 07-10-2015, 07:39 PM

Hey Karrun....
I have been disconnecting and carrying my battery home every time I return our rig to the storage yard. We try to camp at least once a month and are going into our third year doing this now, so that is PLENTY of times connecting and disconnecting our battery with no issues from doing so. I am a tad anal so I always use the battery disconnect to kill power before disconnecting and verify it is still pushed in (power off) before I re-connect the battery. Once my connections are snugged up, I step inside, pull that disconnect switch out (turns power back on) and we are rocking and rolling. I can't add anything about searching for drain sources to your battery but wanted to share my connect/disconnect experience so you know there is nothing to be afraid of in doing so.

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