12V TV and Battery drain

[Frankh0112]

Hi everyone. Sorry for another newbie question. Our 2014 Sunseeker 3050S has TVs over the cab and in the bedroom. Both run on 12V adapters.

1. Does leaving this plugged in drain house or car battery? (My car battery was dead yesterday after not starting the engine for a few days with the battery disconnect off and the bedroom rv was still plugged in)

2. There are 2 12V plugs near each TV. Anyone know what the difference is? Or are there 2 to plug in satellite boxes?

[kenandterry]

Originally Posted by Frankh0112

Hi everyone. Sorry for another newbie question. Our 2014 Sunseeker 3050S has TVs over the cab and in the bedroom. Both run on 12V adapters.

1. Does leaving this plugged in drain house or car battery? (My car battery was dead yesterday after not starting the engine for a few days with the battery disconnect off and the bedroom rv was still plugged in)

2. There are 2 12V plugs near each TV. Anyone know what the difference is? Or are there 2 to plug in satellite boxes?

Attachment 266429

1. On your rig……the engine battery should be independent from the house battery as far as it draining. How old is the battery? After it attains a good charge, get a reading after power off for 24 hours. Also, check and see if the 12 volt plug is alive all the time. Any TV in standby (still plugged in, but OFF as far you’d be concerned) will draw minimum power.

2. The 12 volt plugs beside each other look slightly different, as if maybe a previous owner had installed a second one. Just a thought. A second plug nearby could be for a 12 volt DVD player perhaps? Again…..with battery disconnect in the OFF position, is there power at the outlet?

[Frankh0112]

Thanks for quick reply.


Even when battery disconnect off and unplugged from shore power, the tv had power.

Oddly the tv over the cabin did not power on the screen (but seemed to have power). When I turned on truck, the screen came on. (Both are completely unplugged now)

[kenandterry]

At least you live in a climate where you can play around with TV issues in your RV.

Ours is in hibernation parked beside the house until probably April or May.

[W5CRE]

Originally Posted by kenandterry

This posting is in the motorhome section for Forester or Sunseeker units…..not trailers….they wire differently.

Thankyou.

[CharSolera]

There are 12 volt plugs with on/off switches. Search on Amazon for them. It's a simple swap.

[camaraderie]

Easiest thing to do and handy for many things is to get a CLAMP AC/DC Meter that measure amps by clamping over a wire. About 50 bucks on Amazon.

1. Clamp a battery main wire. Set meter to read DC Amps. With everything else turned OFF...and the TV's unplugged...take a reading. That is your base number from parasitic sources like your CO detector. Lets call it half an amp,
next plug in ONE TV and leaving it off...measure again. No change...no live plug from THAT battery bank. Change - the TV is always drawing from THAT battery...unplug when you're not using it. Turn TV on...and you'll know how many amps an hour it will draw down your battery (amp hours).
Repeat with the other TV and battery in the same manner and you'll have it scoped out.
In addition...to normal electrical readings...a clamp meter can help track down current drains and charging currents which is very useful in lots of places!

[Bob2019]

Our Forester has a living room TV, bedroom TV and an outdoor TV. If plugged in to a pedestal, no problem, but if boondocking, I pull the plug on the ones not used. On the DVD and radio, I added a switch to turn that off too. They all have parasite draw with remotes. Everything you can do to disconnect, keeps the batteries alive.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by Frankh0112

Hi everyone. Sorry for another newbie question. Our 2014 Sunseeker 3050S has TVs over the cab and in the bedroom. Both run on 12V adapters.

1. Does leaving this plugged in drain house or car battery? (My car battery was dead yesterday after not starting the engine for a few days with the battery disconnect off and the bedroom rv was still plugged in)

2. There are 2 12V plugs near each TV. Anyone know what the difference is? Or are there 2 to plug in satellite boxes?

After reading all the good posts regarding 12V power to your TV’s, I am wondering why the discussion did not turn to installing a true battery disconnect switch. We all know the factory switch does not disconnect everything in the coach and pulling the ignition key out does not disconnect everything in the cab.

For in-use battery draining the unplugging solution is on target but you should not get that much drain from TV’s. Another in-use solution when no 120v is available is solar.

On another note, your Van* chassis battery draining in just a few days is an indication of a problem worthy of investigation.