another house battery issue

[popshumphrey]

I know it could be in the forum but lots and lots of posts....

My house battery never holds a charge when storing. Even when disconnected.
The battery is 2.5 years old. It is, as of today down to 8 volts... dead I know.
I hooked up a solar maintainer that is not maintaining even when it is disconnected to the house electrical system. The battery has dropped below the 11 volt range many times. It is stored about 4 weeks in between trips.

I have a class c sunseeker. It has a system off switch by the battery well.

Questions:
Could the battery just be bad and it needs to be replaced?
Would you replace it just to give it a shot?
Does the house system off switch really disconnect all things?

Any advice would be helpful. I am old and too lazy to read all the battery posts! We all have house battery issues it seems.

[AudiDudi]

The battery disconnect switch does not always turn off all battery functions, like the CO/propane detector. I always remove the negative wire to the batteries when putting it in storage. If the battery disconnect switch is off, the batteries will not charge.


I'd guess if the batteries have been run down that far lots of times, they are likely shot.

[TitanMike]

Lead Acid batteries have an inherent self discharge rate. You can totally disconnect them, remove them, put them in a perfect storage environment, and they will still discharge internally. Just the nature of the beast.

As they get older this rate can increase.

Unless you connect the batteries to a battery maintainer that overcomes this internal self discharge current, you will always run the risk of coming back to discharged batteries after storage.

If absolutely not possible to add charge maintenance like a plug in battery maintainer or connecting a solar charge panel, it's best to remove batteries and take them home where you have power for a maintainer.

If the batteries are over a couple years old, good chance they are reaching the end of their usable life and have little capacity left. This will allow the self discharge to kill them quicker.

FWIW, the self discharge rate of a lead acid battery stored around 80 degrees is around 4% per week. Depending on the remaining capacity of the batteries, they could well be dead in short order.

On this note, this is another example of how important it is to properly maintain lead/acid batteries. More than just checking water and running generator (if boondocking) for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Lead acid batteries take HOURS to fully charge. Charging until the light on your monitor panel shows "full" is not an adequate measure of a fully charged battery.

[wana65stang]

House battery ( group 31 size) has been on charger for four days now charging at three amps, still showing Eighty percent charged, may have to bite the bullet and replace, installed it in 2014 so guess shouldn't complain .

[hobienick]

5 years is about average for wet cell lifespan.