Drained Batteries

[mattisonhome]

We plugged in our 2018 Isata 3 all night to charge. Came out in the morning to drained batteries and a sulfur/rotten egg smell in the couch. This was purchased in summer 2017. Batteries were checked by OReilly parts and are completely bad. Now that we know this, my question is, when hooked to electrical, do we turn anything off so the batteries are not being used? It’s so strange to us that they are drained. We rarely use them and never dry camp and they are only a little over 2 years old.

[CHICKDOE]

are you sure they were actually getting a charge? just because you are plugged into shore power does not guarantee the batteries are getting a charge. if they were not they may have been completely over time.

the most accurate way to verify that they are getting a charge is to put a voltmeter across the battery terminals. take a reading with shore power disconnected. fully charged batteries should be around 12.6 volts. then connect to shore power and take a second reading. if the batteries are getting power from the converter the reading should be 13.6 volts or more.

if you are not getting power from the converter here are some things to check
converter circuit breaker on
converter reverse polarity fuses are not blown
battery disconnect switch is set to have batteries connected
12 volt resettable circuit breaker neat batteries is not tripped

hope this helps

[mattisonhome]

This was very helpful. Thank you!

[milkman55]

Depending on how well the batteries were maintained (probably not very well), it would not surprise me to find out you need to replace your house batteries. I have a 2017 and keep mine fully charged all the time and still think they could be replaced in the next year. The house batteries just seem to get a lot of abuse.

Certainly check to make sure you are getting a charge output, but if O’Reilly tested them and said they are bad, then they are most likely not able to accept a charge.

It should not be any issue keeping your Isata plugged into shore power while you sort out the battery issue.

[FFred]

When a batt ages or is abused enough to finally die and is plugged into a charger it , and its companion will be overcharged .

That is the rotten egg smell , frequently the case will be bulged out too.

Your charger is probably fine , it just is not built to handle a shorted or out of water batt.

Install new Deep Cycle batts and measure the charge voltage to be certain the charger is OK.