5 Reasons your RV Battery Dies Fast
Traveling and camping in an RV is undeniably thrilling and a rustic experience. However, nothing can damper RVing more than a battery that keeps draining fast. And unfortunately, there’re so many reasons why your RV battery might be acting up.
The worst part about an RV battery losing charge continually is that it’s easy to permanently and quickly kill your battery. But on the brighter side, there’s no reason to give up because most RV battery issues are fixable.
I’ll show you how. In the guide below, I’ll share the details of some common causes of battery drain and provide quick fixes and solutions to avoid them.
Read on!
RV Battery is a Dud
If you’re experiencing erratic RV battery performance, chances are your battery cells are dead. You’ll need a replacement. But not so fast.
You’ll first need to determine whether your RV battery is dead through voltage or load testing. I’d recommend load testing since it’s much easier. If you opt for load testing, you’ll need a digital voltmeter set to DC voltage.
Next, connect the voltmeter to your RV’s battery terminals and start your RV. Now, if your battery isn’t dead and in perfect condition, it should maintain a load of 9.5V to 10.5V for 30 seconds. Or rather, it should put out a minimum voltage of 10V+ when you start your RV.
If it holds the voltage for only a few seconds and then drops quickly, it signifies a bad cell.
5 Reasons your RV Battery Dies Fast (With Fixes)
Now comes the tougher part; determining why your RV battery drains fast or dies. After all, you could replace the spoilt battery and still be in the same position in a matter of days.
Here’re some common reasons your RV battery drains quickly and my suggested fixes.
1) Parasitic Loads
A major cause of battery drain in most RVs is power drain. Many RVers screw themselves by leaving stuff on. Leaving one or a few high-draw items such as water heaters, refrigerators or radios is likely to drain the battery quickly.
However, even with all appliances turned off, you’ll still have small “phantom drains” on the battery.
Phantom loads, also known as vampire electrical drains, are electrical connections to your batteries, continually drawing power in small bits.
Some examples of phantom loads include LP detectors, clocks, LED lights in switches, and refer circuit boards. If your RV isn’t connected to shore power or solar power in storage to charge the battery, these small drains, however small, may discharge the battery (it shouldn’t be overnight, though).
Now, if you’re going to be physically away from your RV for a long period, I’d recommend using a battery disconnect or physically removing the battery. A battery disconnect is a switch that shuts off the power from your battery to any other RV component. It provides a simple and convenient way to disconnect the primary circuit from your power system.
One caveat with installing an RV battery disconnect is none of your RV devices will operate, including propane detectors, which can be dangerous.
2) Sulphation
The other major cause for RV battery discharge is sulphation, which is usually caused by undercharging. When your RV battery is constantly undercharged, it builds lead sulfate crystals on the battery plates. The process is known as sulphation.
It’s the damaging effect on RV batteries from chronic undercharging. Usually, it’s a one-way process that consumes the battery from the inside, more or less, and degrades its ability to hold a charge for longer and deliver current. The two common types of sulphation are permanent and reversible.
Your RV battery is good as dead with permanent sulphation, but the reversible sulphation is fixable if detected early.
Usually, reversible sulphation is addressed through Equalization. It’s simply over-charging the battery slowly over several hours with higher voltage to burn and break up the sulfates.
Equalization usually decomposes the sulfate crystals into sulfuric acid. While sulfation is inevitable, especially in lead batteries, you can slow it. Start by ensuring your battery charge is always beyond 50% used, and ideally, you want it to have 75% or higher at all times.
Always ensure the battery charge volt doesn’t drop below 12.4V in storage. In fact, the ideal state for the lead batteries should be 100% with the floating charge to maintain the level.
3) Overcharging
Overcharging an RV battery is as problematic as undercharging it. It destroys the battery’s performance and charge retention just as readily as completely discharging it. There’re several reasons why your RV battery may overcharge, but the most common reason is a malfunctioning of the converter.
Leaving the charger connected to the battery for extended periods can also lead to overcharging your RV batteries. Fortunately, it’s easy to tell if your RV batteries are overcharging using a digital multimeter. Simply connect your multimeter to the battery terminals when your RV is in idle mode.
The ideal total voltage for a fully-charged battery is 12.6V and may rise to 14V when running your RV appliances.
But if your RV registers more volts than these, it signifies an overcharging issue, which may lead to quick battery drain and other issues. Now, if you suspect your RV battery is overcharging, consider a low amp setting to apply a trickle charge.
But the best solution to overcharging is installing a smart converter or three-stage converter. These converters adjust the charging patterns, so your battery doesn’t get damaged during charging.
4) Maintenance
Another cause for battery drainage in RVs is a lack of maintenance. No batteries are maintenance-free, and you need to learn how to take care of them. An important part of RV battery maintenance is checking on the electrolyte level.
Remember, once the battery plates dry out, they can’t be reactivated, and the battery’s capacity is reduced. If the electrolyte level is low, replenish it with DISTILLED WATER. Not regular water or any other substitute!
Using the right replenishment is as important as adding to the right level. The proper level should just be below the split ring. Replenishing the electrolyte may also be a good time to examine the wiring system.
If it’s rusted, brush it with a toothbrush and coat the terminals with battery grease. If your RV battery also has green crude on the terminals and plates, give them a proper clean and treat them with an anti-oxidizer. If it’s worn out completely, consider a replacement.
The best way to keep yourself at the top of your battery maintenance game is to set a calendar alarm to remind you to regularly check the battery water levels.
5) Self-discharging (Old Age and Type of Battery)
As with any other RV component, batteries will wear out over time, and when they grow old, their performance starts to degrade naturally and self-discharge. There’s nothing you can do about this apart from a replacement. The other factor is the battery itself.
More about the quality of the battery.
See, there’re batteries, and there’re batteries. Some batteries are made to “take a lickin and keep tickin,” while others do not so much. The latter never get back when discharged or undercharged and tends to drain quickly.
The good old gold cart batteries can often take the occasional “oops” deep discharge and overcharges, but the deep/marine cycles that come in 12V configurations aren’t good, in my experience. The marine/deep cycle batteries don’t hold up well under heavy discharge, and severe discharge is likely to ruin them and lose their capacity.
I’d recommend a Trojan or Lifeline AGM deep-cycle RV battery. They’re a bit more expensive but quite pricey.
How to Properly Charge RV Batteries
The battery provides all the electricity used in an RV. In our daily driving and traveling, we continue consuming the stored energy in the batteries. Eventually, the batteries dry up if not charged. How to avoid this situation is to know how to charge the battery properly.
RV battery charging methods are generally classified into four:
· Solar charging
· Shore charging
· Generator charging
· Alternator/ driving generator charging
Alternator Charging
Most RVs have a battery separator or solid-state isolator, which routes power from the engine alternator to the battery. So, whenever your RV engine runs, it turns the alternator, which provides the current and voltage to your battery.
Shore Power
RVs have an electrical box combining the AC and DC power needs into a converter. The converter has the shore power extension cord and AC circuit breakers. The cord allows you to connect a stationary RV battery to an external power source.
Generator
If you’re boondocking away from the comforts of shore power of RV parks, it’s common to have a generator to supply you with battery power. Most RVs have generators mounted below the chassis, but you could still use an external generator.
Solar Panels
Solar panels are dead easy to use and a convenient source of energy for your RV battery. You can keep your RV powered all year round with solar panels, provided there’s sufficient sunlight.
What’s the Life Cycle of RV Batteries?
Generally, a properly-maintained deep-cycle battery should serve you for six years and above. However, the life of your RV battery is ultimately determined by how you manage the charging and discharging and the basic care and maintenance.
For example, it’s important to ensure your battery never runs out completely and that you never overcharge them.
The other determinant of your battery life is the surrounding conditions, especially the temperatures. Most lead acid batteries are happy in an environment between F (10 – 25 deg C). Their life expectancy starts deteriorating outside this range.
FAQs
Q: Is it possible to overcharge my RV battery?
A: It’s possible to overcharge your RV battery, especially if the converter malfunctions. Overcharging is dangerous and can result in the degradation of the battery’s performance.
Q: Can discharging my RV battery too far ruin it?
A: Yes, continual discharging of the RV battery is equally damaging as overcharging it. For example, most deep-cycle marine batteries will reduce their lifespan considerably when drained below 50%.
Q: How do I tell the charge in my RV batteries?
A: A battery monitor device, such as a multimeter or voltmeter, will let you know the amount of charge in your RV.
Plus, high-end battery models alert you when the charge level drops below 50%.
Wrap Up
Overall, this is everything you need to know about battery draining n your RV and the quick fixes.
Having too many appliances running ad old age might be an obvious culprit for battery drain and death, but other elements can still lead to the death of your RV batteries.
Of course, we’d also be interested to hear about your experiences with bad RV batteries and how you fixed them in the comment section below.
