Battery Charge

[Rick and Mindy]

OK, so here's the deal. I put my RW in storage because we are not full timers yet and of course after a couple of weeks went to check the status of the battery which I had turned off and the RW not plugged in. It was only at 70% (12.4 v) so I plugged the RW in to 110 with my adapter and then turned the battery on. Left it for 2 weeks and then checked the battery again. The battery was at 12.85V which should be a full charge. I checked it with the RW unplugged and the battery turned off. Turned the battery on and still at 12.85V. Wanted to see what kind of charge it was receiving so I plugged the RW in to the 110 outlet and turned the battery on and it was at 13.8V. Went 1 step further and turned the battery off but left the RW plugged in and the battery checked at 13.4V. It looks to me like even with the battery off but plugged in it is still receiving a charge. Doe this make sense? I would rather keep the RW plugged in but the battery off while charging so the Propane leak detector and whatever else is off. Doesn't make sense to try and charge your battery while the coach is also using the battery. Anyone else experiment to see what theirs does?

[mhs4771]

Unless you put a disconnect directly on the battery, the RW will always be drawing some power. The converter used is a multi-stage charger/converter. If the battery/batteries are down enough it will kick into bulk charge putting out 14 plus volts, then will drop to approx. 13.6 and after the battery/batteries are back to full charge will drop to Maintenance mode providing a trickle charge.
Only time ours isn't plugged in is when towing, then it's getting a small charge from the TV.

[TNTBaker]

For what it's worth, leave those detectors on. One summer day, I was out working in the yard and I heard an annoying beeping sound. I followed it and it was coming from the camper. The propane was indeed leaking from the range top. Now, probably I would have just had empty propane tanks... but it was summer and very hot inside the camper. Our burn barrel was only a few yards from that location... you never know. It could have went off like a bomb had my husband unwittingly used the burn barrel at the wrong time.

[atom ant]

Rick,
I was under the impression that the batteries were separated from the charger when the master switch was off. You may have been seeing the residual charge, or I may be incorrect in my thinking.

[Rick and Mindy]

Originally Posted by atom ant

Rick,
I was under the impression that the batteries were separated from the charger when the master switch was off. You may have been seeing the residual charge, or I may be incorrect in my thinking.

Now you recognize my dilemma! I thought the same thing but if you check the battery with the battery off and unplugged you get the same reading as when the battery is on and unplugged. That makes sense to me because I am actually reading only the battery without the converter on. But why would you then get a higher reading when the RW is plugged in but the battery is off? I can only assume that even when the battery is turned off but the RW is plugged in that the battery is getting some help from the converter which would be a charge.

[atom ant]

Now I'm really going to have to play with it a little over Mothers Day when I get some time with it. It would be good to know if the truck charge gets to the batteries with the switch off too.

[almcc]

On our RW I left the batt switch off and the trailer plugged in for a month or two and the batts were flat from the draws that bypass the batt switch, so I wasn't getting any charging from the 110 side. I've since changed the wiring to eliminate the phantom draws when the batts are disconnected. As Atom says, you may be seeing a residual charge (or the wiring on your unit is different).

[Rick and Mindy]

I'm going to continue my experiment and unplug the RW, turn off the battery and let the battery go down some then I am going to plug the RW into 110V, keep the battery turned off and see if the battery gets charged.

[piper guy]

I'm the same as ALMCC. I red-did the battery wiring so that when the batteries are off, then everything is off. I also added a second switch for battery 2 so that I could isolate each battery. That way if battery 1 is on and something draws it flat, I still have the second one to bring on line. When I install the generator later this Eason, it will have its own battery on a separate switch so that even if both house batteries are down I can still start generator and then have converter to charge the house batteries.