Batteries draining (1 Viewer)

Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
Funster No
27,380
MH
swift kontiki
Exp
I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
hi
We have a swift kontiki 659 with a Sargent ec400 charger.
We are in Gibraltar and the last 2 nights our battery has dropped below 10V,
The Sargent unit is showing a draw on the leisure battery of .8 the fridge is on which uses approximately .2amps
We've removed the fuse for 12V sockets then it drops to .6
With the fridge off it drops to .3 amps, that's with every thing off.
Should the van be drawing power with everything off, or should there be no drain on the batteries at all
Cheers

Andrew
 

RowleyBirkinQC

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Sep 20, 2014
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Do you have a button for turning off the power to a reversing camera? We were oblivious to ours until we noticed batteries draining despite no obvious 12v use, but this was over a more extended period on an AT Tracker with Sargent.

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Don Quixote

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Jul 29, 2012
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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Andrew, firstly if your battery is reading 10Volts then your in trouble as once you start draining the battery past 12.2 your damaging it and now you will need to replace it as I doubt it will hold a charge now.
Unless you can switch off Sargent unit control panel completely it will draw power. Most control units draw .6/.9 amps all the time as it lights up display and water pump up to 7amps and the fridge is more like .6amps and fires up the gas as and when needed. The only way to test battery is disconnect everything from battery then put volt meter across +/- and check voltage. Do you have solar?
To be honest I think it's time to get new battery
 
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TheDentons
Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
Funster No
27,380
MH
swift kontiki
Exp
I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
Yes we have solar 220 amp on roof we are fine in the day they are going down overnight I think they are about 4 years old we have two 110ah units I think they are not holding charge surprised they went down so quickly
 

Don Quixote

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Jul 29, 2012
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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Yes we have solar 220 amp on roof we are fine in the day they are going down overnight I think they are about 4 years old we have two 110ah units I think they are not holding charge surprised they went down so quickly

With that amount of solar I'm sorry to inform you, but your batteries are dead and need replaced. Why I say that is because the solar panels will "bluff" you into to thinking the batteries are fine as it's wacking the amps in, but under load your batteries are not holding charge.
I have been "off grid" now for 29 days only using 200watts of solar and take out on average 10/15 amps each night from 17:00hrs to 23:30hrs and when I secure for the night batteries are still reading 12.7...........

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pappajohn

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Aug 26, 2007
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With 220ah of battery reserve and a constant draw of just under one amp you should last around 120 hours without any means of charging.

Your batteries are now nothing more than water filled plastic boxes.
 
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TheDentons
Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
Funster No
27,380
MH
swift kontiki
Exp
I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
Same as us but by the morning ours are flat
Now comes the question what to replace them with acid/gel/or dry cell
I will increase the ah if possible
 

Don Quixote

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Jul 29, 2012
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VW T6 Campervan
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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Same as us but by the morning ours are flat
Now comes the question what to replace them with acid/gel/or dry cell
I will increase the ah if possible

If you have the money GEL - if you want to save money WET - if you want middle of the road SEALED.

Before you change batteries check that your charging system can be set/changed to GEL/SEALED/WET.

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TheDentons
Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
Funster No
27,380
MH
swift kontiki
Exp
I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
Thanks for your advice guys most appreciated.
Any info on Trojan batteries as we will be looking to get the best we could buy
Cheers
 

Don Quixote

Free Member
Jul 29, 2012
2,966
5,257
Lost in La Mancha, Spain
Funster No
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VW T6 Campervan
Exp
Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Thanks for your advice guys most appreciated.
Any info on Trojan batteries as we will be looking to get the best we could buy
Cheers
There are a few on here that use Trojan batteries, but as I have no knowledge of these other than they are well outside what I want someone else on here will advise.
 

tonka

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Jul 2, 2008
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Ref battery drain with nothing on YES....
I questioned with AT some time ago and it's "normal".
On the Facebook Autotrail group there have been several questions about it after people discover they have a flat battery after being left in storage..
 
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TheDentons
Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
Funster No
27,380
MH
swift kontiki
Exp
I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
Anyone purchased batteries in Andorra?
 

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