Battery Leak

[Huntsvillian]

Posting this question for a friend.

So on the weekend, discovered a foul smell coming from the RV, almost egg like. It was traced to the batteries. The unit was plugged in to the home power all weekend when the battery leak was discovered.

Anyone aware of any issues leaving the RV hooked up and the batteries still connected?

I do it in my TT, and was under the impression it is okay in the RV also.

[lx22f/c]

Probably just needs a new battery. I keep mine plugged in about 9 months a year. I make a point to check the water level once a month and replace every 3 years. Remember to use distilled water when topping off.
Hope this helps.
Robert

[DMRGMC]

I had a problem when I overfilled both my batteries and had our first 5er plugged in for the summer. I removed the excess and continued to keep it plugged in and charging via the onboard system. One battery is 2005 and the other is 2008, both (Costco Kirkland Brand) continue to work fine. The older battery was used in our 26S. I realized the problem when I noticed the front right jack were rusting. I traced the problem to the battery compartment. Removed them, cleaned the shelves, repainted and all was ok.

[Huntsvillian]

I guess a few pieces of info I forgot to add, the batteries were both Kirkland brand and less than one year old/ My friend is thinking of putting a battery switch on to turn them off when hooked up but I am thinking that there is a bigger issue.

[RoyBraddy]

The bigger issue may be what kind of converter/charger your friend has... The standard single mode converter/charger normally puts out a continuous 13.6VDC output. This is right on the edge of boiling out the battery fluids over time. You must watch your batteries on a scheduled basis and keep the fluids topped off. Once the fluids boil off below the battery cores then self destruction occurs.

Having on-board smart-mode charging technology converter/charger will take care of your connected batteries and automatically maintain them. I still continue to check my batteries here out of habit but find them in good condition... My batteries are just now starting to be needed to be replaced after the original install in the 2008/2009 time period.

Not knowing more details on your friends setup I suspect he does not have smart-mode technology converter/charger installed.

My setup is using a PD9260C 60AMP Smart-Mode Converter/charger setup to maintain my four each GP24 85AH Interstate Batteries. I lost one battery in 2009 due to loss of battery fluids before changing to to the PD9260C converter and just lost another GP24 Battery last season. This was due to a shorted cell failure. Most of my camping was off the power grid for several days at a time and cycled the 50% to 90% charge state on the batteries recharging every day. Some of the trips were around 10-14 days long doing these 50% to 90% charge cycles. The deep cycle batteries are designed to do these type of charging cycles but they must have a 100% charge state at least once every two weeks to prevent degrading battery performance...

When camping off the power grid around the East side of the US it is generally pretty easy to re-charge your batteries everyday to bring them back up to the 90% charge state which takes around three hours of generator run time for us. The 100% charge state will take over 12 hours of generator run time which is not easy to do here on the East side of the US due to the generator run time restrictions at most camp grounds here. Got to play the games of living within the rules of engagement hehe...

This season has been a difficult year for us and we probably won't be able to do any camping until the fall and will have to have a new set of batteries (At least around 225AH capacity) to do our normal camping off the power grid lifestyle...

The batteries are the lifeline of our trailer setup so we watch them very close here...

Just my thoughts
Roy Ken

[cb1000rider]

Originally Posted by Huntsvillian

Anyone aware of any issues leaving the RV hooked up and the batteries still connected?

The answer is: it depends.

On my motorhome, the converter charges at 13.6v 24/7/365. That's hot enough to fry the battery over a number of months if the water level isn't closely monitored. You'll need a "smart charger" or controller add-in (on some Jaycos) to treat the battery a little better.

It's probably better to disconnect when stored and reconnect for charge every few weeks/month.

Regardless, stay after the water. It's not the same as a car battery.