Seneca dry camp battery expectations

tpastorini · 09-08-2020, 03:41 PM

I have a 2014 Seneca 37 TS with 4 12v group 27 batteries. They are 18 month old Interstate Batteries from Costco. They are the 12 month warranty version. I have had the RV for about one month now, but this was my first dry camping trip. I was at 6,200 feet and it was 85 degrees inside the RV during the day. We set the Norco fridge at level 6 the first night and it seemed to run all night. I went to bed and the voltage was 12.6 volts. The ONLY thing that was on was the fridge. I woke up the next day and the batteries were at 12.1, so i ran the generator for about one hour and it came up to almost 12.7 Volts. Solar was week but seemed to keep the batteries up through out the day. I would run the generator before bed to get the batteries up to 12.6 to 12.7 volts. That night i set the fridge to level 3 and the next morning it was at 12.2 volts.

I am asking other Seneca owners what their experience is. My last RV had 2 6 V batteries and a smaller dometic fridge. If that is all i had on, i could let it go a week before I thought to look at the batteries. I am thinking that these are cheep Costco batteries, but I bought my last set of 6 V batteries from there and they lasted me 4 years.

Thanks in advance.

SloPoke · 09-08-2020, 05:16 PM

My first step... individually load test each of your house batteries - after a few hours have elapsed from charging. Once bad battery in the four could bring all down to a poor performance level.

Next - expect that more items are running on your Seneca. All of these need 12v power and are in use of/on while camping.

Water heater controls & fan - on always
Smoke/Propane Alarm - on always
Fridge - on always
Dash Radio - on always
Thermostats - on always
Water Pump - when you are using it
Control Panel - on always
Generator Controls - on always
Furnace - when you are using it
Bathroom Fan - when you are using it
TV Antenna & Booster - when you are using it
IF using - your Inverter. - when you are using it

Should they all draw down your batteries? you should have about 360AH of battery power if all are working, but I don't know what all you ran overnight - to say it was enough or not to discharge your batteries.

Are you absolutely sure that one of the outside storage bay lights was not left on by accident??? I know we have a couple of times - they can get turned on by stuff in the bay shifting around that hit the switch just right.

CAG · 09-08-2020, 06:32 PM

Have you tried switching the fridge to gas to see what the batteries look like? I wonder if there is another draw someplace. I used Costco batteries for years and had pretty good luck with life on them.

tpastorini · 09-08-2020, 06:36 PM

The fridge was in gas mode the entire time.

CAG · 09-08-2020, 06:37 PM

Yeah, that is strange then.

tpastorini · 09-08-2020, 06:51 PM

if this is the fan i heard running all night that and the fridge is 8.0 amps

Rustynuts · 09-08-2020, 06:54 PM

Do you have an inverter on?

Jagiven · 09-08-2020, 08:11 PM

Running on gas, and 4 batteries draining overnight is not right. As others said, maybe something else was running, but that would be a lot of amp draw. Such as the inverter.

I would have the batteries checked, and verify the fluid levels. If they are dry or ever where dry you could have damaged the cells.

Do you have a multimeter? If not get one, ideally with a built in clamp amp meter. You can do a lot of test with one.

General parasite power drains can discharge a single cheap group 24 battery in 2 to 3 weeks. Your Seneca might have more parasite draws, but not that much more.

Another thought, mostlikely behind your frig is a couple cooling fans, check their anp draw, and when they turn on and off.

tpastorini · 09-09-2020, 08:00 AM

No inverter. Just the fridge. Checked the cargo lights and all were off.

tpastorini · 09-09-2020, 06:02 PM

Thanks for the referral of a clamp amp meter. didn't know they existed. that will make diagnosis a breeze. thanks soooooo much .

Rustynuts · 09-09-2020, 06:12 PM

As SloPoke said, you probably have a lot more draws going on than you realize just having the coach in use.

tpastorini · 09-14-2020, 09:43 AM

So.... giving a report back to the group. I got a clamp AMP meter. Wow, how have I survived without that? With the master switch on and everything off. I was drawing about .5 amps. I pulled each DC fuse and the only thing that I found was the power antenna was using about half of that. So with that off I was drawing about .27 amps. I turned the fridge on and was drawing about 3 amps. I didn't leave it on longer to see if the fan started drawing more. Of course it would. So with a total of 3.5 amps drawing practically all of the time with an altitude of 6200 feet and the batterys being unknown as to how they were treated before I got the RV, I am putting the blame on the fridge and the batteries. If I get a chance to run the RV at a lower altitude and different temperature conditions, I will report back.

Thanks for everyones input.

RetiredOne · 09-14-2020, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpastorini

So with a total of 3.5 amps drawing practically all of the time with an altitude of 6200 feet and the batterys being unknown as to how they were treated before I got the RV, I am putting the blame on the fridge and the batteries.

My bet, it's a battery/batteries issue. At 3.5 amps, with 4 batteries (400 amp/hours), you should have no issues. However, if those batteries were allowed to totally discharge a few times in the past, that would affect their ability to hold charge. Age has nothing to do with it. Dropping to 12.1 overnight seems to point to that, as weak batteries.

Have the batteries load tested, that should give some additional answers.

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