Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

Art-n-Marge · 07-11-2009, 04:24 PM

Steve on your statement, "Your refrigerator will not run on electric if you disconnect the battery", did you mean "Your refrigerator will not run on 12v if you disconnect the battery"?

et2 your refrigerator runs on 12v if you are using propane, but 110v if you use A/C (alternating current).

I still believe the converter when plugged into shore power provides both 110v AND 12 volts. The battery will provide 12 volts when the converter is not running. I think this is why many of us don't know our battery is a problem until we remove the shore power and try to use the battery by itself and it doesn't work.

There are many ways to keep a battery charged but more importantly I have found that it is harder to protect the battery from getting overcharged and "burned out" because of sulfation, too low of water and stuff like that.

Here's what I do, but others will have things different or even better. I connect my RV to a 15 amp 110v plug at the house via the necessary adapters to get from the RV 50 AMP to a 110v 15 amp outlet. I then disconnect my batteries using a blade disconnect I got at CW. I then connect a Battery minder recharger/conditioner to keep both my batteries charged and conditioned. I also add the water in the batteries periodically because they do get low.

With the battery disconnected and shore power plugged in, I can use the 110v televisions, the microwave, and the refrigerator. I do not use the air conditioner because I don't trust my shore power to provide enough amperage. I also use the refrigerator in 12v/propane mode and can operate all the 12V lights. I did mention the batteries are disconnected through all this. If I disconnect the shore power and the battery is still disconnected, the propane alarm will squeal because it has lost power.

In summary, keep the shore power connected, to keep your refrigerator running, but if you do NOT disconnect your battery, you should still check to make sure the batteries have water. And if you disconnect the batteries so they don't overcharge (which causes the water to evaporate real fast), then you run the risk of having low batteries. In this case, you can install a solar recharger/conditioner to keep your batteries at their freshest. In any case the water needs to be checked.

07-11-2009, 04:24 PM	#3
Art-n-Marge Montana Master Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Murrieta Posts: 5,816 M.O.C. #9257	Steve on your statement, "Your refrigerator will not run on electric if you disconnect the battery", did you mean "Your refrigerator will not run on 12v if you disconnect the battery"? et2 your refrigerator runs on 12v if you are using propane, but 110v if you use A/C (alternating current). I still believe the converter when plugged into shore power provides both 110v AND 12 volts. The battery will provide 12 volts when the converter is not running. I think this is why many of us don't know our battery is a problem until we remove the shore power and try to use the battery by itself and it doesn't work. There are many ways to keep a battery charged but more importantly I have found that it is harder to protect the battery from getting overcharged and "burned out" because of sulfation, too low of water and stuff like that. Here's what I do, but others will have things different or even better. I connect my RV to a 15 amp 110v plug at the house via the necessary adapters to get from the RV 50 AMP to a 110v 15 amp outlet. I then disconnect my batteries using a blade disconnect I got at CW. I then connect a Battery minder recharger/conditioner to keep both my batteries charged and conditioned. I also add the water in the batteries periodically because they do get low. With the battery disconnected and shore power plugged in, I can use the 110v televisions, the microwave, and the refrigerator. I do not use the air conditioner because I don't trust my shore power to provide enough amperage. I also use the refrigerator in 12v/propane mode and can operate all the 12V lights. I did mention the batteries are disconnected through all this. If I disconnect the shore power and the battery is still disconnected, the propane alarm will squeal because it has lost power. In summary, keep the shore power connected, to keep your refrigerator running, but if you do NOT disconnect your battery, you should still check to make sure the batteries have water. And if you disconnect the batteries so they don't overcharge (which causes the water to evaporate real fast), then you run the risk of having low batteries. In this case, you can install a solar recharger/conditioner to keep your batteries at their freshest. In any case the water needs to be checked.