Power Drain

[Montana_3523]

We've had our 03 305FKS for almost 2 yrs now. We seem to have some kind of power drain going on but cannot figure it out!!! We pulled it to my mom's house over the winter and the day after we unplugged from the power, my dad heard the gas detector buzzing which it always does as the battery dies. What in the world can be causing the battery to die so fast? Nothing is left on.
Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Bear with me because I probably didnt use the 'right terminology' but I do know there's a problem!!
Thanks
And I must say that EVERYONE here is soooooooo nice...I really like this place!

[Countryfolks]

The battery itself could be weak or going bad, bad cell. I know you said everything is off but some things I have a habit of forgetting. Mary is always finds things I've forgotton to turn off or check. Somthing on that seems off, like a radio with the volume down. Instant on tv. The electric brakes if you have one of those emergency stop switches and the pin is not seated. Heater left on. Hot water heater on. Water pump on. Something plugged into a wall socket that is still on or defective. If you know how to put a multimeter in series with your battery, you can turn off one circuit at a time, by removing a dc fuse, and see where the drain is.

Skip

[Montana_3523]

Thanks for the help. I will have hubby check everything tomorrow. I did go & read alot of some 'old' posts & I saw where one person said they replaced their battery & it still died so they plugged in their camper & the battery stopped dying. I just dont think we should have to do that. Our 72 International Motorhome didnt even kill a battery this fast.

[Countryfolks]

These new trailors have some things in them that are always on. The only way to turn them off is to disconnect the battery. Ours is always connected to shore power. Those that don't keep connected usually disconnect the battery. It should still be check periodically and kept charged up, especially in cold weather.

Skip

[c5racer]

Make sure the climate control switch in the freezer is turned off as it will drain the battery in about a day.

[dbrill]

Along with what was mentioned above the gas detector will drain the battery but it usually takes a lot longer than a day. Like others mentioned we installed a marine battery disconnect for storing our 5er for long periods of time.

[VanMan]

One thing not mentioned yet is that the battery should be a "deep cycle" battery (like a marine battery) which allows a deeper discharge and recharge. If that is not the original battery, check to be sure it's not just an auto battery. If it is the original, it may just be time to replace it depending on times recharged, how deep it's been discharged before, if all cells are still good, weather, etc. Here in Texas a couple of our hot summers with a cold winter in between may do a weak battery in !!

[sreigle]

The climate control in the fridge and the LP detector seem to be the most common culprits but it should take more like a few weeks rather than one day, assuming the battery is in good shape and full of water. TV booster is another. Is the fridge turned off? Its control panel runs off 12v.

[jpkelpe]

That wonderful rechargeable flashlight also takes power to keep it charged. I just unplug it and put it on the cup-board when we aren't useing the 5er. sat all winter and still worked the other day.

[Montana_2428]

Ken and Wendy

To really understand if you have a battery issue requires a DC volt meter. Radio Shack has some nice multi-meters in the $20 dollar range.

Your problem could be:
* - Converter
* - Battery
* - Current drain from coach

To trouble shoot:
Converter; Connect your volt meter to the battery. Plug in your coach to shore power. Watch the volt meter, you should see a steady increase in the battery voltage. If this is not the case, your converter is having an issue and you should resolve this before moving-on.

Battery; If the upper test is normal, continue to run on shore power for 12 hours minimum. Check the battery voltage. It should be somewhere in the high 13's or low 14 volts (13.8 to 14.5). Make sure you inspect the water level in the battery! Unplug from shore power. Remove the "negative" lead from the battery and check the voltage after about an hour. The battery should settle at about 12.8 volts and stay. Check again after 8 hours. If your results vary considerably from above, your battery is suspect.

Current drain; If the battery test was OK perform the following. Using an "amp" meter (multi-meters usually have an amp meter function); make sure the meter is on the "highest" amp scale, usually 10-20. Put the red (positive) lead on the "negative" wire that you removed from the battery. Touch the black (negative) lead to the batteries negative terminal. You should see a small amount of current being pulled from the devices that other have mentioned in this thread (detectors). The current drain should be below 1 amp.
If this isn't the case, you do have a current drain from within the coach causing your issue.

Hope this helps to isolate what areas you need to address.

Don and Michele

[Montana_3523]

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone that helped us w/this problem. We went on our first trip this weekend to the race in Darlington. We ended up buying a new battery because the one that came w/the camper was junk. I decided to jump online to catch up on the message board & re-read some of the replies to my problem.....guess what!!!! Our climate control was ON!!! I took hubby outside to show him. He said, "Wow, where you get that from?" I told him that all the nice people on montanaowners.com helped me!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

[DHenry]

Isn't it great that you can ask a question and get the answers quickly? This club is great.