Improving RV Battery Charge and Extending Battery Life
Dave SolbergDespite what the forums might say about standard RV battery life being only two to three years, your on-board, deep cycle batteries should have the capability to last you between five and seven years. That is, if you take proper care of your battery and complete regular maintenance to combat invasive sulfation. There are a number of simple ways to extend the lifespan of your battery and get the most out of an RV battery charge for dry camping, and in this lesson we teach you a few expert tips for maintaining the deep cycle house batteries on your rig.
How to improve RV battery charge and maximize each battery
When it comes to things that shorten the lifespan of an RV battery, sulfurization is by far the biggest culprit. Sulfur builds up on a battery for multiple reasons, most notably improper charge and poor storage. By not maintaining at least minimal RV battery charge when the unit is in storage, sulfur attacks the lead plates of the battery and takes valuable years off its life. To help you get every bit of juice out of each battery, Dave Solberg teaches you some quick advice for increasing RV battery charge capacity and extending your battery’s life.
First, Dave explains why you should run routine maintenance on RV batteries once per month. If you have a battery system with a larger inverter, you can complete the multi-stage charge yourself, using high impact charges to break up sulfur and save crucial RV battery charge. If you’re like most RVers, you’ll probably need to take your rig to a repair center, where technicians will desulfurize and condition the battery for you.
Or, if you don’t have an inverter and you’d like to take care of your battery on your own, Dave introduces an inexpensive tool you can utilize to prolong an RV battery charge and extend the life of your battery by 200 cycles. Whichever route you choose to take, be sure to maintain your RV battery, you and your wallet will be glad you did!
The batteries in your RV commonly last about two to three years. They should last five to seven years. But the problem is, is we get sulfation, usually due to improper charging and storage. Battery manufacturers, especially the lead-acid batteries, recommend that once a month, you take the batteries and you run them through a multi-stage charge. What this does is the first stage is going to do a high-impact charge.
It's gonna break up that sulfur that forms on those lead plates, so the bags inside, and it helps condition that. Then it's gonna go into an equalizing and a float stage. Most of us don't have the ability to do that. Now, if you have the larger vehicles with the inverters, the larger 2000 or higher inverters, they will do that conditioning in that battery. For the rest of us, we're gonna have to either take them to an RV dealership or to a parts facility that can charge those batteries.
And that usually means taking them out once a month. That doesn't always happen, therefore, we see those batteries start to sulfate and lose their life. Now, something that you can do to help prevent that is to first of all, make sure you properly store your batteries. Get 'em up to condition. Don't let 'em freeze.
Put some type of a charge on 'em when you're not using it for more than 30 days at a time. Another product you can use is what's called BatteryMINDer. And this is something you would put on board in conjunction with your charging system. And it will do a high-impact waves into that battery and break up that sulfur. They're claiming that they'll extend the life of your battery by two to three years, or what they say is 200 cycles.
That's an awfully long time. Now something else you can do, you can upgrade to the absorbed glass mat or AGM batteries here. We don't have to worry about the fill level. There's very little maintenance in here. You still can use the BatteryMINDer on this, and it will help condition that battery and keep it topped off at maximum.
So, by taking a little bit of time to properly charge these batteries, you'll be able to extend the life of the batteries, but you'll also be able to have more battery capacity when you're dry camping.
What type of solar charger would you recommend to keep my batteries charged over the winter months? I took them out last year and kept a trickle charger on them, but I would prefer not to have to take them out of my 5th wheel. Is using a solar charger a better method than keeping the unit plugged in during the winter months? I have the battery disconnect on off as well.
I am interested in using the Solar Battery Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator - 12 Volts, 15 Watt Panel, Model# SCC-015 to maintain my two 6 volt batteries connected in series on my camping trailer. I assume if I leave them connected in series, I should get the 12 Volt charger? Is it better to disconnect them and get the 6 volt charger?
If I have a battery charger with 200 amp, 40 amp, 10 amp and 2 amp settings I should be able to condition the battery myself. Do you have any recommendations as to the time for each setting? The 200 amp setting will boil the fluid in a matter of minutes and should break up the sulfurization. I just don't know how long I should keep the battery at each charge level.
Hi we live up North and head South for Feb & March, we were recently introduced to a Coleman 10 watt, 12 volt crystalline solar panel to hook up to our batteries giving them a constant charge while in storage. This was suggested and then we were told we wold not have to remove them from the coach over the Winter months. What are your thoughts?
In your battery video you speak of a larger or 2000 and higher will act a maintainer... are you talking about a specific model or do yo mean the year 2000, I have a 2015 Forest River, does it maintain the battery.
I use a Ctek 25000 multi step charger, up to 25 amp. It has multiple automated modes including a conditioning mode to desulfate. I have two group 24s to I charge then condition. Charging both usually take just few hours, conditioning another hour. I don't have access to continuous power or I would leave it connected while in storage. This works well for me hopefully the batteries are happy to.
What is the model name in this video for the battery charger you show hooked up to rv?
I bought a 1995 Tioga Arrow on a ford. As far as I know the battery is original? I have no idea how to do anything to it. It charges as far as I can tell.
I use a battery Desulfater - it doesn't charge - it simply suspends the sulfur - extending battery life - it does draw small amount of energy from the battery to operate - really works well - my RV batteries ( 6 - 6 volt ) are 5 years old and work as well as when they were new - my golf cart batteries are 7 years old and still hold a charge as good as new - cost for this device was $ 100 - well worth it