New Reyo, coach batteries run low overnight

[b2md@cox.net]

I just bought a new Itasca Reyo, 2010. I'm new to motorhomes. Running refrig (on LP), water pump and few lights now and then. I'm needing to run my gen set (3600) 3 to 4 hours a day to keep up and batteries are very low in A.M.

Is this normal?

[wolfe10]

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

How fast the batteries discharge is based on several factors:

1. Size of the battery bank (expressed in AMP-HRS).

2. Condition of the batteries. If regular wet cell, first thing here is to verify that they do not need water.

3. Load you put on the batteries-- again expressed in amp-hrs.

If you have, say a 220 amp hr battery (or batteries totaling 220 amp hrs), if they are fully charged and in good condition, you could safely discharge them with 110 amp-hrs worth of load (you do not want to discharge them below 50% charge for longest battery life). If they are discharged under a heavy load (like an inverter) they can produce LESS amp-hrs than if the discharge is at a lower rate. At that point, they should be recharged. If running the generator to recharge them, it is most efficient to discharge to 50%, recharge to about 85%, discharge to 50%, etc. Once a week or so, they do need to be fully charged.

The generator run time is based on how many amp-hrs need to be returned to the battery and the charge rate of your converter, charger or inverter/charger. Some, particularly inverter/chargers are programmable for a higher/lower charge rate

The more information you can give us on what batteries and charging device you have, the better we can address your questions.

Brett

[tbutler]

Welcome to the world of RV'ing!

Those big heavy house batteries look like they ought to last for days, just think of the tiny battery in your cell phone. It just isn't so. There are lots of things in your coach using electricity that you don't know about.

There are "parasitic loads" on the battery. Those include things like the carbon monoxide detector, smoke detectors, the control circuits in the refrigerator. Even when running on gas, the electricity to operate the controls of a gas appliance comes from the battery. This is also true with the hot water heater, furnace and an inverter. Also, TV's, satellite receivers, DVD players, computer, etc. often have a standby mode (draws power even with the appliance is turned off). It may only use a few tenths of an amp of electricity but it is a continuous load on the batteries. When you start to add up all these little loads, they can become significant. Some of these you can control by unplugging the device (may not be convenient). Others like the circuitry to operate the refrigerator you just have to live with.

So when you are figuring the load on your batteries, do a little digging through the manuals for the motor home and the devices/appliances you have to see what is really drawing power and how much each device is using. Learning about all the things using electricity will help you understand your motor home better and you might find ways to trim your usage so the batteries will keep you going longer!