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Subject:Re: Parasitic drain
From:Mark McCulley
Date:Thu, 21 Apr 2022 12:13:37 -0700

13mA seem minuscule, not enough to cause battery depletion even over the course of 30 days. Something else must be the culprit.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 21, 2022, at 11:44 AM, Tom C <thomas.casal@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Poking around rv websites it appears that the mother board in some model
> electric fridges will consume power when off. Who knew there were all these
> little parasites.
> 
>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 10:23 AM Tom C <thomas.casal@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks Dennis… battery load test looks pretty complicated. I’ll see if I
>> can figure out how to do it.
>> 
>> It’s a brand new interstate 95ah agm from Costco. I’m kinda thinking I
>> shoulda got the 160ah diehard from advanceAuto now. From what I’m reading
>> fully charged is between 12.7 and 13. 12.2 to 12.5 start thinking about
>> charging and 11.9 is shut it down.
>> 
>> Now this has gone on for a couple years and numerous batteries that
>> something was drawing my batteries down faster than 5% a month. I had
>> everything unplugged except the darn tf because it was turned off, I
>> figured it wasn’t drawing anything and my battery was still draining faster
>> than it should. Finally did the amp test at the battery and noticed the
>> drop In draw when I pulled the fuse for the tf and was like duh. It may be
>> normal for a truck fridge to have a slight draw when it’s off. I emailed tf
>> to see if it’s normal. I may just add a switch for the fridge if it’s gonna
>> have a tiny lid on the battery. Thanks again Dennis. Tom
>> 
>> I’m just pretty sure I cleaned up all the burnt wires and I don’t have a
>> bad wire connected to the house battery anymore, so I can confidently
>> install the dash and hit the road again. Hopefully all the wires I tucked
>> up in there fit, fingers crossed I put my 5 channel amp up under the dash
>> above the glove. Put the battery in the water tank area. I never used it
>> anyway. Going for maximum interior storage.
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 8:35 AM Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I would start with a load/capacity test of the battery. A/H readings that
>>> small can even be induced by meter error or noise. Also, when any lead acid
>>> type battery comes off charge the surface charge-peak voltage will always
>>> drop due to internal discharge and the chemical activity coming to rest and
>>> cooling down.
>>> 
>>> Dennis
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> On Behalf Of Tom C
>>> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 8:05 AM
>>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>> Subject: Parasitic drain
>>> 
>>> What’s up fellas, sorry to bother you all In the am. I have the dash out
>>> rewiring everything and trying to track down a parasitic drain on the house
>>> battery and I found out my truck fridge is drawing like .017 when it’s
>>> turned off, really .013 because I think the battery constant is drawing
>>> .004. So when I have my mppt plugged in and the truck fridge I’m at about
>>> .03 amp draw which is eating up almost a volt in 24hours. Is it normal for
>>> the truck fridge to draw like that when powered off or do I have a short
>>> somewhere in the fridge? Thanks for any and all assistance. Peace tom
>>> 
>>