If you’re driving down the road and want to run it to, say, charge batteries or run a crockpot to cook dinner as you drive, no problem. That will help extend the life of RV batteries You can do all those electrical formulas to come up with an answer but just trust me, turn it off unless you need it. How fast depends on how big the inverter is. The inverter all by itself, without any appliances operating, will eventually drain your RV batteries all by themselves. So, when you are boondocking and powering all the stuff inside your RV with those coach batteries, turn it off when you don’t need it. So then, how do we extend the life if RV batteries?ĭon’t use your Inverter all the time – Just having the inverter on is a draw of your RV batteries. Let me just say that the higher the wattage required to run an appliance, the faster that appliance will drain your RV batteries.
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We want to talk about how to extend the life of RV batteries. I’m not going to get into all the numbers and formulas on how you use wattage and current (voltage) to calculate how many amps are required from the RV batteries. That 1,500-watt inverter may, though if anything else – even something minor like maybe a cell phone charger – is also plugged into a 110-volt outlet, you’re going to blow fuses or trip a circuit breaker. Your 1,000-watt inverter won’t handle it. One example (again, there’s a chart below): Most RV microwaves draw 1,500 watts of power. Think of the inverter as taking the power from your RV batteries, dong it’s conversion of DC to AC magic, and making it available for the accessories you want to run. That’s a bit better but still marginal in our book (you’ll see why when you scan the chart we include below).Ī 2,000-watt inverter, in our mind, is workable. Frankly, that is so miserly to be almost useless. Many older or cheaper RVs have 1,000-watt inverters. Inverters come in different sizes, or more accurately power capacities. It changes DC power that comes from the battery to AC and turns 12 volts into the 110 volts RV appliances like, such as the microwave, the coffee maker, and the hairdryer. We’re just going to talk about how to save power or extend the life of your RV batteries.ĬLICK HERE to learn about the lithium batteries we use But we need to also mention the RV Inverter Just know there are two kinds of batteries – chassis and house.Īnd I don’t care what kind of RV batteries you use (though I do recommend you at least consider lithium because it will let you stay out there longer). To explain messes up my plan to be simple. We’re interested in the coach batteries, also called the house batteries. Sometimes TVs, too.īut except for a tip a little later, we’re not so much interested in them. The USB power receptacles in the RV run off them. The engine batteries are called the chassis batteries. When we talk RV batteries, we need to distinguish between the batteries that power the engine of your motorhome (if that’s the kind of RV you have) and those batteries just for the RV appliances. Your RV should have at least two of them if you plan to do a lot of boondocking. Figure about $1,000 bucks for a 100 amp battery. Lithium RV batteries last longer, charge faster, discharge more (that’s good, meaning you get more use) and they weigh about half as much as AGMs. AGMs are better and used to be the standard. In terms of efficiency, wet cells are the worse. There are wet cells, AGM and lithium batteries found in RVs today. The gearheads and armchair electricians are not going to like this.īut my intent is just to help you extend the life of RV batteries and thus let you have the power you need when running on them. Talking about watts, amperage, voltage and things like sine waves, inverters and parasitic drain is just too geeky for most people. But in truth, all you care about is turning on your hairdryer, coffee maker, or toaster without thinking about where the power comes from. RV batteries are one of those things that you really should know about. 1.6 Curious about the gear, gadgets, accessories, and RV products Mike & Jennifer use and recommend?.
1.5 Two final tips to extend the life of RV batteries.1.4 Extend the life of RV batteries: Check out the chart.1.3 So then, how do we extend the life if RV batteries?.1.2 But we need to also mention the RV Inverter.1 Had it with losing power while boondocking? Try these tips to extend the life of RV batteries.