RAPID battery discharge... possible causes, procedure?

dno

I'm camping in a 2019 320S in the northern California redwoods, got here last night. Tried in vain to keep the propane on the fridge lit in the green zone, gave up and turned everything on the fridge to OFF. Ran the Alde for a couple hours to warm things up with no problem, listened to music from the Jensen, ran a couple of lights. Checked the new Battleborn LiPro level before bedtime and it showed three dots instead of four, a bit unusual, but I thought, well maybe it's because it's cold. This morning woke up to the water pump going off. Got up, shut that off, and tried to run the Alde again, which showed a low battery error. Sure enough, healthy new battery had drained to nearly nothing overnight. Gradually all the little green lights went out and the radio face went blank. I've now disconnected the battery and hoping to get a little charge from solar today, but what could be causing such a rapid drain, and what's the best way to trouble shoot this in the field? Thanks!

Sharon_is_SAM

Are you sure the frig 12v was completely off?  Do you have an inverter?  How do you monitor your battery?

Marceline

Same questions as @Sharon_is_SAM. Plus, did you run your fridge on 12v while in transit? Also, what is the capacity of your battery in aH?

dno

It's the standard Victron unit. I did run my fridge on DC while driving that day but both the 4 red lights in the t@b and the Victron app said I had plenty of charge (3 red lights, I forget the voltage) when I went to bed. Disconnected from the TV on arrival and was able to run the Alde for heat just fine. Had tried to fire up the fridge on propane on arrival (finicky like many people's) but when I couldn't turned all settings to OFF. Nothing was on but the pump, which started up this morning and I shut off promptly. Woke up in the morning to almost no charge in the battery, then battery went totally flat. Hmmm...

ontheroad

I thought lithium batteries don't like cold...one reason we looked into at least doing 2 6 volts...we live in Ontario CA...

pthomas745

It is an easy error to make:  think you are turning the fridge off, and accidentally set it to 12V.  Take a good close look at the knob.

And, I would suppose it is possible the battery could be bad.

Denny16

Yes, and in a 320, that battery is out in the cold in the front Tub!

How cold did it get?

I started out camping this weekend at a full hookup site, and wound up Boondocking whether or not I wanted to, with the Northern Calif, Red Flag fire area power shut down.  Spent a full day and one night on battery and solar charger (trailer in partial shade), and got through the power shutoff with 75% of our battery remaining when the power came back on.  Battery is a AGM 200amp unit.  We had AC/DC Compressor fridge on the entire time, Alde on at night for some heat (set at 62F), used water pump and lights for normal activities.  Did use our self-contained battery camping light, and ran exhaust fan whilst cooking.

Cheers. 

VictoriaP

My understanding is Lithium can be safely discharged at cold temps, but cannot take a charge below 32°F.

One article (different battery manufacturer, but same battery type): https://relionbattery.com/blog/lithium-battery-cold-weather

Marceline

dno said:

It's the standard Victron unit. I did run my fridge on DC while driving that day but both the 4 red lights in the t@b and the Victron app said I had plenty of charge (3 red lights, I forget the voltage) when I went to bed. Disconnected from the TV on arrival and was able to run the Alde for heat just fine. Had tried to fire up the fridge on propane on arrival (finicky like many people's) but when I couldn't turned all settings to OFF. Nothing was on but the pump, which started up this morning and I shut off promptly. Woke up in the morning to almost no charge in the battery, then battery went totally flat. Hmmm...

When you were running the fridge on DC did you start with a cold fridge or an ambient temperature fridge? The 3way fridge has a reputation of being a power hog on DC (11amps or so, I think) so if you started with a warm fridge it would've sucked a fair amount of power out of your battery enroute. Even if you started out cold it may have been consuming more than your alternator was delivering. How big (aH) is your battery? How long did you wait after disconnecting for your TV to check the battery state of charge? Maybe you got a false reading?

dno

Fridge was on dc while driving, switched to propane when I arrived, didn't stay lit, so I made sure to turn everything to off, dc, ac, and propane. When I went to bed everything was off but the clock on the jensen, water pump came on automatically for no reason this morning (full fresh tank, empty grey tank) so that didn't do it, unless there's a short there someplace. I'm just going to turn it on as I need it. Temps were in the mid to high 40s last night. Battery is a new Battleborn 100ah, I've already used it on a couple trips and it works great. Later today I moved campsites to a sunnier one and the fridge somehow liked the new site better (both were perfectly level) and somehow I could keep it lit in the green on propane. Also charged my battery up somewhat with solar and some idle time with my truck. I'm now trying the alde, hope it works because I really need a shower and it's cold. But I think it's clear that I have a short somewhere that gets jiggled the wrong way sometimes and can drain the battery overnight. I'll have to hunt it down when I get home. Thanks, everyone.

Verna

@dno, not to insult your intelligence, but if you have a saucepan, you could heat up some water on the propane stove, mix in some cool water (so you don’t burn yourself), and then use a cup or glass to pour it over yourself for a shower. At least it would be a warm/hot shower vs a cold shower. Just in case the Alde doesn’t work in the am. 

4ncar

Verna said:

@dno, not to insult your intelligence, but if you have a saucepan, you could heat up some water on the propane stove, mix in some cool water (so you don’t burn yourself), and then use a cup or glass to pour it over yourself for a shower. At least it would be a warm/hot shower vs a cold shower. Thatt to’s if the Alde doesn’t work in the am. 

Ahh the good ol days of backpacking and a layover day...lol

dno

Verna, yes, totally, I'm no stranger to that kind of camping! It's just that one hopes to have things working as they should after the 20k odd investment in camping luxury...the Alde did kind of work, but I still have some hot water issues, a separate topic...