Reminder: Check Your Battery Water Level!

Don't let this happen to you and your batteries...

Everyone,

Just a quick reminder to everyone who has Flooded Lead Acid Batteries in storage over the winter. DO NOT just put them on a trickle charger for the off-season. And this is especially important if you’re leaving the batteries in the RV and simply plugging into shore power. While modern converter/chargers generally are 3-stage and include a float or maintenance function, most old (read vintage) converters don’t have a way to turn off trickle charging, and they’ll happily overcharge your FLA or AGM batteries in a few weeks or months.

What if you’re in a long-term site?

Don’t let this happen to you. After camping in a long-term spot for months, and apparently never checking his battery water levels, this RV owner woke to serious smoke inside of his Class-A Motorhome. The campers in the next spot had already called the fire department and helped rescue him, but the batteries had overcharged, gone dry, overheated and caught the wiring on fire. Here’s pictures.

Upon investigation it appears he had not checked the battery water level in months or possibly years. Yes, here’s the two house batteries and the engine battery. The firefighters had to cut the wires loose and toss the smoking batteries out on the ground. Luckily they saved the RV owner’s life as well as the RV. But it could have been much worse.

Store me…

If your RV is in storage, the best thing to do is get a dedicated battery maintainer like a Battery Tender. If you’re leaving the batteries in your RV just unplug from shore power and connect the batteries to a maintenance charger. If you bring your batteries inside for the winter, you’ll still need to trickle-charge them occasionally while in hibernation. Read my article about it HERE.

Don’t overfill your batteries…

If you’re in an RV full-time plugged into shore power, then check your Flooded Acid batteries for water level once a month. I found a great article by Mark Polk from RV Education 101 on exactly how much water you should add to your Lead Acid Batteries. Read it HERE.

Let’s play safe out there… Mike