Dead Battery Mystery - Sulfation
Camped for 3 days a week ago.
We had pedestal power so we were plugged in with the shoreline the whole time.
This powered the converter and ensured the battery stayed at 100%.
But, two days after we came home I needed to check something in the rig and low and behold the battery was dead as dead can be.
8.5VDC and the disconnect in the basement was OFF too so there was very little if any parasitic current being used.
Since this Group 27 wet-cell battery was new only 4 months ago my oh crap sensor went off.
So I started doing some homework.
That led to this website:
http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html#3
I learned that all conditions are optimal for my battery to have sulfation build-up.
I took the battery out and brought it home and hooked it up to my Schumacher SSC-1000A battery charger and after 24 hours its fully charged again.
I have ordered a PulseTech PP-12-L battery maintainer (not a charger).
I will wire this in to my battery disconnect so that when my disconnect is OFF while in storage this maintainer will be off-line and not using battery power.
But, when I turn the disconnect on and use my rig then it will be online and pulsing to prevent sulfation build-up.
Will it work?
In reality I can't believe I have a sulfation problem after only 4 months, but I've checked everything and there is no logical explanation why my battery discharged in storage as fast as it did.
I may be in denial that my new battery has failed, but it charged and is holding OK and there is no indication of a shorted cell or something like that.
Time will tell, but if what they say about idle RV batteries becoming sulfated and reducing their capacity over time, then I am up to being proactive and get all I can out of of my battery.
I'm sure there is more to this story, but that is all for now.
Carry on.