Diagnosing a 26 Amp Parasitic Draw in Grand Design Imagine AIM 15RB

[Hoopy Frood]

Have you found anything with whats is going on, think we are all curious.

Yeah, me too for sure.

 

[SGT ROC]

+1

 

[LanerC]

Have you found anything with whats is going on, think we are all curious.

I know i am.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

Nothin' but crickets, that's kind of disappointing.

 

[robmcqueen]

Nothin' but crickets, that's kind of disappointing.

I sent the OP a PM asking him for a update. Here is what he said.

Thanks for checking Rob. After coming home, I went back to square one. The batteries were still drawing amps but now down to 17amps. That suggested to me the variable most likely, after replacing the converter, was the battery system. I detatched everything and completely recharged two batteries (one lithium and one lead acid) and then monitored them to see if they were losing charge with nothing attached- they were not. Next, I added back the basic electric with no shore power- no solar- and waited overnight to see if each of the batteries declined at all-they did not. I then used the multimeter to test the draw on each and there was none. I then added back solar with similar outcome and finally shore power. In the end I have to chalk up the 26 amp draw to batteries that had been drawn down and were seeking charge from themselves. During research I found that an undercharged battery will "seek" 10%-30% of its amp hours so with 100ah batteries 26 amps makes sense. How they got there in the first place, I am unsure but hopefully this has solved the problem.

Here is my response to him.

Fyi you can not mix lithium and lead acid batteries. Lithium are at a higher voltage at rest. The lithium will try to charge the lead acid. If the charger is set to lithium it charges at a higher voltage also and well cook the lead acid battery. Try just putting the lithium on the trailer and you might find your problems go away.

 

[Riverbug]

A perfect example of how sharing findings in this forum can help the person asking a question and anyone else following it. Eventually, he may have mentioned he was hooking two incompatible batteries into the same system, and others would have been able to help him understand why that doesn't work. And in the future someone else can read this thread and learn from it.

Hopefully, the OP would have come back to complete the story here for everyone to learn from. But as we know too frequently that doesn't happen. A flutter of activity, then crickets doesn't help anybody.

 

[el Rojo]

You're right Chad. Many people read these threads without comment and learn from them. Posting the outcome of the issue does two things. One, it lets the responders know it has been fixed and two, it helps the readers learn from this thread.

Thanks Rob for posting the outcome.

Red

 

[Hoopy Frood]

I sent the OP a PM asking him for a update. Here is what he said.

Thanks for checking Rob. After coming home, I went back to square one. The batteries were still drawing amps but now down to 17amps. That suggested to me the variable most likely, after replacing the converter, was the battery system. I detatched everything and completely recharged two batteries (one lithium and one lead acid) and then monitored them to see if they were losing charge with nothing attached- they were not. Next, I added back the basic electric with no shore power- no solar- and waited overnight to see if each of the batteries declined at all-they did not. I then used the multimeter to test the draw on each and there was none. I then added back solar with similar outcome and finally shore power. In the end I have to chalk up the 26 amp draw to batteries that had been drawn down and were seeking charge from themselves. During research I found that an undercharged battery will "seek" 10%-30% of its amp hours so with 100ah batteries 26 amps makes sense. How they got there in the first place, I am unsure but hopefully this has solved the problem.

Here is my response to him.

Fyi you can not mix lithium and lead acid batteries. Lithium are at a higher voltage at rest. The lithium will try to charge the lead acid. If the charger is set to lithium it charges at a higher voltage also and well cook the lead acid battery. Try just putting the lithium on the trailer and you might find your problems go away.

Thanks for following up and posting the results. I'm still skeptical of his 26 amp draw though. That's a lot of amps.

 

[SGT ROC]

I am curious as to why he has a LiFePo4 and a Lead acid together for his system in the first place. I know when I decided to go to Lithium, I research on this forum and other places for months before making the move.

 

[robmcqueen]

Here is his response to my message about not mixing lifep04 and lead acid.

Thanks. I checked them individually not together. Next step is to put my two fully charged lithium batteries (identical) in parallel.

Maybe he is not mixing them, His last response sure made it sound that way. I am kind of at a lose right now on what he has going on. I offered to call him and try to help if he wanted it. Not sure he knows what he is doing. Wish i could talk to him to try to get to the bottom of this. Dc power problems are not that hard to diagnose.