Part of RV ownership is maintenance. In this video, we replace our motorhome’s 4 house batteries and talk about some things we’ve learned about battery maintenance. We hope that you can learn from our mistakes to get the most out of your RV’s battery life. We replaced 4 6-volt golf cart batteries with 4 new 6-volt golf cart batteries. We did a lot of research to decide what batteries to buy and we learned a few things along the way.

Tips for Replacing Your RV’s House Batteries

Study Your Battery Bank Before You Start! Before you begin removing your old house batteries, be sure that you take pictures of the compartment so that you can see how everything is connected. Some RV battery bays are pretty tight and it can be difficult to see everything in the back, so be sure to snap some photos in the back of the bay as well. We’d also suggest drawing a simple diagram to remind you of how the batteries are positioned, where the positive and negative terminals are located and which cables connect to what so that you can be sure all of your cables will reach what they need to.

Decide What Type of Battery is Right For You There are three main types of batteries used for RV house batteries: traditional lead acid (also called flooded cell batteries), AGM (which stands for Absorbed Glass Mat or sometimes Absorbent Glass Mat depending on where you look), and Lithium. The type of batteries you choose can be based on price, space, power needs and how you use your RV. Whichever you decide to go with, all of your batteries should be the same type, size and age. Be consistent.

Save Money By Recycling Retailers today will charge a “core” fee when you are buying batteries. This is a recycling fee that is placed on every battery. We avoided this fee by giving them our old batteries when we bought the new ones.

Not All Batteries Are Created Equal Do your research ahead of time to determine what will be right for your needs. RV House Batteries are available in 6-volt and 12-volt and in a wide variety of amperages. Know what you currently have and how that works out for you. And spend some time doing some research online to narrow down what you are looking for so you aren’t wasting gas running all over town. And remember, 6-volt batteries will be connected differently than 12-volt batteries. So, again, pay close attention to how your batteries are connected.

Using Our Battery Quick Fill System to Top Off Our House Batteries

If You Choose Lead Acid Batteries You will need to maintain the level of distilled water in your batteries. This can be a pain in the butt if some of your batteries are difficult to access. Since 2014, we have used a battery quick fill system to easily and quickly add distilled water to our house batteries. The filling tubes stay connected at all times. When it’s time to check the water level, we connect the end of that tube to our hand pump which has another tube that we put down into the bottle of distilled water. All we have to do is squeeze the pump a a few times. It tops off all of our house batteries simultaneously and will not allow them to overfill. It is really super simple and we highly recommend it. As long as we have lead acid batteries in our RV, we will use a battery quick fill system! Here’s one like ours if you’d like to get one for yourself: Flow-Rite RV2000 RV Edition 2 Battery Kit. (We have 2 of these since we have 4 6-volt house batteries.)

Types of RV House Batteries

Lead Acid Batteries Also called “flooded cell” batteries, lead acid batteries are the least expensive option for replacing the house battery bank in most RVs. They are also the most common type of battery you’ll probably find in most campers. The price is nice (especially when you are replacing multiple batteries), but there are a few downsides to lead acid batteries. They require more maintenance than the other types of batteries. As we mentioned above, you have to keep a close eye on the fluid levels of these batteries. Low fluid levels can affect performance and may significantly shorten your battery’s life. With the quick fill system we suggest above this is super easy to do, but you have to remember to perform this maintenance regularly.

You also want to keep an eye on the charge level of your lead acid batteries. We’ve read that allowing the battery charge level to drop below 50% will potentially damage the battery and shorten its life. This isn’t a problem when you are plugged into shore power, but be very mindful of your charge levels if you are boondocking and be sure to check on your batteries regularly when your RV is in storage! Lead acid batteries will lose their charge in storage even if you have disconnected them.

AGM Batteries Absorbed Glass Mat batteries are sealed and do not require you to add distilled water. So they require a little less maintenance than lead acid batteries, but they are also more expensive. You still need to monitor your charge levels just like you would with lead acid batteries. Just like their lead acid cousins, AGM batteries will lose their charge in storage even when disconnected.

We’ve read reports that say that AGM batteries may recharge more quickly than lead acid, but they may also be more sensitive to overcharging. Some articles we read also said that AGMs might be more sensitive to temperature changes than their lead acid counterparts.

Lithium Batteries The newest option (and the technology that seems to be quickly changing at the moment) is lithium. Lithium batteries are a lot more expensive than the other options. Traditionally, they are sized completely differently than most RV house batteries and have been known to be very sensitive to temperature. However, they are lighter in weight (which is always a good thing in RVs!), more powerful, and can use up more of their charge without risking damage to the life of the battery.

We’ve read that the latest chemistries in lithium batteries for RVs are less sensitive to temperature changes and allow the batteries to maintain their charge in storage for up to a year! When we were doing our research, we came across some new lithium batteries that were sized just like the 6-volt golf cart batteries (GC2) we currently have, so they would have worked easily with our existing battery location and brackets.

Tips for Maintaining Your RV’s Batteries

Keep An Eye On the Water Levels We can’t stress this one enough! If you have lead acid batteries, like us, then you have to maintain the distilled water levels of your batteries. Start checking those water levels as soon as you buy your RV. Even brand new RVs can have batteries without sufficient water. (Maybe that particular RV has been on the lot for a little while?) Never assume what your RV has been through before you found it. Be consistent about checking the fluid levels and maintain them easily with a Flow-Rite battery quick fill system. (Have we told you how much we love ours? It has saved us a ton of head bumping and unmentionable language over the years!) 🙂

Use a Trickle Charge If you have access to a standard 110 power plug, you can use a Camco 30amp to 15amp Adapter or a Camco 50amp to 15amp Dogbone Adapter to trickle charge your RV’s house batteries while it is in storage. However, do not assume that it is charging just because you have it plugged in. If the power to your storage area fails for any reason, your RV batteries may end up discharging instead of charging. This happened to us twice. So always go back within 24 hours after you plug in to trickle charge to check on your batteries. We’ve read that your batteries should be fully charged within that 24 hours, so you’ll want to unplug them and disconnect them at that point anyway. (especially if you do not have a good energy management system to keep your batteries from overcharging)

Don’t Assume Anything We have learned this the hard way! The batteries are the heart of your RV. There is nothing worse than getting ready for a camping trip only to find that your batteries are low or dead. Be proactive in maintaining your batteries and you will never be surprised. This is especially true for part-time or seasonal RVers. Be sure you check on your batteries regularly. Don’t assume anything when it comes to them.

Disconnect the Batteries When Not Using or Charging If you are storing your RV, even for a few days, and you will not be trickle charging the batteries, be sure to disconnect them. For our travel trailer, this meant physically disconnecting the battery cable. In our motorhome, it means that we set the inside battery button to “Store” and the chassis battery switch inside our battery bay to “Off”. We’ve also learned to check to make sure the Inverter/Charge Controller is turned off before we set these battery switches. But remember, lead acid and AGM batteries will still lose some of their charge even when they are disconnected. So be sure to come back to check on them at least every couple of weeks.

Use Your RV As Often As Possible! RV batteries like to be used, so try to get out and go camping as often as possible (as if you need another excuse, right?). It’s also easier to remember to check and maintain your batteries when you are using it than when it is in storage away from you.

By now, the winter has been successful in many areas. Climate experts predict that the cold air may hit us frequently this winter, and we have ourselves prepared to prevent the cold. Will the batteries, the essential energy supply, and the energy storage device that we live in, also be prepared for the cold days?

For example, in terms of the necessary phone, a fully charged cell phone flies from a warm place to the cold north, when off the plane its power drops sharply or immediately shows “low power for low temperature, automatic shut”. Not only unpaid but also the temperature defeats it. when the phone battery encounters a low temperature beyond its acceptable range, it stops running (also phone freezing phenomenon) so that the mobile phone powers down or automatically off. Knowing the temperature accepted by our batteries is necessary.

When it comes to the words’ lithium battery’ it’s safe to say that lately, these two words have generated a lot of confusion, fear, and speculation. So, it’s no wonder you might ask yourself, “why on Earth would anyone use Lithium batteries?” But rest assured, we’ve done our homework. At Himax, we’ve dedicated over a decade of our time on, research & development, learning, design, and optimization of our products, to ensure that we always provide customers with safe technology and innovative solutions. Before we can get into what makes our Lithium batteries safe, let’s cover the basics.

Lithium 101
Lithium was discovered in 1817 by Swedish Chemist, Johan August Arfwedson. You might remember seeing “Li,” on the periodic table on your school teacher’s wall, but Arfwedson first called it ‘lithos’, which means stone in Greek. Li is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal and its high-energy density makes it a great choice to give batteries an extra boost.

Are you wanting to use solar power off grid? If so, you’re going to need off grid solar batteries–and they’d better be reliable.

If you use a grid-tied or hybrid system, it’s possible to run your solar without batteries. But as soon as you go off the grid, batteries become an essential part of your setup. Without them, you can’t store solar energy for use at a later time. You know, times when the sun’s not shining.

And what if you invest in solar batteries, only for them to malfunction, or run out of energy earlier than expected? Well, if the skies are dark, unfortunately your house or RV will be too.

So save yourself the trouble. Keep reading to discover the pros and cons of each battery type so you can choose the best one!

Off Grid Solar Batteries Aren’t Just for Camping

Years ago, solar batteries had their habitat in remote campsites and mountaintop cabins. Today, they’re still essential for boondocking and dry camping but with “grid defection” on trend, solar setups are making their way towards many towns and cities.

People are going off grid in places where grid power is available. They’re building eco-friendly tiny houses that completely rely on solar power. Others are installing solar panels on rooftops as backup power in places where the grid’s frequently unreliable. Some are saving big money by using solar only, and relying on the grid as a backup.

So now, more than ever, off grid solar batteries need to be reliable, long-lasting, and efficient. But not all batteries are created equal. Below, we’ll discuss the different types of off grid solar batteries so you can decide which is best for you.

What Are the Best Solar Batteries?

There’s no denying that lead acid batteries have been used in off grid solar setups for a long time. They’re the “OG” (original) batteries, and in the early days of solar energy, you wouldn’t see a setup without them.

But technology has evolved since then. So while lead acid batteries still get the job done, we wouldn’t say they’re the best off grid solar batteries on the market. They may be the most affordable up–front, but their benefits don’t go far beyond that.

Now each battery type has its pros and cons. Let’s compare the top contenders for off grid solar batteries, specifically lead acid, AGM, sealed gel, and lithium. These are the four most popular solar batteries available today and that’s why each is worth discussing. So let’s get to it!

Lead Acid Batteries

Lead acid batteries have been around for over 150 years. Most folks who use them as off grid solar batteries do so because of their low up-front cost.

Pros

• Low cost
• Good for short-term backup solar power

Cons

• Short lifespan (3-5 years). Can be shorter if overcharged or not maintained correctly.
• Require maintenance (watering, cleaning).
• Contain toxins that may harm the environment.
• Aren’t leak-proof and must be stored in a ventilated area.
• Not ideal for remote off-grid sites that aren’t visited frequently, because of maintenance needs.
• Usable capacity is 50%.

Sealed Gel Cell Batteries

Sealed gel cell batteries have electrolytes stored in gel form. This prevents them from spilling. They are similar to AGM batteries.

Pros

• Can tolerate long periods without being charged.
• Low self-discharge rate.
• Longer cycle life than AGM batteries.
• Maintenance free.

Cons

• Medium-high cost.
• Not suitable for constant use in remote places (where replacement is difficult).
• Charges slowly.
• Short lifespan (2-5 years).
• Limited ability to deliver peak power.
• 50% usable capacity.

AGM Off Grid Solar Batteries

AGM stands for absorbed glass mat. These are similar to gel cell batteries and are sealed.

Pros

• Low maintenance
• Good for intermittent use, such as in a vacation cabin
• Performs better than gel batteries when delivering peak power
• Spill-proof, will not leak
• Low self-discharge rate

Cons

• Medium to high cost
• Not suitable for constant use in remote places (where replacement is difficult).
• Susceptible to overcharging.
• Short lifespan( 4-6 years). May be shorter if overcharged.
• 50% usable capacity.

Lithium Off Grid Solar Batteries

LiFePO4 lithium batteries are the newest off grid solar battery type. They’re currently the most reliable battery on the market for solar setups. Here’s why:

Pros

• Longest lifetime of any battery type.
• Protected from overcharging or undercharging.
• Eco-friendly, toxin-free, and will not leak.
• Maintenance-free.
• Lowest lifetime cost of any battery type.
• Fastest charging battery type.
• Great for both long-term, short-term, and intermittent use
• Does not need to be replaced often; good for remote locations.
• Most energy-efficient of all battery types.
• Usable capacity is 80-100%, the most of any battery type.
• Best battery for hot and cold climates.

Cons

• Higher up-front cost

Which Solar Batteries Should You Choose?

Everyone’s energy needs are different. Lead acid or gel type batteries may work if you’re looking to test a solar setup short-term to see if it’s a right fit for you.

But when you consider efficiency, reliability and lifetime cost, it’s clear that lithium comes out on top as the best contender among all off grid solar batteries. So don’t let the slightly steeper up-front cost rain on your parade! Keep things sunny (and your electricity running smoothly) by powering your setup with lithium.

Learn what you can do to prevent a Li-ion battery to fall asleep.

Li-ion batteries contain a protection circuit that shields the battery against abuse. This important safeguard also turns the battery off and makes it unusable if over-discharged. Slipping into sleep mode can happen when storing a Li-ion pack in a discharged state for any length of time as self-discharge would gradually deplete the remaining charge. Depending on the manufacturer, the protection circuit of a Li-ion cuts off between 2.2 and 2.9V/cell.

Some battery chargers and analyzers (including Cadex), feature a wake-up feature or “boost” to reactivate and recharge batteries that have fallen asleep. Without this provision, a charger renders these batteries unserviceable and the packs would be discarded. Boost applies a small charge current to activate the protection circuit and if a correct cell voltage can be reached, the charger starts a normal charge. Figure 1 illustrates the “boost” function graphically.

Figure 1: Sleep mode of a lithium-ion battery. Some over-discharged batteries can be “boosted” to life again. Discard the pack if the voltage does not rise to a normal level within a minute while on boost.

Do not boost lithium-based batteries back to life that have dwelled below 1.5V/cell for a week or longer. Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells that can lead to a partial or total electrical short. When recharging, such a cell might become unstable, causing excessive heat or show other anomalies. The Cadex “boost” function halts the charge if the voltage does not rise normally.

When boosting a battery, assure correct polarity. Advanced chargers and battery analyzers will not service a battery if placed in reverse polarity. A sleeping Li-ion does not reveal the voltage, and boosting must be done with awareness. Li-ion is more delicate than other systems and a voltage applied in reverse can cause permanent damage.

Storing lithium-ion batteries presents some uncertainty. On one end, manufacturers recommend keeping them at a state-of-charge of 40–50 percent, and on the other end there is the worry of losing them due to over-discharge. There is ample bandwidth between these criteria and if in doubt, keep the battery at a higher charge in a cool place.

Cadex examined 294 mobile phones batteries that were returned under warranty. The Cadex analyzer restored 91 percent to a capacity of 80 percent and higher; 30 percent were inactive and needed a boost, and 9 percent were non-serviceable. All restored packs were returned to service and performed flawlessly. This study shows the large number of mobile phone batteries that fail due to over-discharging and can be salvaged.