RV Battery Life Expectancy

The life expectancy of your RV batteries depends on you. How they're used, how well they're maintained, how they're discharged, how they're re-charged, and how they are stored all contribute to a batteries life span. A battery cycle is one complete discharge from 100% down to about 50% and then re-charged back to 100%.

One important factor to battery life is how deep the battery is cycled each time. If the battery is discharged to 50% everyday it will last twice as long as it would if it's cycled to 80%. Keep this in mind when you consider a battery's amp hour rating. The amp hour rating is really cut in half because you don't want to completely discharge the battery before recharging it. The life expectancy depends on how soon a discharged battery is recharged. The sooner it is recharged the better.

What does all of this mean to you? That depends on how you use your RV. If most of your camping is done where you're plugged into an electrical source then your main concern is just too properly maintain your deep cycle batteries. But if you really like to get away from it all and you do some serious dry-camping you'll want the highest amp hour capacities you can fit on your RV.

Deep cycle batteries come in all different sizes. Some are designated by group size, like Group 24, 27 and 31. Basically the larger the battery the more amp hours you get. Depending on your needs and the amount of space you have available, there are several options when it comes to batteries. You can use one 12-volt Group 24 deep cycle battery that provides 70 to 85 amp hours or you can use two or more 12-volt batteries wired in parallel. Parallel wiring increases amp hours but not voltage.

If you have the room you can do what a lot of RVers do and switch from the standard 12-volt batteries to two of the larger 6-volt golf cart batteries. These pairs of 6-volt batteries need to be wired in series to produce the required 12-volts. Series wiring increases voltage but not amp hours. If this still doesn't satisfy your requirements you can build larger battery banks using four 6-volt batteries wired in series/parallel that will give you 12-volts and double your AH capacity.

Happy Camping,

Mark

Copyright 2006 by Mark J. Polk owner of RV Education 101

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Car Battery Care Tips - Battery Care and Maintenance Tips

For every vehicle on the road, the car battery is most important component. If the car battery has any malfunctions whatsoever, then you will not be able to start your car. Most car owners will be facing problems sooner or later because vehicle lead acid battery has a limited lifespan.

If you have a regular battery maintenance schedule for the health of your car battery, then you can have a smooth start each and every time you want to use your automobile.

Here are some tips you can use to take care of your vehicle battery to get it working properly. When you parked your car, you should avoid keeping car headlights and other lights on for a long period of time. This will definitely drain your battery.

When the air conditioning unit in your vehicle is not required, it is best to switch it off to conserve power. If your vehicle is using a weak battery, try restraining from unnecessary honking. All these electronic components in your car will be draining on your battery bank thus sending its charge level into a low state. When a lead acid battery is discharged to a very low level, it is almost impossible to bring it back to its maximum power efficiency.

Here's a simple battery checking step you can do on a weekly basis. Check on the battery to make sure that there is no corrosion or rusting on the battery terminals. Rusting or foreign residue accumulated will cause the problems of difficult start ups because there will be a loss of surface contact between the electrical cable connectors with the battery terminals.

To prevent residue from building up, you can use a battery corrosion glue and sprays it on the terminals of the battery. This is usually the root cause for all car ignition problems. If you find any bluish green or white powdery layers forming around the battery terminals, then you have to take certain necessary steps to remove it or it will cause additional damages.

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