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Old 11-25-2015, 05:40 PM   #1
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I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

Storing 4wd Roadtrek (Chevy 3500) for parts of the winter, thought all was shut down, 12 days later new Lifeline's drained: Suggestions for tracking down the culprit.

Setup: Pretty simple with 3-100 watt solar panels and Blue Sky Controller; 750W Tripp-lite converter/charger; Blue Sea separator (shouldn't be a factor in this scenario); stereo is wired to van, NOT house battery; house batter switch; that's about it.

Before 12 days of leaving the van (we flew to Florida), I turned the following OFF: house battery switch; switch to panels was turned off; inverter switch was off (inverter was original install by Roadtrek, and in theory shouldn't draw any current with house battery switch and inverter switch turned off; and importantly, the circuit breaker switch that turns Blue Sky controller off, was powered OFF.

Van started fine after trip, but the 2 almost new Lifeline batteries were drained (220v serial), and house batter switch did not illuminate.

Currently powering from house 110 and charging fine at 35Amps/hours. Should be charged in a few more hours.

Question: My intuition is this is related to Tripplite inverter/charger, as nothing else would make much sense to me. I am recent graduate of basic home schooled electronics for camper vans. Meaning, my skills and knowledge are pretty basic, but informed. I have a decent multimeter and good sense, and would be able to track things down if I could get some basic ideas of what, and how to....basic folks.

Enjoy your thanksgiving, thanks. Replies or not, folks here are very helpful, and I really appreciate that.
dana

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Old 11-25-2015, 06:11 PM   #2
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

...not clear on what's going on.......so the house batteries slowly drained over your 12 day trip?

if that's the case, and you drove the van a few times during the trip, that would point to the separator not connecting the house batts to the alternator......
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Old 11-25-2015, 06:18 PM   #3
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

thanks boy wonder. Sorry, I would have given that impression.

No, the van sat for 12 days while we were on a trip. After 12 days, I'm saying the van battery started right up. The van had NOT been started for 12 days.

Hopefully, I fixed the wording on the initial post. Let me know if it makes more sense now.

dana
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Old 11-25-2015, 06:30 PM   #4
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

I'm no expert, but I think what you want to do is dial your multimeter to "DCA 20m or 200m" and test the battery to see how much you are drawing with everything turned off. I imagine your batteries feed a distribution block, so you could go to each fuse to see which one is drawing power.
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Old 11-25-2015, 07:54 PM   #5
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

thanks to you both:

yes, it makes sense to see how much drain there is on battery.

Yes, like most campers, it has fuse box and it's accessible for testing.
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Old 11-26-2015, 08:04 AM   #6
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

Quote:
Originally Posted by mikracer
I'm no expert, but I think what you want to do is dial your multimeter to "DCA 20m or 200m" and test the battery to see how much you are drawing with everything turned off. I imagine your batteries feed a distribution block, so you could go to each fuse to see which one is drawing power.


^^^^^^what he said........

Consider starting with the multimeter in 10A mode.....if you use the low amp mode, you may pop the fuse in the meter. Once you figure out the drain at the battery, you can then set your multimeter to a lower amperage setting as long as the setting is above the amp draw at the battery, since you know that the total amp draw at the fuse block cannot be any more than this.

As you probably know, when using the meter in amp mode the meter needs to be inline with the circuit; one easy way to do this is to pull each fuse and put the meter probes on the fuse contacts in the fuse block.

...let us know what you find.....
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Old 11-27-2015, 03:21 AM   #7
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

Pfacdb your phantom battery drain is aka "parasitic draw" and can be tested pretty much by this method: . Its kinda lengthy and a bit chatty but gives great info entry-level style.

For testing through the fuse box terminals I like these sorts of probes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00 These simulate an actual fuse blade so you don't run the small risk of enlarging the blocks' teminals---plus they're easier to access too.
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Old 11-27-2015, 10:42 AM   #8
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

Thanks everyone for the help. The video certainly made things clear, as I wasn't understanding what I was supposed to be testing for at the battery. I do now recall from my elementary reading, that to test a circuit, you have to break the circuit and complete it with the multimeter in amps mode. The video was a real ahah moment, as removing the negative from battery, then looking at amp draw by connecting multimeter to loosened negative cable and then to negative terminal gave the amps reading on that circuit.

Removing the fuses and then checking for the amp draw to plummet makes sense, and so now does Boy wonders suggestion to first determine the draw at battery, and then test for that level of draw at the fuse box. Either way makes sense.

Final:: Here's the resolution I found. I errantly LEFT THE INVERTER SWITCH ON, when I left the van--thinking everything was off.

Even with battery disconnect OFF, the Roadtrek has a 7amp draw at the outlets with inverter switch left on. OOPS. At first I wondered if battery disconnect to OFF would cancel out the fact that I left inverter switch on. I now this is NOT the case.

Thanks everyone.
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Old 11-27-2015, 07:32 PM   #9
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

Maybe they classify the battery switch as the separator switch. I've never seen a schematic of a Roadtrek. Some vans have a master DC switch which powers down all the DC loads in the vehicles living quarters. If Roadtrek did similar to most SMB builds, the fridge is two-way, AC or DC, and when the inverter is set to on, the inverter will supply AC power to the fridge. But even if all the AC breakers are turned off on my van and the inverter is set to on, it pulls about 3 amps DC off the house battery system.
Glad you found the issue.
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Old 11-27-2015, 08:04 PM   #10
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Re: I have a "phantom" drainer and need to track him down

battery disconnect on roadtrek turns DC loads off house batteries. The caveat is that not all loads are turned off--as in the case of leaving inverter switch on.
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