Can you help? – Friend’s 2017 Ice Castle won’t keep batteries charged

My friend has a 2017 Ice Castle and it’s never really charged the batteries. He said it should last apprx. 2 days off of battery power alone but he’s never gotten that from it. I believe he gets about a few hours.

This year he bought a new battery for it but it still seems to have a problem. I said it’s probably not charging when the generator is running. He plugs it in when it’s parked at home.

This is a pic of the charging station. All the wires appeared tight but I can’t reach all of them.

Sometimes the battery indicator that is full blue goes from green to orange. It is green in this pic.

Thanks for your help in advance.

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Stick a volt meter on batteries when it’s plugged in and it will Tell voltage, and the do it unplugged. And see what voltage is.

That is a very good charger but it is only capable of charging at 3.3 amps. Not sure what size of deep cycle but on the battery it will say amp hours. But lets say it is 80 amp hours. If you ran the batteries down 50% it would take 40 amps to recover. That means 40/3.3 = 12.12 hours to recharge. Actually it would probably be closer to 14 hours since the charger does not output full power all the way threw the charging cycle. That charger would work great for charging at home but if you are trying to recharge your batteries every day I would suggest a charger with a 10-15 amp output.

supercat wrote:

That is a very good charger but it is only capable of charging at 3.3 amps. Not sure what size of deep cycle but on the battery it will say amp hours. But lets say it is 80 amp hours. If you ran the batteries down 50% it would take 40 amps to recover. That means 40/3.3 = 12.12 hours to recharge. Actually it would probably be closer to 14 hours since the charger does not output full power all the way threw the charging cycle. That charger would work great for charging at home but if you are trying to recharge your batteries every day I would suggest a charger with a 10-15 amp output.

So, take that one out, and add a new charger?

Also, when it comes from being charged at home for like weeks, shouldn’t the batteries at least last a night or 2?

How many batteries and what size?

Coletrain27 wrote:

How many batteries and what size?

I think 2 regular car batteries.

Don’t most peoples shacks have a big enouh charger from the factory to charge the batteries enough from the generator?

There’s so many variables.

How many amp hour are the batteries?

What’s his amp draw?

Forced air furnace?

LEDs or incandescents?

As mentioned, that’s a tiny charger and would take forever to recover.

usmarine0352 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Coletrain27 wrote:</div>
How many batteries and what size?

I think 2 regular car batteries.

Don’t most peoples shacks have a big enouh charger from the factory to charge the batteries enough from the generator?

Well there are different size batteries. Group 24, 27 or 31. And if there regular car batteries then that’s the problem. You need deep cycle batteries.

I run my generator for a hour or 2 in the morning and same at night before bed and never have issues

I also have a 12v voltage meter I plug into my 12v outlet on the wall so you can always see the voltage easily

Coletrain27 wrote:

I also have a 12v voltage meter I plug into my 12v outlet on the wall so you can always see the voltage easily

<div class=”ido-oembed-wrap”><iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Palumma 24W/4.8A Dual USB Car Charger, 12V to USB Outlet with Cigarette Lighter Voltage Meter LED/LCD Display Battery Low Voltage Warning (Black)” type=”text/html” width=”850″ height=”550″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” style=”max-width:100%” src=”https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?preview=inline&linkCode=kpd&ref_=k4w_oembed_Leosp3qmpCd4It&asin=B0773BYS6P&tag=kpembed-20″></iframe></div&gt;

He said the batteries are both deep cycle and he has a voltage meter built in the wall and it says must be at 12 volts for the furnace to work correctly and and as soon as he turns off the generator it goes down and the furnace doesn’t heat enough.

Check with a meter the voltage at the batteries with the charger on as mentioned and if that looks good then unhook the batteries and load test them. The batteries may be junk and won’t hold a charge

Is this a new problem?

Is the shack new to him?

Are the connections tight?

From what you describe the batteries are toast (since it acts like this after being plugged longer at home too)

Tell him to get a new 100AH agm from Sam’s club and a minimum 10 amp charger. A 20+ amp would be better, especially if he wants two batteries.

That single battery should get him a bare minimum of 24 hours without running the battery down too far.

If he wants even more capacity, get another matching battery and wire it in parallel. No need for a second charger or a two bank, but you can run a two bank together.

That said, make sure if he replaces a battery, make sure to replace both with identical batteries. You don’t want to mix different ages, sizes, brands, types.

B-man wrote:

Is this a new problem?

Is the shack new to him?

Are the connections tight?

From what you describe the batteries are toast (since it acts like this after being plugged longer at home too)

Tell him to get a new 100AH agm from Sam’s club and a minimum 15 amp charger. A 25+ amp would be better, especially if he wants two batteries.

That single battery should get him a bare minimum of 24 hours without running the battery down too far.

If he wants even more capacity, get another matching battery and wire it in parallel. No need for a second charger or a two bank.

That said, make sure if he replaces a battery, make sure to replace both with identical batteries. You don’t want to mix different ages, sizes, brands, types.

Seems like it’s always had the problem.

Put 2 new batteries in this year.

Could you link a charger that your describing.

You need to test the power coming off the charger to see if it’s charging. If it’s charging then you need to load test the batteries to see if there good. Also check connections like bman said Those things will tell you everything you need to know

Literally any type of automatic charger should work. He just needs more amps for quicker charging.

I should have said 10 amps as a minimum for one battery, and 20 amps minimum for two.

That would get him charged back up overnight running the generator.

It is hard to overstate how much power a furnace can use, if it has a fan. A blind estimate of your trailer would be 10 amps. We use our travel trailer in the summer, and can go a week or more running LED lights, TV, fridge, and so on. Go out in fall when it is below zero, and the batteries last 2 nights max, and I have (2) 6V golf cart batteries, which store more than your standard size batteries. They weigh 80 lbs each.
I would assume that your furnace runs a lot if you are in there day and night, and as has been noted above, your charger is not able to recharge the battery in a reasonable time. A Honda 2200 generator can produce 2000 W, +/-, but your charger is only producing 3.3A*12V, or about 40W. If you go with my guess that your furnace fan uses 10 amps, you need to recharge 3 hours for every hour of furnace time.
You need a faster charger, and probably even one that can charge both batteries separately if you are going to get them charged in a reasonable time. I think you can safely charge one battery at 15A, so if you charged both separately, you could charge 10X faster than what you have now.
All this is guesswork, and like others have stated, a meter is what you need to find out what is really happening. There are meters you can buy for not much that clamp over the wire and measure the current in the wire. That will let you know how much you are using, and then you can calculate how much battery you need if you want to last a few days without recharge.
Taking batteries to zero volts, especially in cold temperatures, reduces their life a lot, and you will be replacing them frequently if they are left dead out there in winter.

If I where to guess from what you stated i would look for shorts in your wiring,
new battery and im assuming you have tried charging with alternate battery charger,

My guess is you have a power wire grounding out someplace and is discharging your power possibly something is wired wrong or someone put a screw through a wire someplace…. do you ever smell smoke or burned wire turning anything on?

If you had power wires touching ground anywhere you would be blowing fuses

Steve Johnson wrote:

There are meters you can buy for not much that clamp over the wire and me

Thanks!

Do you have a link to the kind of meter you’re talking about?

Also, would like a Minn Kota 2 bank charger work?

Here’s what I use for a meter. Many different brands. The clamps or openings are for measuring amperage

Coletrain27 wrote:

Here’s what I use for a meter. Many different brands. The clamps or openings are for measuring amperage

<div class=”ido-oembed-wrap”><iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Fluke T5600 Electrical Voltage, Continuity and Current Tester” type=”text/html” width=”850″ height=”550″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” style=”max-width:100%” src=”https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?preview=inline&linkCode=df0&ref_=k4w_oembed_IszJzgOKRsPe8t&asin=B0006Z3GZU&tag=hyprod-20″></iframe></div&gt;

Thanks!

Yikes…..$122!

Fluke is one of the top of the line brands. You can find cheaper brands

Harbor freight has a cheap one that will work well for your friend

Bearcat89 wrote:

Harbor freight has a cheap one that will work well for your friend

Thanks.

Typically IC has two batteries, one specifically for the hydraulics only. That one they put on the trickle charger and not connected to the inverter/charger. the remote control receiver is constantly searching for the remote and is always being drained even during storage. That’s the battery in your picture, I can tell by the corded remote in the bottom of the picture. The other battery runs the rest of the house, and is connected to the inverter/charger. I’m pretty sure they are not connected.