Is it the battery charger???

Gerhard,
I was getting 5 days out of it without running the battery totally flat. I did not have the fridge full but opened it infrequently. I have about 5 litres of drinks in it I would open it once a week on average. I have a family of five so it gets used fully on our camping trips away.
Through my own slackness I have ran it completely flat a few times but thought these batteries would be ok as long as I was not doing it constantly. Maybe I was wrong. Not going to be happy if I have stuffed it as most seem to be suggesting.
It started playing up at and odd time when I was keeping it constantly charged and had not run it flat for a couple of months. It happened real suddenly as well. It seemed to go from 5 days to one and a half days in the space of two charges and I had not run it flat.
Thought I may have to buy one of those fancy 3 stage chargers but no-one so far seems to think that is the problem.

It's possible that the charger is not a 3 stage unit and this could be part of the problem.

It's probably a good investment to get a top notch charger that can do all battery types. A low voltage cut-out would be a good device as well, then you have two, one fixed and the fridge should have one.

An 80 litre fridge with only 5 litres of drinks in it that you open once a week???? Beats me why you have a fridge at all for that kind of usage :) Are you saying you run it off the battery at home while not camping? If yes, and you have the charger running full time on the battery while being so used, if your charger is inputting too much charge you could be killing the battery that way.

If you have your family of 5 using the fridge pretty hard while camping, there is no way that 5 days won't run the battery completely flat.


This plus that sounds to me that the battery is stuffed now, but to really make sure get a different charger on it and test as already suggested.

Gerhardt,
I have it in my vehicle for convenience more than anything. Drinks when Im on the road working and for the missus to go to the butcher and get cold stuff from the supermarket(once a fortnight). Shouldn't the cut out on the fridge have stopped the battery from draining too low? The fridge is the only thing that runs from the battery.

The cutout on the fridge should prevent flattening, it might be faulty?

Do you have a redarc or similar, so the AGM can be kept topped up every time you drive. If not, I'd get one - you can use an anderson plug outlet in the tray to allow easy connection.

Gerhardt,
I have an isolator that does top up whilst driving. Thanks for your help I have a few things to look into now. I didn't think of the cut out being faulty. and I will need to recharge battery and do some testing and monitoring on voltage levels.

Not in this lifetime will an 80lt waeco only use 12 to 14 amp hrs in a day / 24hrs ,,, try more like 64 ,, only possible way for an 80 to use only 12-14 would be in the snow country mid winter ,, dont believe me ?? look at the actual waeco power usage testing site ,,www.waeco.co.uk/page.aspx?

$30 to save my $300 battery sounds like good advice learnt the hard way. Ouch, to the hip pocket. When I said ran completely flat I meant that the fridge stopped working because there was not enough charge in the battery. Now what I'm not sure of is that because I have drained the battery or has the cutout in the fridge kicked in and prevented it from going competely flat and wrecking the battery?
This brings me back to where I started and wondered if my battery charger was not up to scratch or have I ruined the battery?

And after being charged and been rested for a day it should read 12.8V ( or better )

Thanks Graham. Have charged the battery two days ago and had it volt tested this morning. Read 13.2 straight up. Connected Fridge and dropped to 12.8. Disconnected fridge and it read 13. All looks ok so my next test is to put it on one of these load testers the next couple of days. Hoping for the best at $300 a pop but not holding my breath based on what has been said in this thread.