Caravan house battery

I would say that your fridge is causing too much voltage drop in the wiring so that there is not enough voltage to charge the battery.

Ian

Hi Dick,

I would take it back and have it replaced under the warranty if you have that option. It is likely that it is dead after 4 years.
If you have charged the battery on 240v for a day or two before setting out, then it should run lights for a number of evenings when you are unpowered. We had this set up in our previous van and used it for at least 5 days to run lights.

Cheers Heather

thanks to all for your replies once again all very helpful. the fridge is a Domectic 186 lt so i think it might be drawing more power than my setup is suppling. I have power from the car but i might have to change to 10ml anderson plug. At the moment i am at Roma and the battery has been on charge for 24hrs vis a Setec ST20-11? which was supplied with the van so would hope is large enough for the job. I might pull the battery out and have it tested here before i head to Coffs and make a goose of myself if its me doing the wrong thing, if not i'll get the new battery

thanks Dick

Hi Tricky, I solved the problem by freezing 2 x 2 litre plastic milk bottles full of water which are always stored in the freezer of my fridge.....so I drive all day with the fridge off ( the frozen bottles keep the temperature down) and so all the charge voltage goes to my battery, when I stop and camp I use only gas to run the fridge and it all works just fine and it all keeps nice and cold.
I never use 12 VDC to run my fridge, however at caravan parks I use 240 volt only to run the fridge.
I have a separate fridge and freezer in the tug, 2 x weaco's....a 60 and a 50 L)
I have 2x80 watt solar panels for the van to keep my van batteries charged when I am camped and a Honda 20 for back up and heavy use for example, the bread maker.
So you can tell that I only use my van batteries for lighting and entertainment.
It works for me.