Mains power

Mobilvetta

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Hi, we recently bought our first motorhome, complete Newby to this, we are lucky to be able to keep it at home under our carport, I have waterproof external main socket which we have plugged the lead we got with the motorhome into and the other end into the motorhome. We have left the fridge freezer switched on and I noticed that the touch screen display is showing that the habitation battery and the battery for starting the engine is showing 14.4 volts, so I presume the onward charger is on, is it okay to leave it permanently plugged in when not using it, or is it going to do damage to the battery's, charger and fridge freezer, everything else inside the motorhome is switched off. I've obviously a lot to learn and the manual we got with it does not give any info on this.
 
It will be fine plugged in to mains.
But There real is no need to .
She will be fine just siting there .
Waiting till you go away .Ask away ..
 
If you have got mains available, it would be a good idea to put in a heater with a frost stat for the winter months. Doesn’t cost much to run and may save you an expensive leak if you forget to drain it down........
Dave
 
I don’t think that it will do any harm. Unless you’re using it you could leave the fridge/freezer off with the doors open.
Worth draining the water and waste tanks if it’s freezing, and you could leave a heater set just to prevent the temperature falling below zero in case any water remains. Leave taps open in a mid position.
 
Val54 said:
If you have got mains available, it would be a good idea to put in a heater with a frost stat for the winter months. Doesn’t cost much to run and may save you an expensive leak if you forget to drain it down........
Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks I just purchased a 700 watt oil filled radiator yesterday from B&M bargains to use, I would rather use that than the heated floor that's fitted as I could imagine that been expensive to replace if I left it on as opposed to a £20.00 heater. The salesmen said the water heater has a built in safety valve that opens if the temperature drops to prevent damage, I have emptied the water tank by just opening the taps, although it is housed under one of the seats and on handover they showed me how you can unscrew the top of it and put your hand in there to pull a plug out to drain it completely. it has a double insulated floor, so hopefully this won't suffer with freezing with it been onboard. I've left the drain open on the waste tank, although it has an heater inside it to stop it freezing was another thing mentioned in the handover.
 
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As previously said turn off the fridge freezer and leave the door slightly ajar to assist air flow.

I use two of the small oil filled radiators, one in the habitation area and one in the rear garage set at approx 1/3 on the dial.

Also, leave all the locker, wardrobe and bathroom doors open then the warmth gets everywhere.

There is no noticeable increase in our electricity usage so it must be very small.
 
It is not good to keep vans heated over winter .if not used .drain down open all doors cup boards, let air get around.
There are thousands of motorhomes and caravans on sale site just siting there with no hook up or heating.
 
If you do turn the charger off periodically check the battery voltage and turn the charger back on if necessary. 12.2V would be a good trigger voltage.
 
That 14.4V is expected during the last part of the normal charging cycle, but after a few hours, it should drop to around 13.5V and stay there. If it doesn't there is something wrong.
 
In all honesty, I don't agree with everything that's been said.

Surely the key thing about leaving the van plugged in is to make sure it's using a smart charger. Mobilvetta, your van is brand new isn't it, so it's very likely to have an up-to-date smart charger... check with the supplier if you're not sure. As I understand it, a smart charger keeps the batteries maintained in excellent health by cycling through raising and lowering the amount of power it's pushing into the batteries, according to need.

You didn't say if you have a solar panel or not. If not, then leaving the van standing without power for a few weeks could likely mean that your engine battery will go flat. This happened to me a few times when I first got my 2nd-hand motorhome and was the top reason for having solar installed. Far better to keep the van plugged in then. Worth checking with your paperwork or the supplier to make sure your system is charging the engine battery as well as the leisure one(s), although it sounds very likely from your panel readings. I'm definitely no expert and hope the electrickery wizards will correct me if I'm wrong... but I think what you're checking for is something along the lines of 'battery to battery' charger, 'split relay' or 'MPPT' controller. Anyone?

As for the winter, I too use a low wattage heater in the van, set just to take the chill off. Mike is probably right about lots of vans in storage just sitting there without power but a few years back, pre- the heater, I used moisture traps in the van... they produced pints and pints of trapped moisture out of the air in the winter. Far better IMHO to use a low powered heater on thermostat. I never leave water in my van between trips anyway but I'd definitely drain it out in the winter. The boiler is a really expensive bit of kit, so best to pre-empt a problem and empty it rather than risk is freezing... my thinking anyway. I also empty my fridge after each trip, turn it off and leave both the door and freezer section propped open with something. No need to leave electrical equipment running up your bills unnecessarily and switching everything off will save wear and tear too.

Every motorhomer will have a different idea of how things should be done... no-one's 100% wrong or right - just different preferences and what works best for your particular van, so it's good to get a cross section of views and take your pick :)

Enjoy your lovely new motorhome!
 
Minisorella said:
In all honesty, I don't agree with everything that's been said.

Surely the key thing about leaving the van plugged in is to make sure it's using a smart charger. Mobilvetta, your van is brand new isn't it, so it's very likely to have an up-to-date smart charger... check with the supplier if you're not sure. As I understand it, a smart charger keeps the batteries maintained in excellent health by cycling through raising and lowering the amount of power it's pushing into the batteries, according to need.....
Click to expand...
I don't know about Mobil Motorhomes, but if they are like the typical British-Design Motorhome, they may well have a Sargent PDU which is very nice in some respects, but the mains charger within them is anything but Smart!
Your understanding of Smart Chargers is right though :)

This diagram from Victron is a good representation of how a Smart (aka Multi-Stage) Charger (be it a Solar Charger OR a Mains Charger) works in terms of Voltage and Current

Victron Charging Scheme by David, on Flickr
Top Part is Voltage (V) Level; Bottom Part is Current (A) into Battery. The "Rec" is recondition and will usually only happen if you specifically tell the charger to do this (I did have a charger that automatically did a recondition every 10th charge cycle, but that is not the norm)
I can witness my Charger (from Victron) doing precisely this pattern.
 
It depends upon what you think the 12v is there for, primarily its meant to power the 12v systems a secondary function is battery charging. I agree it should be a 3 stage charger but having 14.4v there all the time is either faulty or not a 3 stage charger. Bailey seem to settle on 13.6v-13.7 as there float charge and people wonder why Banner batteries are losing water its too high to leave it on permanently.
A wet lead acid battery thats not sealed has a float charge of 13.2V but only at 20C it has to vary with temeperature. At 0C it would be 13.6V so if you own a Bailey put the whole van in a fridge then you can leave it on all the time!!

Batteries do not like being overcharged end of. I have solar with a float of 13.2V I dont lose water out of my banner battery, I dont have to top it up. I also only turn the charger on at night if I need it then turn it off when we goto bed. I do need to find a smart charger but its prime function is a power supply to supply 12v to the van.
 
Cheers everyone for the advice, I will have a look through the manuals tomorrow to see which actual charger I have, it came with a solar panel on the roof as well.
 
Above is my instructions for the charger fitted to the Mobilvetta motorhome, on reading them it does say that you can leave the charger on all the time, don't seem to have any instructions for the solar panel though that came fitted as standard.
 
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