Why are my batteries draining while on shore power

[Ridget]

We have a 2017 27' Tommy Bahama. We are on our 4th outing. We upgraded to solar with the dual glass-mat batteries. Everything has been great until this trip. We are under shore power. All 110v recepticles are functioning and the battery disconnect in in the "use" position (water heater and refrigerator working without propane). However, when we awaken each morning, the battery indicator shows 65-70%. As soon as the sun comes up, I see that percentage slowly climb to 100%. I think we are living on battery power that recharge during the day with solar. The kicker is, we get a periodic chime that goes "ping-ping" in the front bed area. It sounds like a relay. Both the inverter and converter are located under the master bed according to the dealer so something is going on. The pings only happens during the day so possibly related to solar. We have an an appointment with the dealer but we are another week on our trip. Last bit of info. We are hooked up 50a with a Surge Guard EMS system. Thoughts are appreciated!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

There are a lot of possibilities:

1) Your battery monitor (if it's the standard uint) just reads voltage. That's not a very good way to do it. Loads and charging will throw things off. The monitor may or may not be properly calibrated ....

2) You shore power may not be as reliable as you think it is. A $5 tester plugged into an outlet will tell you a lot. If you have a good surge protector, it will trip out for a variety of reasons.

3) The breakers into or fuses out of the converter may be "open".

4) If your solar is new, there may have been a wiring mixup putting it in.

Lots of possibilities ....

Bob

[fran&frank]

Its possible your battery disconnect is actually in the store position. Everything will still work if you are on shore power, the converter is powering your 12 volt circuits but not charging your battery because its in store position. --Frank

[Protagonist]

I had this happen once in my Airstream Interstate, which has a TrippLite inverter/charger. The inverter/charger was actually switched off and I didn't realize, but the use/store switch was in the "Use" position. So everything on the 120vAC side was powered by shore power, and everything on the 12vDC side was powered by the batteries. The only thing that wasn't happening was the batteries being recharged from shore power. But they were being recharged from solar.

You have a separate converter and inverter, rather than my inverter/charger, but your situation is otherwise the same. Your use/store switch is in the "Use" position or you couldn't draw from the batteries on the 12vDC side. The use/store switch has nothing to do with the converter, which is powered by 120vAC and can charge the batteries even with the use/store switch turned off (the inverter, on the other hand, requires the use/store switch to be on for it to get power from the batteries).

So the obvious step (obvious to me, at least) is to determine why your converter isn't getting power from the 120vAC shore power. The easiest thing to check is the circuit breaker. If the breaker is on and not tripped, then the problem apparently lies in the converter itself. Or in that relay that you hear clicking.

[Ridget]

Great info. It's at the dealer and will get the answer.

[OTRA15]

Thanks for the update, and looking forward to hearing the dealer's report.

Is this your dealer?

https://portlandairstream.com/

Peter

PS -- Welcome to the forum!

[Ridget]

Thanks Peter. Yes, it is my dealer. I went by there yesterday to grab something out of the trailer and they had the electrical panel door open and pieces on the floor next to it. The service manager said they had parts on order so evidently they were on to something.