Vampire Power Users while OTG Boondocking?

[Ray Eklund]

As I have repeated, I am Electrically Challenged. That would include 240v, 120v, 12v as well as amps. Pushing electrons through wire covers all of 'it'.

I want to reduce those appliances, plugged into the trailer, that may be stealing electrons and not even be in use... like useful LED lights and Radio when a station is available, which we use plenty.

Discussed here and there are discussions that mention Vampire Power users that are draining your batteries and could be prevented.

Some are wired in for your protection. CO2. Propane. Smoke Detectors. Obviously working 24 hours a day, when occupied, or when stored.

But... when Off the Grid Boondocking we have NO need of the:

Televisions
DVD Player
Microwave

...and any other plug ins that are... plugged into outlets but do not appear to be doing anything to enhance our life style, when plugged or unplugged.

Are there obvious 'Vampire Power Users' that can be taken off the System when not in use?

This last trip we were on the 100w portable Solar Panel. It preformed very well. Water pump was used during the day while collecting Solar for a Shower. Solar would recharge the batteries. Stove vent for cooking during daylight.

This left the wet cell Interstates with 12.7v at sunset.

Are any of the above, passive users of our batteries? At worst, we felt good pulling plugs.

Our meager investment of one Solar Panel was well worth the cost, under $150. A second, if we needed to maintain more uses during the day and evening, which is not about to happen, yet, with our meager power needs.

Anyone have any suggestions.

[DKB_SATX]

The inverter uses some current, even in standby. You can easily disconnect it at the batteries, if you're wired like the factory does it.

The TV and DVD player don't do anything on the 12v side if you disconnect the inverter.

The microwave shouldn't have anything to do with the 12v side even with the inverter on.

If your fridge is a similar model to the one in my '17, it has a low-amp 12v heating tape hidden in the front chassis of the fridge for "humidity control" and Dometic several years ago cheaped out and stopped installing a switch to disable that. It uses a fair amount of current and is easily unplugged from the refrigerator's control board.

[polarlyse]

We have friends with a newer trailer that was having trouble with the heating coil in the refrig. door and was able to install a 12v switch at the refrigerator control board to disable it when dry camping. Noticed a considerable extension of battery life with the use of the switch.

[james.mileur]

I found a connector on the wire to the side of the giant woofer under my couch that eliminates all doubt as a vampire load.

[AirMiles]

Here is a link that discusses a fix for the Dometic refrigerator door heat strip vampire load:

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f54/tech-...es-160663.html

And another solution to the same problem:
http://www.vtbirder.com/power-drain-fixed/

[james.mileur]

Links are great! Thx.

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by james.mileur

I found a connector on the wire to the side of the giant woofer under my couch that eliminates all doubt as a vampire load.

*****
Wow... now if Nancy can crawl under the couch and find it.

When in the Southwest, the Navajo chants sound no different with a woofer, or without.

If the 2014 International Dometic has a 12volt Vampire roosting somewhere... I want to get that, as well. Nancy can catch it while she find the woofer.

Married to a woman several younger has its benefits. Lug nut advice, anyone?

[Ray Eklund]

The sub-woofer was easily disconnected with the pulling out of a clip plug. The sub-woofer is at the front of the left, shorter couch. If anyone needs a 'buttocks massage', just replug and find a 1970's rock station in or near Quamado, New Mexico for a Rolling Stones revival.

The Dometic Refrigerator in the 2014 25 foot International has a 10watt bulb to illuminate the interior when operating and the door opens to activate it. I removed the bulb, easily, wrapped it in a paper towel and labeled. Took less than five seconds for each. The bulb looked like replacement cost would be more than I would want to replace it with in the future.

Of course, someone is going to ask how I know that the light in the refrigerator goes off, when the door is closed. ...you got me there. Without a bulb, probably not going to be my problem any more.

I could not find any wiring in the refrigerator that was obvious to reduce the moisture within the Dometic. I prefer to leave the fuses alone. You know, electrically challenged. With the humidity where we go in the 5% to 15% range... the only moisture to be found would be the Freezer, when we are home and cleaning out the refrigerator. Nancy puts towels below each to collect any moisture and leaves the doors open when not in use.

The Pioneer Radio will go back to its 'color show' when shutting off power, but we now can shut that down and keep us from becoming 'party animals with the color show' in progress.

I would suspect that the two Fantastic Fans use 12v when trailer is in use. This is to activate the closing mechanism if it detects rain. Even though both of our Fantastic Fans have CamcoRV all weather covers, some things are best, left alone.

Other than the 'safety' detector units, there may not be any other obvious vampires operating.

[DKB_SATX]

Most of the recent Dometic fridges have the chassis heater. It's referred to as "Heating Cable" on the schematics. For some models, the same wire from the board that provides power to the light also provides power to the heating cable, but the heater is in parallel with the door switch so it's always powered. On my particular model, the heating cable had its own contact on the control board so I simply had to unplug it.

To me, ~24 AH/day was more than I wanted to leave running unnecessarily. There's no thermostat or timer in the circuit, just a resistive heating element around 10w-12w.

I replaced the lamp in the refrigerator with an LED so I can still have light in the fridge without introducing much heat or any significant battery use even with the door open.

[Ray Eklund]

Dave, thanks. I will put my reading glasses on and try to spot the wire to unplug.

[marter]

One more thing to think about, Ray. I think many radios will draw a slight amount of parasitic power even when off to retain the preset stations in memory. Haven't figured out how to turn mine completely off.

Happy trails,
Mike

[drbrick]

Hey Marter- we had the same problem with our radio so I simply installed a toggle switch on the power line and turn it off when not in use. No need to save stations when travelling from one area to an other :-)

[rmkrum]

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

*****
Wow... now if Nancy can crawl under the couch and find it.

When in the Southwest, the Navajo chants sound no different with a woofer, or without.

If the 2014 International Dometic has a 12volt Vampire roosting somewhere... I want to get that, as well. Nancy can catch it while she find the woofer.

Married to a woman several younger has its benefits. Lug nut advice, anyone?

DW is a Registered Nurse, and in her undisputed opinion, this old phart gets to do it himself because, "You need the exercise, Mr. Man..."

For the rest of the stuff, a 20volt DeWalt 1/2 inch drive impact wrench, a charged battery, and appropriate impact six-point socket and extender is quite capable of taking lug nuts off with the squeeze of the trigger. Just be sure you set it to "unscrew/remove them" instead of the "twist them right off/remove them" setting. Makes it much easier to get them back on...and torque them by hand with a real torque wrench, please!

Getting down to where the lugs live takes me just a bit longer each year...I highly recommend a nice thick garden kneeling pad as a highly desirable accessory for old crunchy knee joints...helps when working on the drains as well.