The next day the RV battery under the hood was dead. Replaced it for $169.00.
Then the house batteries would not keep a charge. The panel indicator lights showed that it would go from "charged" to "fair" overnight while parked in my driveway. So I took it to my neighborhood mechanic who checked the batteries and said they were fine. He asked if I had been checking the water levels. I replied that I thought they were sealed batteries which is what he told me a year ago when he checked them. He said no and proceeded to open the water intake area. These batteries were flat on top with no obvious place to put water. The cover to the water was flat on the battery and he had to use his knife to pry it open. I figured they were fried as I had never checked them in a year and a half. He looked inside and said the water level was fine.
So I really didn’t know what to do at that point. The dead motor battery that I had just replaced a day ago was a 2007 so perhaps these batteries are 5 years old as well. I also knew that the control panel lights worked fine and showed the batteries were charged fully when the generator was on, so they were not malfunctioning. I decided to go ahead and purchase two new batteries, the sealed maintenance kind. He ordered them and today called to say they were in.
Took the RV over and he replaced the house batteries. Once the old ones were out I checked the date and to my surprise they were only a year and a half old. Obviously put in when I purchased the coach in Florida. My stomach started to ache at this point. The new batteries were very expensive at $427.00 including labor. Did I spend all that money for nothing?
The new batteries are sealed maintenance free technology batteries, no leaking even if case is broken, shock and vibration resistant, light weight, and have a long service Life. What’s not to love, right? Once installed I checked my control panel to see if it showed fully charged house batteries and... it did not. It showed "fair" just like it did with the old batteries. My stomach started to hurt even worse.
I paid the bill and returned home and turned the generator on for 30 minutes. The control panel now shows "good" not "charged" as it should. At least it is not showing "fair." Waited 5 hours then checked again and it was holding the "good" status. This is all a mystery to me. Why would it not show fully charged?
If the control panel shows "fair" tomorrow then I tend to believe it is malfunctioning and needs to go to Camping World for repair. All this is coming out of my travel money for my D.C. trip in March. I sure hope I can afford to make that trip. I’m so looking forward to it.
