I'm going to go over a couple of simple tips that mean you'll get the most out of
your battery for every time you go away and for the entire life of your battery
The biggest killer of batteries is heat and even an 8 degree rise in ambient temperature
can halve the battery's life overall make sure you're using a charging system that actually
has a temperature sensor whether it's on the battery for the ideal reading or close by for
an ambient reading it means that it's not going to overcharge your battery overheat it and damage it
the other problem with heat is that all your electrical gear has to work harder
and a big culprit is a fridge obviously when it's hot outside or if your fridge is in direct
sunlight it's going to use more power couple that with the fact that your battery doesn't like heat
and it's a perfect storm so the cooler you can keep your fridge and your battery the better
start by ensuring your fridge has good ventilation run it in the shade whenever you can and add a
protective fridge bag for extra insulation from warm ambient temperatures or the direct sun
AGM batteries prefer to stay fully charged rather than being discharged and then charged back up
and they actually prefer to be on constant trickle charge if the alternative is sitting
there and draining away now with that in mind make sure you've sized your battery correctly
if your battery's too small and you're constantly cycling it up and down
like every day then you're not only going to burn through your battery power faster on every trip
but you'll also shorten your battery's life dramatically as you use your battery the voltage
drops disproportionately so the further down your state of charge the more volts will drop
and that means your battery needs to supply more current to run your devices to make up
for that lower voltage so as a simple example if you're trying to power a 60 watt light globe off
your battery and your battery is right down to 12 volts the globe will need 5 amps of current
that's because 12 volts at 5 amps equals 60 watts on the other hand let's say you've attached a
solar panel which is charging your battery at around 14.6 volts the light globe would
only need just over 4 amps if you're camping for a couple of days or a week that extra 25
of power consumption can make a huge difference so by keeping the voltage up you're using less amps
out of your battery which means it's going to last longer on every trip and the second part is the
less you discharge it the less internal damage you do and the more life you'll get out of the battery
while your battery might last five years if you look after it if you're constantly
cycling it up and down it might only last two years or even one year with really heavy use
leading on from tip number two is tip number three and that is use your power efficiently and don't
waste your power so a big way to help your battery is to make sure your fridge is running efficiently
and one way you can do that is not open it or close it more than you need to and don't put
warm things in and expect it to cool down if you absolutely do need to cool say a case of drinks
try and put it in before you go to bed that way the outside air temperature is cooler
plus your fridge is going to be closed for a good solid eight hours which means it can do its thing
and cool everything down and leading on from that is to not use power if you don't need to
and this goes for everything from leaving your camp lights on when you don't need them
or even charging your phone off your battery box instead of when you're driving your
vehicle straight out of the sig socket and the same with your fridge plug it into your car
while driving and it'll use power from your alternator rather than your second battery
and if you're charging it while you're driving that's going to ensure a better charge as well
tip number four is to make sure you're actually charging your battery properly a dual battery
isolator is a great option but they don't work with smart alternators and if you're using an AGM
battery it'll never charge to a hundred percent let's say it only charges it to ninety percent
what that means is you're effectively turning your 100 amp hour battery into a 90 amp hour
battery and because you shouldn't use your AGM below about 50 capacity you've now only got 40
usable amp hours rather than 50 and that's a big difference the solution is a dc dc charger which
is basically like a battery charger you'd plug in at home but instead of using a powerpoint it uses
your vehicle's alternator as the power source now the important thing about a dc dc charger is it's
able to output a higher voltage than what it gets in and usually you can select the battery type
so in the case of an AGM it'll output around 14.6 volts to ensure that it's fully charging
the battery up to 100 every time you're driving and finally charging your battery properly is to
make sure your battery is topped up as often as it can be so if you're at camp make sure you're
using solar that way your battery is going to stay charged up and topped up as long as the sun is out
which is not only going to extend your actual camping run time but the battery's life as well
well there you go a couple of great tips that are going to help you extend your battery's
life overall and extend the amount of power you have on each camping trip you go on so keep your
battery and your fridge out of the heat use your power efficiently and don't waste it and make sure
you keep your battery as charged up as possible as often as possible and don't dip below 50 percent
now if you want to know more about this topic make sure you check out our channel and in
particular our 12 volt dual battery master class which goes over all these topics really in depth
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