dead batteries in Patrol

[weeman]

Hey,

Ive gone through a number of auto elecs all charging me and apparently fixing things however i have some issues and I guess i have made some assumptions.

Anyway,

Went to drive the patrol only find that it was completely flat.

Im running 2 exide dry cell batteries about 12 months old.
they are linked up together without any dual battery management or solenoids (was not not use this setup by a few people)

My thoughts are that i had my engle in the back and that over the 4 days that I didnt drive the vehicle it drained the batteries to nothing. Is this correct to assume ? I thought Engle stopped drainging at a particular voltage?

The only other thing that I can think of is I had another couple of power sources to the rear of the vehicle but only one was connect a cigarette plug port that was on but nothing connected ...

Any views or thoughts? is there way to check what else may possible drainging my batteries without me knowing, I know i have a decent stereo setup with amps and sub but i dont use these without the vehicle switched on ?

I know my alternator has correct charge.

Im thinking that something else is drainging it or the fridge drained it all in 4 days.

thoughts or recommendations for good auto elec would be great, so many bullshit artists out there even if its someone off the board looking for a cashie...

[evil_hitman]

the fridge will shut off on low battery to minimise damage to the battery and stop damage to the fridge motor
It will not cut it off early enough to give you enough juice to start your car.
Thats what a dual battery system is for.

[GeneralFubashi]

My 40l engel doesnt have any kind of low voltage cut off, and the motor will quite happily run until the last milliamp has been sucked out, albeit at steadily reducing speed. Ive heard that the way the sawafugi swing motor operates, low voltages wont damage it as fast as the danfoss style as the piston wont move full stroke, but slowly reduce until its just a jiggle, but dont quote me.
http://www.sawafuji.co.jp/english/tech/shindou.html

If the fridge was on for 4 days, id definitely be blaming it.

If you dont want to use a battery isolator to separate the batteries, you can use one directly between the batteries and the fridge. Redarc SBI12 seems cheap if it saves replacing 2 new batteries.

Sam

[55INR]

to see if anything is draining your battery unplug your fridge then disconect your negitive terminal on your battery then bridge the negitive terminal to the negitive lead with a test light if something is running the test light will light up.
i checked once and it lit up then i realised i left the door open

[BadMav]

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, I remember someone saying something about a diode or capacitor in the alternator that intermittently slowly drains the battery. Mine does it I'm sure as occasionaly mine will have a flat or nearly flat battery with nothing left on.

[tektrek]

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, I remember someone saying something about a diode or capacitor in the alternator that intermittently slowly drains the battery. Mine does it I'm sure as occasionaly mine will have a flat or nearly flat battery with nothing left on.

A capacitor or diode cannot drain a battery as they are not a resistive load. The diode is effectively a one way device like a one way valve in plumbing and a capacitor is effectively like a small battery - it will charge up and stay that way until discharged.

[DamTriton]

Weeman, time to get an isolator, manual or automatic.

Yes it was your fridge, run it on one battery only and leave one battery for starting. The big exide starting batteries (or any starting battery for that matter) will not have the same AH as a properly constructed deep cylcle of the same physical size.