battery life

The batteries will only last a few days running the fridge, vs many, many days on propane. We just returned from a one week trip and ran the fridge on propane the entire time, even when driving (except in the gas station.) Much better to run it on propane and take along an extra tank when dry camping. Also, if your fridge is like mine, I swear it runs cooler on propane than on electricity. 

Originally posted by techntrek Gauges on the tanks are useless unless it is a float type, which is rare in the small tanks.

First off, yeah - run on propane - using the battery mode on the refer is a waste of battery juice.

I always catch a little slack when I speak hearsy against the onboard power supply for charging the battery on the R-Pod, but I can all but guarrentee that you can double the amp-hours available from your battery if you do a proper charging routine before going camping.  The on board power supply dumps current into the battery in an uncontrolled manor when the battery is low, up to 50A.  This is fine for a perfect battery, but makes the cells have a slight inbalance after a few cycles.  This means that some of the six cells charge up to above full charge and some charge to less than full charge.  The next time the battery is discharged, those low cells go even lower, until the eventually are so 'hard' sulfated that they don't work at all.  I bet most people only get about 3 hours one battery running the refegerator, when they should be getting almost 10 hours.  These batteries can still do the job, they just need some proper attention.  What they need is a proper equalization charge, which the power supply can't do.  Equalization is basically overcharging the batteries until EVERY cell is fully charged (by means of measuring the specific gravity!!!).  Only really good chargers have at proper Equalization mode, and often it doesnt run for nearly long enough. 

Here's what I did to equalize, and actually double the AH from my ONE battery (back up to full spec of the battery).  First, let the R-pod fully charge it, and then run a little test.  Turn on all the lights and start a stop watch to see how long until the battery reads 25% on the little indicator*.   Now take that battery right out of the camper (VERY IMPORTANT). Next fully charge the battery using no more than 10A using a real charger, 2A if the battery is in bad shape.  Then remove all the caps and check the water level (yes do this second).  Top them off with distilied water.  Now run the equalization mode, or use an 16-17V power supply, limited to about 3A.  This should start some of the cells to bubble.  They are actually producing H2 and O2, so don't smoke.  The key here is that I bet they aren't all bubbling.  They need to all bubble.  Keep them full of water as recommended by the manufacture through this process.  If your battery isn't bubbling then you have an useless POS charger with no real equalization mode.  Spend that money you were going to spend on a second battery on a real charger.  Now that you have 16V pumping into the battery start measuring with a hydrometer battery tester until EVERY cell reads 1.275, which means that the cell has all the sulphic acid it can support.  Be patient, if you haven't done this in a while it can take as long as 36 hours.  So just keep checking and topping the water level.  Don't worry, you aren't harming the battery as long as you watch the water level.  Now that they are all at 1.275, stop charging and try this battery in the exact same test, it should last way longer.  You should only have to do this once per season and having one properly charged battery beats two half dead batteries.  Lastly this only applies to flooded type batteries, where you can remove the caps.  If you have a AGM, Maintaince-free or VRLA, consult with the manufacture on proper equalization. 

*I do the load testing with a 2000W inverter and a 250w 120V bulb to make the test go faster, also has the advantage of beeping when the battery is low and regulating the voltage to the bulb.