Thor Forums

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by mstng

Agree completely. Compressor fridge and induction stoves kill batteries quickly. 2 year old coach and Lithium is what I will get probably get sooner rather than later. Another factor is the length of time you plan to keep your RV. Lithiums last a long time, that and the ability to draw them down and the quick re charge capability is essential with the 2 battery draw factors I mentioned above.

The Lithium batteries we added to our RV have changed how we camp. Prior to adding them we had 2 wet cells with a usable 60-65AH of power before they were drawn down far enough to harm them, so even a single night's camping often resulted in our batteries either right at or slightly below the minimum acceptable voltage and my wife was unable to use any of her electric appliances until I ran the generator to supply AC and begin to recharge the batteries. We had 200 watts of roof top solar that came with out RV, but that really did not generate any recharge power until perhaps 9:30 or 10 am so all we had until then was the generator and its noise and smell.

I replaced our wet cells with 2 100AH Lithium batteries which effectively gave us 180AH of usable power, and I added more solar cells on the roof to allow us to recharge more quickly. Now when we get up in the morning we still have plenty of power left and my wife can now use her electric tea kettle and toaster as she wishes. We now can run fans to cool the RV at night, I don't worry about recharging our phones, running our computer or tablet or using any other small electric appliance, provided they can be run from our 1000 watt inverter. The batteries have made our camping much more comfortable and removed the fear that I had that we would be without usable power in the morning. And living in Arizona I am additionally grateful that we don't have to use the propane stove as that just tends to heat up the inside of the RV.

One thing I have not considered is the new induction cooktops, so I did not know that they were heavy power users. In fact I thought that the whole idea was that they used only a small amount of power so I am surprised to see you comment that they are power hogs. I don't doubt what you say; I am just a bit surprised. And, in addition, my wife is not interested in buying compatible pots and pans.

One side effect of the Lithium batteries is that we now almost always dry camp or boondock unless it is too hot to sleep without the air conditioning. While we initially stopped at regular RV parks with shore power perhaps 80% of the time we now almost always dry camp or boondock except for our summer trips to the Gulf Coast when it is too hot to sleep without the air conditioning. The dry camping/boondocking saves us considerable money although that is not why we do it. We just love the open spaces and the beautiful views and my wife appreciates that there is never anyone closer than perhaps 100 yards from us, so we don't have to listen to other people's noise.