Battery Maintenance: Adding Distilled Water To Your Camper Batteries

In this video I show you an important battery maintenance item; adding distilled water to your camper batteries. Whether you have a truck camper, pop-up camper, travel trailer, RV, or 5th wheel, if your camper has a battery you need to watch this video.

Total time this maintenance item takes is 5-10 minutes! Check it out!

[davecornthwaite]

When you say ‘top it off’ does that mean filling the cell up to the hole, or not quite so much? Any tips gratefully received!

[gladheatehernow]

Hi, great vid. Can i leave the battery charging with the connections disconnected in my camper while i put distilled water in the batteries ?

[vLife]

I run a big deep cycle battery in my converted van as the primary starter and house battery for my fans and fridge. I accept that the life of the battery will be around 2 years. The battery only costs me $100 new at home depot and it' on roughly month 14. I have a 320 watt solar panel and a fancy charge controller so the battery is constantly being charged and used and is usually reads between 12.2 and 13v. I really put this battery through it's paces so I have to water it every month or so. I forgot to water it for a few months and it required 3/4 gallons of distilled water to top off this morning. No problem starting and currently reading 12.9v. How much damaged do you think I did?

[ProjectPete]

Thanks for making this vid. I will use your advice for sure and keep checking mine.

[PouchMaster]

Maybe you can help? I'm charging my 120 amp hour battery with a 10 amp charger and it's making a sizzling noise. I assume this is just the water meeting the current and is natural? Definitely need to top it off afterwards I'm thinking. Getting an AGM battery next time for sure! Thanks for the informative video! Thumbs up!

[kethf]

Do you have to physically disconnect the battery if you turn off the battery disconnect switch in your camper? The reason I ask is we just bought a class a last year and had the 2 house batteries replaced at camping world right after we bought it. One house battery is very easy to access, but the other one took the camping world tech over 2 hours to change out. It is in a very awkward place up high (under the dash almost) in the small hood access. I'm no pro but I would figure that the hard to gt to battery was originally a single house battery and the second more conveniently located battery was added on later. I believe with a mirror, a flashlight, and a turkey baster I can add needed water, but I don;t think I can disconnect it an bring it down to do it.

[tpwright]

My battery won’t hold a charge, and I worry it’s because I haven’t added water. It’s been less than a year that we’ve had the camper and bought it new. Do you think I can add water even though I can’t fully charge it?

[ttbo]

I've had my camper for 9 months and just checked the water levels today. I was surprised to find that all the cells were full. I usually leave my camper in the driveway connected to AC through an outlet on the outside of the house. I leave the battery on. We've been on 5 trips but all the campgrounds had shore power and we only needed the battery to keep the fridge cold while driving. Is it normal for the cells to be full after several months under those cicumstances?

[timbuckingham]

Thank you for the info... it helped me do the job!

[brig]

Do you fill up all the cells with the funnel or just using the one cell does it trickle down to the rest? Thanks in advance.

[jeremymoeller]

Thanks for the vid. I have a couple questions for you. Is the compartment where you keep your battery vented to the outside? I read somewhere that it should be since a charging LA battery can discharge and build up hydrogen gas. Does the plastic box that you keep your battery in have a lid on it when it is hooked up and is that important? When I was looking for battery boxes i noticed that pretty much all of them have lids which was a bummer because the space in my truck camper that holds my battery is very narrow and the lid makes it a very tight squeeze.

[bmw]

Does it work if the battery is at less than 12 volts to bring it back to 12 volts ?

[cherylvanesch]

I know nothing about this so have a question, do you pour the water into only one of the holes? Or do you put water in each of the holes?

[pmp]

Can I use filtered drinking water instead of distilled water since I have it on hand?

[cindyjohnson]

Maybe at the outset say this is NOT a normal RV battery that you have to fill EVERY CELL!

[AngelaM]

why do you suggest the battery be fully charged?

[newsveteran]

Count how many times you say "go ahead" in this video.