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Can I use Jackery to charge RV battery

gkrn

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I've recently purchased the Jackery 1500 and 4-100 watt solarsaga panels to use with our travel trailer. We got this set up because we are inexperienced with solar and we wanted portability to use at home if needed. Our primary need is to power the propane refrigerator in the trailer. That fridge on propane draws 3 amps on 12 volts. We figure the fridge will be running 50% of the time. We planned to plug the trailer cord into the Jackery to keep the RV battery charged to run the refrig on 12V. I understand there is loss of power with that set up. Our 2 other thoughts were 1) would it be ok to connect the Jackery directly to the 12 volt marine battery via the Jackery Powercable 12V auto battery charging cable, cigarette plug to alligator battery clamps to keep the battery charged? or 2) plug a battery trickle charger into the Jackery AC outlet and keep the camper battery charged that way? Excuse my ignorance with all this. Thanx in advance.

 
I've recently purchased the Jackery 1500 and 4-100 watt solarsaga panels to use with our travel trailer. We got this set up because we are inexperienced with solar and we wanted portability to use at home if needed. Our primary need is to power the propane refrigerator in the trailer. That fridge on propane draws 3 amps on 12 volts. We figure the fridge will be running 50% of the time. We planned to plug the trailer cord into the Jackery to keep the RV battery charged to run the refrig on 12V.

Just to be clear, you're running the fridge on propane, which requires a 12V power source for the controls. Some units actually run on DC to provide the heat source.

If running on propane, fine.


I understand there is loss of power with that set up. Our 2 other thoughts were 1) would it be ok to connect the Jackery directly to the 12 volt marine battery via the Jackery Powercable 12V auto battery charging cable, cigarette plug to alligator battery clamps to keep the battery charged

No. The car port is 12V. You need 14V+ to charge your RV.

or 2) plug a battery trickle charger into the Jackery AC outlet and keep the camper battery charged that way? Excuse my ignorance with all this. Thanx in advance.


Yes, but that's very inefficient. DC-AC-DC is only about 75% efficient.

This:


Would pull power from the 12V/10A port and "float" the battery at 13.8V/5A keeping it topped off.
 
@gkrn , are you sure about the amp draw when on propane? The placard for my Dometic RM2852 Propane/AC unit lists the current at 2.7 amps when on AC. The 12 volt draw spec is blank, so I'm not sure what Dometic means by that. I rarely run my refrigerator on AC because I'm not connected to shore power. The draw of my refrigerator is one of the things I worry about the least. Seriously , I don't even think about the effect of the refrigerator on my batteries. Propane I worry about a little, but the absorption refrigerator will go a long time on propane.

For simplicity, I would plug the trailer's shore power cord into the Jackery. That will provide AC power to the on-board converter, which will then keep the trailer's batteries charged. It's not the most efficient method, but you can't beat it for simplicity.

With 400 watts of solar I'm surprised you're concerned about this. I have 640 watts of PV on the roof of my trailer. Except for in very cold conditions, that 640 watts is plenty to keep my battery bank charged. I do have 560 Ah of LiFePO4 batteries, so it may be more efficient at charging than your setup if you have lead acid batteries.
 
Just to be clear, you're running the fridge on propane, which requires a 12V power source for the controls. Some units actually run on DC to provide the heat source.

If running on propane, fine.




No. The car port is 12V. You need 14V+ to charge your RV.



Yes, but that's very inefficient. DC-AC-DC is only about 75% efficient.

This:


Would pull power from the 12V/10A port and "float" the battery at 13.8V/5A keeping it topped off.
Thank you @sunshine_eggo for the reply.

We will be running the fridge on propane and still need the 12V to run the fridge, so they say.

I like the Voltage-Regulator-Converter-Transformer but I don't have the knowledge of how to put this system together or what the other parts would be that we need. Do you know if I can purchase this as an already constructed piece, like a plug and play accessory? Thanx again.
 
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@gkrn , are you sure about the amp draw when on propane? The placard for my Dometic RM2852 Propane/AC unit lists the current at 2.7 amps when on AC. The 12 volt draw spec is blank, so I'm not sure what Dometic means by that. I rarely run my refrigerator on AC because I'm not connected to shore power. The draw of my refrigerator is one of the things I worry about the least. Seriously , I don't even think about the effect of the refrigerator on my batteries. Propane I worry about a little, but the absorption refrigerator will go a long time on propane.

For simplicity, I would plug the trailer's shore power cord into the Jackery. That will provide AC power to the on-board converter, which will then keep the trailer's batteries charged. It's not the most efficient method, but you can't beat it for simplicity.

With 400 watts of solar I'm surprised you're concerned about this. I have 640 watts of PV on the roof of my trailer. Except for in very cold conditions, that 640 watts is plenty to keep my battery bank charged. I do have 560 Ah of LiFePO4 batteries, so it may be more efficient at charging than your setup if you have lead acid batteries.
Thankyou @HRTKD ,

I got the amp info from the trailer owners manual. I'll try to attach my reference. We have the Dometic 2882 Propane/AC fridge.

My initial plan was to plug the trailer shore power cord directly into the Jackery. When I posted that to the FB group for my trailer I got blasted for connecting that way because of the draw of power from the converter, then the loss in converting DC - AC - DC. People said to connect solar directly to the RV battery. That led me to try to look at ways of getting power directly to the batteries vs thru the trailer converter.

1) We don't want solar panels on the trailer roof. We always try to camp in the shade so that is not gonna work for us.
2) We have no issue setting up and taking down the portable solar panels and would not leave them out if we are not at the campsite. We may be gone the better part of a day sightseeing, etc. We can charge the Jackery via the cigarette lighter or 400W plug in our pickup. This was a big plus for the Jackery.
3) We've got this simple, portable bank of power if there's ever a need at our sticks and bricks.

The Jackery 1500 Solar Generator with 4 solar panels was costly ($2700) but that was a consideration after simplicity, safety, and portability.

The 400 watts of solar are 4 -100W Jackery solorsaga panels and only connect to the Jackery, not the RV battery. We have 1 lead acid battery. We are not avid boondockers but we prefer to pick the camping site for its location and not by the hookups if offers. We're going to be traveling 3+ months this summer and it looks like 90% of the time have no hookups. Some sites we will be at for 2 weeks.

We do need simplicity in our setup. Neither of us is knowledgeable enough in electricity to do any wiring, safely. If your experience is that we can keep our RV battery charged via connecting the trailer shore power cord to the Jackery we would go that route. We don't know what to expect in loss from the converter running. We need the Jackery to last at least 24 hours then recharge. We will not be running water pump, water heater or anything else from the trailer. We also have a Jackery 500 that we will use for powering iphones, ipads, laptop.
Many thanx for your reply.Screen Shot 2021-12-23 at 14.00.35.png
 
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People can be asses. No decision is truly bad if one weighs the implications and applies choice. I've often chosen convenience over efficiency.

There is absolutely no harm in plugging your RV into the Jackery 120VAC outlet. I actually did something similar for some time before I developed my current system. I had a "power bank" consisting of 24V batteries, 24V inverter and MPPT + solar. I simply plugged my RV umbilical into the inverter output. I knew the 12V was inefficient, and I was consuming juice keeping the RV 12V charged, and I was plenty fine with it because it also gave me "backup" by having the systems layered on top of each other. If the power bank goes dead, I'm still starting with a freshly charged 12V.

@HRTKD's solution is the simplest. The only downside is all 12V stuff will be powered at about 75% efficiency due to the DC-AC-DC conversion.

If you're okay with that then do it. Easy button. Eff those FB people. Listen to the solar folks!

Charge the Jackery with solar rather than the RV batteries. No point in having a dead Jackery. Again, not the most efficient, but the most simple and practical.

The 3A fridge rating is the absolute maximum when the fridge is holding the propane valve open. In reality, your average consumption will probably be closer to 5-10W.
 
Just to be clear, you're running the fridge on propane, which requires a 12V power source for the controls. Some units actually run on DC to provide the heat source.

If running on propane, fine.




No. The car port is 12V. You need 14V+ to charge your RV.



Yes, but that's very inefficient. DC-AC-DC is only about 75% efficient.

This:


Would pull power from the 12V/10A port and "float" the battery at 13.8V/5A keeping it topped off.

@sunshine_eggo ,

You really got me thinking I'd like to "experiment" and wire together the system using the voltage regulator converter (VRC) you linked at Amazon.

I can see I will need a cigarette lighter plugin for the Jackery, wire from the plugin to the VRC, wire from the VRC to battery connectors to the RV marine battery. (Bolded is what I need to purchase). Do I need a fuse anywhere in this lineup? I prefer no soldering as I don't have a solder gun. Am I crazy to attempt this?

Thanx for your input and time.
 
@sunshine_eggo ,

You really got me thinking I'd like to "experiment" and wire together the system using the voltage regulator converter (VRC) you linked at Amazon.

I can see I will need a cigarette lighter plugin for the Jackery, wire from the plugin to the VRC, wire from the VRC to battery connectors to the RV marine battery. (Bolded is what I need to purchase). Do I need a fuse anywhere in this lineup? I prefer no soldering as I don't have a solder gun. Am I crazy to attempt this?

Thanx for your input and time.

Yes. The battery connectors should be ring terminals or other sensible means of attaching the leads. You don't want alligator clips.

+1 on @Rednecktek's 10A fuse. Place between the cig plug and the VRC. Many cig plugs include an integral fuse. That would be perfect.
 
@sunshine_eggo ,

You really got me thinking I'd like to "experiment" and wire together the system using the voltage regulator converter (VRC) you linked at Amazon.

I can see I will need a cigarette lighter plugin for the Jackery, wire from the plugin to the VRC, wire from the VRC to battery connectors to the RV marine battery. (Bolded is what I need to purchase). Do I need a fuse anywhere in this lineup? I prefer no soldering as I don't have a solder gun. Am I crazy to attempt this?

Thanx for your input and time.
Was curious if you attempted this method for charging your RV battery? I am in a very similar situation with a Jackery 1500, a solar panel, and two acid batteries.

Using a Watt meter to confirm Jackery screen readings, I’m finding that my travel trailer’s converter is pulling too many Watts while operating for my liking; would run out Jackery in too short a time. For efficiency, I plan to flip off Converter switch in my breaker box. But I’m also worried that if I don’t provide my batteries any juice, they won’t last but a few days operating my 12V fridge. I only have a single 170W (not as much as I need) solar panel on roof. So I’m also trying to find a way, other than the single solar panel, to recharge my batteries.

Plan to use Jackery 1500 to plug in to trailer and, as noted, turn off Converter so only Microwave and Outlets are useable. Will use 4 SolarMax 100W to recharge Jackery. Have a second 1500 as a backup.

Just curious if you completed that modification and if so how it went. I’m fortunate that my father is an electrical engineer so I’m going to show him this thread to see if he thinks this would be something we can try too. Thanks for any update or feedback you can provide.

-John
 
I've recently purchased the Jackery 1500 and 4-100 watt solarsaga panels to use with our travel trailer. We got this set up because we are inexperienced with solar and we wanted portability to use at home if needed. Our primary need is to power the propane refrigerator in the trailer. That fridge on propane draws 3 amps on 12 volts. We figure the fridge will be running 50% of the time. We planned to plug the trailer cord into the Jackery to keep the RV battery charged to run the refrig on 12V. I understand there is loss of power with that set up. Our 2 other thoughts were 1) would it be ok to connect the Jackery directly to the 12 volt marine battery via the Jackery Powercable 12V auto battery charging cable, cigarette plug to alligator battery clamps to keep the battery charged? or 2) plug a battery trickle charger into the Jackery AC outlet and keep the camper battery charged that way? Excuse my ignorance with all this. Thanx in advance.

I might be missing something here, but all of the propane fridges I have seen or used draw exactly 0 watts while operating on propane. That’s the whole point. I think I would to verify that you actually consuming electricity while running your fridge on propane so you can better understand your needs.
 
I might be missing something here, but all of the propane fridges I have seen or used draw exactly 0 watts while operating on propane. That’s the whole point. I think I would to verify that you actually consuming electricity while running your fridge on propane so you can better understand your needs.

0W of AC, yes. DC, no.

The thermostat and the valve energized open to allow the gas to flow can easily consume measurable power. On VRM I could watch my fridge cycle on and off about 4-6W as the propane valve opened and closed, respectively.
 
Was curious if you attempted this method for charging your RV battery? I am in a very similar situation with a Jackery 1500, a solar panel, and two acid batteries.

Using a Watt meter to confirm Jackery screen readings, I’m finding that my travel trailer’s converter is pulling too many Watts while operating for my liking; would run out Jackery in too short a time. For efficiency, I plan to flip off Converter switch in my breaker box. But I’m also worried that if I don’t provide my batteries any juice, they won’t last but a few days operating my 12V fridge. I only have a single 170W (not as much as I need) solar panel on roof. So I’m also trying to find a way, other than the single solar panel, to recharge my batteries.

Plan to use Jackery 1500 to plug in to trailer and, as noted, turn off Converter so only Microwave and Outlets are useable. Will use 4 SolarMax 100W to recharge Jackery. Have a second 1500 as a backup.

Just curious if you completed that modification and if so how it went. I’m fortunate that my father is an electrical engineer so I’m going to show him this thread to see if he thinks this would be something we can try too. Thanks for any update or feedback you can provide.

-John
I’ve purchased the parts to give this a try. I understand how this works now, so this should be an easy solution.

As expected, my converter has been pulling 325-525W off my J-1500 on a trip these last two weeks, and it quickly depletes the unit. Switching the converter off in the breaker box is only solution, but my solar panel on roof isn’t enough to compensate for 12V DC fridge and other components. I am likely going to install two 190W GoPower panels on our roof, but I want this Jackery hack as a backup.

We’ve also recently purchased a Ecoflow Delta Pro, with several panels, and provided the power it has, this may all become a moot issue.

Been a lot to learn, but I love it when all the electrical elements suddenly make sense. Will post back after tring the VRC.
 
I’ve purchased the parts to give this a try. I understand how this works now, so this should be an easy solution.

As expected, my converter has been pulling 325-525W off my J-1500 on a trip these last two weeks, and it quickly depletes the unit. Switching the converter off in the breaker box is only solution, but my solar panel on roof isn’t enough to compensate for 12V DC fridge and other components. I am likely going to install two 190W GoPower panels on our roof, but I want this Jackery hack as a backup.

We’ve also recently purchased a Ecoflow Delta Pro, with several panels, and provided the power it has, this may all become a moot issue.

Been a lot to learn, but I love it when all the electrical elements suddenly make sense. Will post back after tring the VRC.
Interested in how your experiment went. Considering a similar approach to extend RV 12v system Any success?
 
Finally had a chance to test this all out on an actual trip, where solar charging has been challenging due to cloudy weather, but to mixed results thus far. I think I know what was wrong with my setup though.

First, the Ecoflow's have been fantastic, powers everything A/C wise in the camper for about 3x-4x as long as the Jackery 1500 did alone. On our last shorter trip I used the Jackery 1500 to power all A/C in trailer but was having to recharge daily. But the Ecoflows perform longer obviously because there is more capacity; though the Ecoflow does seems to handle higher loads and most definitely charges faster than any Jackery I've owned, via solar or via fast recharging by generator. Still, can't beat the portability of the Jackery, so it was my go to on this trip to top off my two 12V trailer batteries while the Ecoflow powered everything else (with converter breaker switched off) via standard 30A RV plug.

Unfortunately the 5A step up module failed on me due to the fact I believe my batteries had gotten to depleted (around 11.7V). This seems to have overheated the unit and it failed. The 10A fuse was fine, but the 5A device itself clearly couldn't charge my two batteries in parallel (which most retail branded trickle chargers apparently also recommend against). In all the testing I'd done previously however, the two batteries were at 12V or higher and the Jackery 12v plug + the 13.8V step-up module DID show 13.x+ volts as expected; thus it did charge properly so long as the batteries weren't too far depleted. Had I used the Jackery from the start, it may have worked as expected.

I think I have two options, either constantly keep the Jackery plugged into the module and trickle charge my batteries without letting them deplete (though the Jackery would need fully recharging almost daily or every other day max), or try a 10A step-up unit as needed, but try and still not let the batteries get too depleted.

Honestly, our 12V fridge is using a lot of power when we go on a longer trip and I've been using the travel trailer's built in converter to recharge my 12V batteries via the Ecoflows we got. But that is using a lot of power as per original issue.

I'm not giving up on a solution with the Jackery yet, I'll try and follow up once I've had a chance to test further. I think I'm going to get another 5A and 10A step-up unit for further testing.
 
Appreciate the detailed follow up. My 12v fridg is exactly the concern i have. If not careful with the inverter (TV, short microwave burst etc). I am concerned my 170 ah lead acid battery bank may slip below that 50% threshold unnoticed at night. it may be a moot point as in theory the fridge will use less than 5 Amps when cycling which I estimate to be less than 30 min for every hour, but mileage may vary. Your suspicions about why it failed for you may be on target. If the draw exceeds the limitations of the step-up unit or the fuses or the wires, at a min you will blow a fuse or heat some wires but could be worse. maybe The trick is to start when the batteries are full with the trickle charge and extend the time in the front end vs trying to extend when the batteries are low. Hmmm. Interesting concepts. Of course for my situation I could just toss the existing batteries and put my money toward a larger bank, but I hate the idea of sidelining perfectly good batteries, Adding a solar generator to the mix is more appealing. What draw are you seeing from your 12 v fridge? Is it performing as expected?
 
I wanted to follow up again on this thread, as I've spent several months now doing research, and I think I have a better solution for those using a Jackery to try and power their DC devices in their RVs. I've been doing something similar with my Ecoflow, but this should work with the Jackery or any other portable power station as well.

The easiest and most efficient solution I've found is to basically set up a quick disconnect on my lead-acid batteries using an SAE connector (you could also use Anderson connectors, I choose SAE because they're more water and dust-resistant). Just watch your polarity on the connections. But this setup allows me to quickly disconnect my RV batteries and use any other portable battery of my choosing. Make sure you turn OFF your converter in your RV power fuse box, as you don't need it to convert AC to DC while using the external power station.

On the Jackery side, just take the 12V cigarette output port, and get a properly sized gauge cable with a cigarette lighter on the end, and crimp on the proper SAE connection on the end of the cables. This allows you to unplug your RV batteries and plug in the Jackery or any other unit. Just ensure you don't exceed the 10amps of the cigarette port, and you should be fine. In my case, I have a 30amp Anderson DC port on my Ecoflow, so I found an Anderson to SAE adapter, and then I plugged that into my battery SAE connection described above. Works like a charm. To monitor my amp usage, I installed a Victron SmartShunt as well, but that's totally optional. Typically I've found even with my furnace fan and fridge running, I'm only hitting a combined 9amps of current.

For your AC devices, use a 20amp to 30amp adapter, and you can power your AC devices that way and the DC devices using the method described above. Again, just be sure to turn off your converter, as you don't want the multi-stage charging system to try and charge your portable power station. In my case, I also unplugged my RV solar panels so my solar controller wouldn't turn on its multi-stage charging functions either. You can use the Jackery solar panels (or other brand via 8mm to MC4 adapters) to recharge your Jackery.

Hope this helps someone looking for a solution. I tried the step-up converters, and they work, but as soon as I put any real load on them, I had problems, even with a 10amp or 18amp step-up module. Maybe I just had two bad modules, but I never could get that method to work properly. Plus, if you continue to use AC only, you lose a lot of energy efficiency in the conversions from DC to AC (via the Jackery invertor) and then back to DC in the RV converter.

I've attached a mockup showing how the wiring would look... it's not too hard to do, if I can do it, anyone can.
 

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+1 on JCDerrick’s approach. Thanks for sharing your experiences and approach!

I approached this in a slightly different way but the results are similar.

Mostly for fun (and because I was worried about nighttime power on a long trip this summer that involved a lot of dry camping along the way), I put together a DIY solar generator. Other than the fact that I call it a “GreyEtti” and use some fuse/circuit breaker protected Anderson connectors to hook up the inverters and my LiPo battery charger, it functions like a solar generator with a 1280wh / 100amp storage with DC lighter/usb ports and either a 1000 w or 500w AC inverter .

Our TT is prewired for a second solar array with capped cables In the pass Thru storage to the roof ports and to the batteries. I borrowed the battery connection, added a 30a dc circuit breaker and terminated with an Anderson connector.

So with that preamble, I had this set up so that I could use the inverter on the “GreyEtti “ to power my IP65 Blue battery charger and directly charge the trailers lead acid batteries thru the Anderson connector at night. During the day I could reverse that setup to charge the LiPO battery ( using a LiPO charging profile) from the trailers batteries when the solar array was producing enuf power . So I didn’t have to disconnect the batteries but I was losing efficiency as I was going from DC to inverter to power the blue charger.

This worked ok but not perfectly. Even with a fairly high power usage overnight, I woke to fully charged lead acid batteries on the trailer, but a fairly depleted LiPO battery Unfortunately the bulk and absorption phases of my blue charger just worked too hard trying to charge the trailer batteries . ..not to mention the DC-AC-DC losses.

What worked better on successive days was to set my charger to low power mode, so that when “charging” the trailer batteries it used 4 amps instead of 15 and in effect just supplemented the power usage overnight like a power supply. With this setup I woke to about 80% on both sets of batteries and still had power enuf to run the MrCoffee off the trailers inverter in the am.

Not a super efficient use of the power, but it gets me through the night. I could probably save some power usage by making a custom charging profile that acted like a lower voltage power supply…Eg 13.8v float vs the higher bulk voltage . I have also found that using the flexibility of the portable pack by utilizing it inside the trailer to offload nighttime power loads directly…Eg AC fan, DC tv etc….also is a viable alternative.

Haven’t used the solar generator as “shore power” yet as I didn’t want to leave the pack outside near the power plug or run a long AC extension. But that aside I know I would forget to turn off the converter and waste the power that way. Easier for me (tho maybe equally inefficient) to just use the trailers inverter to power AC and manage the dc power as I described above .

Like the Ecoflow that JCDerrick is using , I like the flexibility this approach gives. It allows me to continue to use my 164 amps of lead acid power (82 usable) but also allows me to effectively double my available power with the 100a of LiPO power if we need it for those times we are not hooked to shore power . Eventually I will probably replace the trailer batteries, but for now I don’t have too.
 
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