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Acceptable battery draw or drain key off

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Old 11-20-2014, 02:48 PM
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Default Acceptable battery draw or drain key off

I'm sure this has been hashed out before, but my searching skills are failing me.

What is an acceptable battery drain with the key off. Interior lights and others off, underhood light unplugged.

I'm showing .45 amps of draw.

I previously installed a 150 amp circuit breaker so I can shut off power easily without having to completely disconnect the batteries (I also did this in place of the fusible link for the alternator so I can disconnect the alternator when I change the oil, it's quite handy).

I installed the breakers in the first place because after a few weeks the batteries would go dead, once I replaced the batteries with new and the problem continued I put the breakers in so I at least wasn't draining the batteries. I was hoping to track down the draw so I could stop unhooking power whenever the truck is going to be sitting, or is that a lost cause? With my job it's easy for me to be gone for a few weeks at a time and once the truck makes it to Alaska it sure would be nice to not have to get under the hood in winter time before I could try to start the truck each time I come home.
 
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Old 11-21-2014, 04:33 AM
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Get you one of those power probes. Might help you figure out where your electricity is escaping from.
 
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Old 11-21-2014, 08:20 AM
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How long are you waiting when you take that reading? Some electronics take a few minutes to turn off completely. 0.45A is huge, 0.045 would be acceptable but still a bit high.

You can do your draw test, and start pulling fuses. When the amperage drops, you have found the circuit that the draw is coming from.
 
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