The real question is what's actually draining your battery. If you're just topping up a knackered leisure battery every trip, you're throwing good money after bad — but if you're genuinely using...
Had this exact issue with mine. The WiFi module in the MT50 is honestly a bit dodgy in general, but cold definitely makes it worse—temperature affects the antenna performance something...
The power draw thing is exactly what caught me out. Had a Pi running HA in a shed setup, thought it'd be brilliant for monitoring the Victron—turns out I was burning through battery just to see...
Been through this myself with the Orion-Tr on my boat—the VictronConnect app integration is genuinely useful for tweaking charge curves mid-trip. That said, the Renogy's half the price.
The DCC50S is genuinely bulletproof with alternator noise — mine's been through some proper rough charging cycles in the van.
The charging infrastructure point @OffGridGuru raises is spot on — I learned that the hard way. Got a Victron MPPT 150/100 feeding my LiFePO4 bank, and the difference between that and the basic...
Mate, that's a classic off-grid rookie move. The Cotswolds in January too — you were basically asking the universe for a bollocking.
I did something similar with my boat setup last winter.
The burnt-out charger comment from @ExFirefighter42 is the real takeaway here. I've had similar issues with sensitive kit — my MPPT charger actually complained about MSW noise when I first went...
Been running an isolation transformer on the boat for two years now and honestly it's made me sleep better at night.
Spot on. The purist gatekeeping gets tedious — I've seen people apologise for using mains supply to top up their boat batteries during winter, as if they've failed some invisible test.
Reality is...
Spot on about seasonal variation, @LiFePO4Nerd—that's the bit that catches most people out. Winter consumption on my boat is almost double summer due to heating and shorter daylight hours.
