Ever been plugged into shore power but still had dim lights or a battery that won’t stay charged? In this episode, Eric breaks down RV power converters in plain English—what they do, why they matter, and how to identify the style and brand you have in your rig.

You’ll learn the difference between 120V AC and 12V DC, where converters are usually located, and why knowing your converter’s brand/model makes troubleshooting and replacing it much easier. We also cover single-stage vs multi-stage “smart” converters, and why charging profiles matter even more if you’re running (or upgrading to) lithium batteries.

To wrap up, we pivot to RV fire safety—where to keep fire extinguishers, why adding an extra one or two is smart, and why quality matters when you’re buying a life-saving tool. Product Brands - WFCO, Parallax, Iota, PowerMax, Progressive Dynamics, Xantrex, Picquic, Victron, Amerex, Kidde, Ansul, Badger.

Action step: Find your converter, snap a photo of the label, and write down the brand/model/amps—then check your fire extinguisher placement before your next trip.

1. Takeaways:Understanding the operational mechanics and significance of the power converter in an RV is crucial for effective maintenance.
2. When plugged into shore power, the power converter should supply 12 volts to the RV and charge the battery simultaneously.
3. It is essential to identify the specific model and brand of your RV's power converter for troubleshooting purposes.
4. The selection of high-quality batteries and converters greatly influences the longevity and performance of your RV's electrical system.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Here is a link to the 2 RV Accessory Catalogs - 2026 RV Catalogs

Converter Check List- Check List

RV Electrical Problems - Check List

Fire Extinguisher - Placement Guide

PICQUIC RV Screwdriver - RV Driver w/ Bits

Contact Us - Call, Text, Video, Email Our Online Resources:

The Smart Rver YouTube Channel - Check Out Our No-Nonsense YouTube Videos

Sunpro Mfg - RV Sunshade, Windshield Covers & Slide Out Awning Fabrics

Hot Boat Ropes - Marine Cordage- Anchor Lines, Dock Lines, Tow Lines, etc.

Top Rated Podcast - The Smart RVer Podcast Website

Quick question.

Have you ever been plugged into shore power and your lights seem dim, the battery doesn't seem like it's getting charged, and you're thinking, how can this be happening? I'm plugged into shore power.

Well, in today's episode, it's going to be like a light bulb moment because we're going to talk about the power converter, one of the most important items in an RV and one of the most misunderstood items in an rv. And we're also going to discuss fire extinguisher safety in your rv. Do you have one and is it a good one?

And then we're going to get into the pick Quick screwdriver made just for RVers. I'm Eric Stark. Welcome to the Smart RVer podcast. If you'd rather be camping than sitting in a repair shop, you're in the right place.

Every episode, I'll walk you through practical DIY maintenance and repairs that keep you on the road. So welcome back, Smart RVers. Today is episode 197, so we're going to jump right into this.

But before we get into the nuts and bolts, let's talk about subscribing to the Smart RVer podcast on your favorite podcast app, like Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, whatever it is, we're on all of them. And there's some links also on our website as well. So if you're not sure, you can go there and check it out. The smartrver.com.

all right, so in staying on the road, we're going to talk about RV power converters. We're going to discuss the styles, the brands, and how to identify what you have. And a couple little technical things.

Nothing major, but a few little things to just give you an idea of how to fix it if there's a problem. Basic problems. All right, so I asked you the question, have you ever been plugged into shore power and still had dim lights?

The battery doesn't stay charged. You got these weird 12 volt issues making you think, how can this be happening when I'm plugged in? If you have.

Today's episode is going to be like that light bulb moment I talked about. The light bulb is going to go off.

You're going to go, wow, okay, I got this now because a power converter is something you need to know about in your rv.

And so we're going to break this down in plain English and we're going to cover the different styles, the common brands, and most importantly, I'm going to explain how to identify what converter you have in your rv. And it's only going to take a few minutes to do this. So here's what I want you to walk away with today. We got four points here.

You'll understand what the converter does and what it doesn't do. And you'll know the main styles, like where it's located and what it looks like.

You'll recognize common brands like the Wolfco, wfco, Progressive Dynamics, powermax, Iota and Parallax. You'll have a simple step by step checklist to find yours. You'll be able to read the label and know whether it's likely doing its job or not.

And honestly, if you know how to find your power converter, identify the model of it, you'll understand how to troubleshoot your 12 volt problems a lot easier. It won't be a mystery to you, it'll become clear as a bell. Well, maybe it'll become clearer. Let's say that. All right, so let's start with the basics.

So your RV has two main electrical worlds. You have the 12, I mean, excuse me, the 120 volt AC power. So that's the shore power that's coming into your RV.

When you're plugged in at a campground or your house or you're plugged into a generator. Any outside power that's coming in, that is the 120 volt AC power. Then you have the 12 volt DC power.

That's what runs a lot of the normal everyday stuff in your rv, like the fans, the water pump, the lights, the furnace. If you have a touchpad, control the slide outs, propane detector control boards. See the list goes on.

There's quite a few things that are on the 12 volt side. Remember your RV is designed to camp off the grid, not plugged into 120v. So the 12v runs the majority of the RV. So here's what we need to know.

A power converter takes 120v ac power and converts it to 12v d dc power. So ac power is 120v dc power in this case is 12v. So when you're plugged into shore power, your converter is supposed to do this.

Supply power to your 12 volt system. And in most RVs it's going to charge your battery. There's some variables there, but not much. So I want to say that again.

So when you're plugged into shore power, you're going to be running 120 volts into the RV which will power up the 12 volt system and charge the battery. Now for some clarity here, because inverters are becoming more popular today, they're coming in more RVs. We still have to understand the difference.

A converter which comes in most RVs goes from AC to DC so you're 120 to 12 volts. Now an inverter goes from 12 volts to 120 volts.

So if you're off the grid and you have an inverter, you will still have 120 volts in your RV when your inverter is on.

And there's variables with that, depending on the rv, how the inverter system was put in, the converter in the RV will be actually charging or not charging if it has a converter.

So some variables there, but if you just keep that separate in your mind, a converter is what gives your RV 12 volts and inverter is what gives your RV 120 volts. And today we're going to talk about the converter. All right, so cool, let's move on. So why do converters matter so much?

You know, when your converter is weak or failing, you know, you get these annoying systems. They feel very random. Your lights can dim or flicker, the water pump can slow down. You know, it's pumps good, then start grinding to a halt.

The furnace blower is going to run slower, which might disable the furnace from running at all.

And if you have low voltage, if the power is getting too low, the furnace won't even come on or it'll just run for a second and turn off, acting like there's a problem with the furnace when it's really a battery issue. Now the refrigerator, it has a control board in it that runs on 12 volts. That's if you have a gas absorption refrigerator.

If you have a compressor style refrigerator that runs on 12 volts, well, that's another avenue there where the refrigerator can actually stop running or have weird problems. If Your refrigerator is 110v, well that's a different animal. So it's not going to fall into this 12 volt category.

And your battery might seem like it goes dead way too fast. You know, gosh, it just seems like we charged it up, now it's dead again. See, that's too quick. You shouldn't be saying that.

And then when you plug into shore power, it doesn't seem like your battery, battery ever really gets charged. It just always seems like there's an issue as soon as you unplug there's no battery.

So one of the most common calls I get in our store at Highway 93 RV is, hey, Eric, I'm plugged in and my battery is still dying. So that means when they're plugged into shore power, they think the battery is getting charged.

They go out camping, and by the time they get there, the battery has a little bit of charge because the truck charged it up. But it goes dead in hours or maybe last one night. So it's not getting fully charged. So that's a classic converter conversation we have in our store.

Now, sometimes it's the wiring, sometimes it is a battery issue. You know, if the 120v isn't working, the RV, that could be a trip GFCI breaker. But that's on the 120 volt side. That's not the converter side.

So we don't want to confuse that. But converters often become the suspect. And so it's figuring out whether it's the converter or the battery.

Now, there's different styles of converters in RVs. They look different, they do the same thing, but they look different. And so let's talk about that.

So somewhere in your rv, there's going to be a metal box, as some might describe it. It's a deck mount converter or a standalone converter. It might be near the battery compartment. It might be under a bed.

You lift up the bed and there it is in the dinette under one of the seats. It could be behind a panel someplace that's removable. There'll be screws on the front or obviously removable. It could be in a storage area in the rv.

It could be in a cabinet somewhere. And you know, as you're looking for your converter, and I've heard this a million times, man, what were they thinking when they built this rv?

Where is this stupid converter? My RV must not have one. Well, it does. It's sometimes having to be like a detective and go find that sucker and figure it out.

And, you know, you can listen for it sometimes if you throw on all the 12 volt items in the RV, the fan will come on, put a load on the converter, and you can hear the fan making noise. Or if the converter is going bad, that fan might be on anyway, so you can listen for that.

So a standalone converter is generally just a metal box or usually silver. And it could be 8 inches by 8 inches by 4 inches. It could be 12 by 8 by 4. There's different sizes. It could be black, but generally they're silver.

Power Macs are typically black. All the other brands are silver. It's going to have 110 volt cord on it that plugs into an outlet.

Then it's going to have three wires or two wires going to it for the 12 volt system, usually pretty heavy wires like a number 10 gauge, sometimes a number 8. Depends on the RV, how they wired it, the amperage of the converter. It'll be obvious when you find it.

It's going to be the only thing like it in a cabinet someplace. Now these converters are kind of cool because they're easy to replace after you find it.

And remember, once you find it, make a note of it so you don't have to do this search again. And they're easier to upgrade, you know, because it's just a few wires. Unplug it, put in new wires.

And sometimes they get better ventilation because of where they're at. They're usually in a compartment or under a cabinet, a seat where there's more airflow. So it's going to last longer in a lot of cases.

Now, the only con to them really is they can be a pain to find, right?

And for those of you who have tried doing it, trying to find your converter, you know what I'm talking about, it can be a nightmare sometimes, but that's the way it is. It's got to go someplace. It's kind of like a car. Sometimes you can't find things for quite a while and then you finally do.

It's like that light bulb moment one more time. Now also, you might have a power distribution center with a converter built into it. Now, power distribution centers are pretty easy to find.

You know, they're generally on the face of a cabinet and that's where your 12 volt fuses are going to be, your 120 volt circuit breakers. And then the converter section is built into it, usually at the bottom of it, and you have to take the COVID off to see the converter portion of it.

But generally a door will flip down or open up where you can see the fuses and circuit breakers. And a lot of newer RVs and newer converters have a window in it so you can see when a fuse blows because a little red light comes on.

So that's in newer ones. Now you might have an older RV or you might have a Parallax converter in it with.

And Parallax converters like the Sherman tanks, they're all steel, they're very obvious. So that's the inverter. Excuse me, the power center with a built in converter.

And you could just have a power center where it has the fuses and circuit breakers. Then behind it typically is where the converter is at. So that'll be not as tall as the other ones. It'll be maybe 8 inches tall versus 13 inches tall.

But once you identify that center or your fuses and such, you'll be able to figure out the rest. It's not that hard, just takes a little detective work. Now some RVs have been upgraded to an inverter charger.

So you'd have a power inverter in there that's going to take the 12 volts and create the 110. Remember we talked about that a moment ago. So the inverter system is great, it's very nice. And if it has the built in charger, it's not.

Your RV is not going to be using a converter if there's one in it. Sometimes the inverter gets put in and the converter just gets left wherever it's at and disabled unplugged, they undo the wiring.

A lot of new RVers will come with a power center in it. With a built in converter, the converter will just not be hooked up. They'll disconnect it inside that power center and just leave it in there.

Because the inverter is doing the battery charging. So I hope that doesn't confuse it. But the inverter sometimes will act as the converter and charge your batteries.

Now let's talk about the different types of converters. This is pretty simple. There's only a couple and this mostly applies to older RVs where you'd have a single stage converter.

So a single stage converter is basically a dumb converter, a dumb battery charger. It charges at one voltage all the time.

So whenever you're plugged into shore power, it's just charging and it's supposed to shut off when it gets to a certain voltage so your batteries don't fry and cook well. These, these converters will fry and cook your batteries because they fail. They have a great track record of failing.

So that might be the type of converter you have.

And even if you weren't upgrading lithium batteries, if you have a single stage converter, I would replace it and go to the multi stage converters where they charge much better, which is what we're going to get to in a minute here. So if your batteries are always needing water, they always Have a smell to them, they're failing regularly.

You know, every two years you got to buy new batteries. Your converter is probably the culprit if it's an older rv.

And by older, you know, you could go back six or seven years and still have a single stage converter in it the exact year it all changed. You know, it blends, it goes over years where the converters come out. Like even Wolfco, they had theirs with a lithium switch.

And then gradually it became to auto detect. So there's a variation of converters that started transgressing or moving into the to the progressive or smart charging realm.

So it didn't happen like one year overnight. It took several years for this to happen. So you could still have a single stage charger. So your RV doesn't have to be ancient.

Now they don't connect to the Internet, but they do connect to apps, a lot of them. So you can have Bluetooth app on your phone, see what your RV is doing. So one more app on your phone for your rv.

I say that kind of sarcastically because how many apps do we need on our phone for an rv, right, it's an rv.

But anyway, common stages for charging in a smart converter are there the bulk rate, which is a higher voltage, it charges faster, the absorption is just slowing down, it's topping off the battery basically. And then the float is just kind of maintaining a charge without overcharging the battery and ruining it. Now is better.

Or these char or converters can go bad as well and ruin your batteries. But it doesn't happen as often because they're smarter, they're working better. They seem to just fail and not charge batteries rather than cook them.

Now, some converters or battery chargers might equalize your batteries and desulfate them at the same time. You're not going to find that too often in an RV power converter, but you know, the possibility is there.

The point here is a multi stage converter is much better for charging your batteries and it's going to make the life much longer. You're going to get better battery life because batteries are expensive, we want to do that.

And especially if you have lithium batteries, you don't want them dying prematurely. You want to get them charged properly.

So if your battery always seems to be low, it doesn't seem to be charging or it takes a really long time to charge the battery. It's probably time to upgrade your converter to a smart converter or just replace it. If you already have a smart converter, they do go bad.

Like most electronics today, you know, they don't last for 30 years. They last for years. Now unless you have a Parallax converter, them guys last forever. It seems like 20, 30, 40 years.

Now a quick note about lithium or if you're thinking about getting getting lithium, you want to make sure that you do have the right converter, that it does, that it is set up for lithium batteries. Because a regular converter that does not is not set up for lithium like a dumb converter.

It'll charge the lithium batteries but it's never going to bring them to the top where they need to be. You might get to an 80% point somewhere in there because the voltage isn't high enough. Lithium need a much higher voltage than most batteries.

So that's why it's important to upgrade converters when you go to lithium batteries. So I hope that makes sense. Pretty easy to follow along there. Now here's some of the brands you're going to see in RVs today.

These are the common brands and these brands are in the mainstream RV world. These are what RV stores sell, what distributors sell to RV stores. Manufacturers put in RVs.

These aren't the low quality ones you'll find all over the Internet. As I say that I'm looking at the name Powermax. Powermax doesn't come in new RVs but it is a good quality converter.

So you have woofco, which is very popular in trailers. It generally is in the power center.

That's what you see in so many RVs is the power center with the drop down door and then the converter sections underneath it. Then you have Progressive Dynamics. Great product PowerMax. Like I said, they're not new RVs but they're available in the aftermarket.

It's a nice change. If you have to buy a new converter.

They're a little bit cheaper than some of the mainstream brands that I've that I'm going to mention or have mentioned so you can save a couple bucks. Then you have Iota, which is a really nice quality converter. Generally a little smaller than everything else too.

So they fit in small smaller spaces, which is nice. Then you have the power lacks which is generally an older RVs.

So all the manufacturers said, hey, plastics, great, let's get rid of the steel converter and let's go to plastic one. So Powerlax was basically kicked out the door of the manufacturers of RVs. Now they're available in the aftermarket.

Now Parallax converters, man, they are bulletproof. I mean, they're steel. I mean literally you can hold them in front of you and probably stop a bullet, right? But they're not ideal for lithium.

You can get a module for the newer ones or you can upgrade your lower section to a newer one and add a lithium module to it. But the module won't work for all the amp ratings on the Parallax converters. They're working on it.

But if you just want a rock solid, smart charging converter, the Parallax is the guy for you. And I have to mention the inverters.

If you have a higher end RV or you're going for a higher end inverter, Xantrax Victron Magnum Magnums are pretty much out the door. I believe you can still get replacements for them. But Xantrex and Victron are two of the major inverter brands around for a long time.

They do very well. And you know, I'm not going to talk about the best one today. I'm not here to put a crown on a particular converter or an inverter for that matter.

We're just identifying them and walking through that process. So you know, what you have now, a lot of converter upgrades are going to come down to just a couple different things.

You know, you're going to get better charging performance and better battery life. As I said, batteries get expensive. You know, lithium are over the top expensive.

But even your deep cycles can be, you know, 150, 200 bucks depending on what you buy. Your AGMs are expensive, you know, four or $500, 350. Depends on the brand where you buy it, you know.

And by the way, when you buy batteries, buy quality batteries don't go for the cheap garbage. They don't last. Usually they don't last. Occasionally you hear of someone who got all these years of life out of their low, low price battery.

But it's just a fluke, it's not an everyday thing.

That battery was probably on the same assembly line as an interstate and it just got the wrong label put on it, marking it Hop Singh's battery or Whatever. So buy quality batteries just like you would your converter. So now how do you identify your converter?

Now we've kind of talked about where they're at and what they look like and such, but your power center, like I said that it's going to have the 120 volt breakers, it's going to have the 12 volt fuses in it, and it's going to be mounted on the face of a cabinet. It's going to be maybe in the bathroom, the bedroom. Yeah, I did mention the bathroom because they are in bathrooms. Bedroom, living room.

It could be in the kitchen, it could be in a cabinet. Like right as you walk inside the entry door, you know, there's a cabinet usually right there. It could be right there on it. It could be in a hallway.

Like if you have a fifth wheel or a motorhome, it could be in a hallway, but it's still visible. And generally they're, they have a brown cover or a black cover, so it might blend in some, but they're very obvious.

And if you've had your RV for any length of, you would know where it's at.

And when the fuses blow, it has a window on it usually, at least newer ones do, where you can see a red light that comes on with a blown fuse, so that if you have a blown fuse, you'd see that red light. So those are pretty straightforward.

And the power center may or may not have the converter built into it, but if it doesn't, the converter is right behind it. And so the, the converter itself, like a deck mount style or the metal box, those are going to be in a cabinet, dinette, we discussed that.

Sometimes they're harder to find, but it's there. Now, once you find your converter, whether it's the power center style or a deck mount converter, you're going to want to look at the label on it.

And it's probably best to take a picture of it and save it on your phone or a device, your computer. Or if you have a book, you know, just a notebook where you're keeping track of all your model numbers, which is what I highly recommend.

You know, it makes it so much easier to figure things out when you have everything at your fingertips. And then just remember, if you replace something, write down the new model number and the information that might be pertinent.

Generally the model number is just enough on most things. So anyways, when you open up the door on the converter, if it's a power center style, you'll see the information in there.

You can go a little bit higher, but you don't want to go too high if you're in a bind and, and you can't, let's say find your 55amp converter, but you can get a 65amp or a 60, that's not going to be the end of the world to upgrade to that. But you don't want to go crazy, go from like 55 to 80amps or 45 to 80.

That's way too much because the wire in the RV is made for that RV with that converter to draw so many amps. And so it'd be the same with the standalone converter. The deck mount, once you find it, it's gonna have a label on it with the information on it.

You know, as I say this, I'm just thinking these things are not that complicated. They sometimes feel like they might be.

But once you get it and you know where it's at and you understand a little bit, and all the manufacturers websites have diagnosing information on them, how to diagnose a converter that's gone bad or you think it's going bad and you want to check it out. So just get the information and write it down and keep track of it. For getting your mind wrapped around this little bit, just for a quick DIY check.

You know, you don't have to become an electrical engineer to figure out if a power converter is bad. So there's not a four year degree or eight year degree or anything like that. It's pretty basic.

So if you're plugged into shore power, your battery voltage should rise above the resting voltage or just the voltage that it sits at. Let's say you think your converter's not working right, so you check your battery voltage and with a digital voltmeter.

And I highly recommend you have a digital voltmeter if you own an RV. So you'd put it on the 12 volt setting or probably 20 volts and you check the battery and it's going to be like 12.6, 12.5 somewhere in there, 12.7.

Then when you plug in the RV, the battery voltage should go up. It should jump up above 13 if it doesn't do anything. The converter is not charging.

So you have to make sure that the converter is plugged in and the fuses on it aren't blown. Converters have reverse polarity fuses that sometimes will blow and they're there.

So if you're putting in a new battery and you hook it up wrong or you short out a cable, it won't ruin the converter, it just blows those fuses. Some have one fuse, some have two, but they're usually very marked. You can see it.

And the standalone converters, it's the only fuses on it or a deck mount converter, that's all you're going to see are those two fuses and that's it. There won't be any other fuses but a power center.

You have all your regular fuses, but generally these reverse polarity have a white box that's around them so they're identifiable. And they're kind of off to the side so they stand out as being kind of special, if you will.

So if the battery voltage doesn't jump up, then you want to check the fuses, make sure the converter is plugged in, the circuit breaker is not tripped. There's not a GFCI outlet in the RV that's tripped, causing a problem.

Because remember, a deck mount will be plugged into an outlet that could actually be on a GFCI circuit. And a lot of newer RVs only have one or two circuits in them. It's not like a house where every room has its own circuit breaker.

You know, some RVs only have one circuit breaker and that's it. It runs everything in the rv.

So make sure that there's not a problem there getting the 120 volts to the converter, because if you don't have 120 volts to it, it's not going to work. So that's the basic steps. And like I said, if you go to the manufacturer's website of your converter, they have diagnosing tips there.

And what I would do is download that information and keep it handy. Either print it out or keep it on your phone, put it in a folder marked RV or something like that.

You know, figure out your own, your own schema there for keeping track of everything.

If you have that, it makes it a lot easier when something goes wrong rather than having to, you know, oh gosh, I gotta get on the Internet, I gotta find this, I gotta figure this out. You got it right there in your fingertips.

And I guarantee you, like if you go to Wolfco's website and you find your converter on there, their instructions for diagnosing your converter will be a hundred percent. They're gonna guide you through it step by step. And it's really simple, takes five minutes and you will know whether your converter is bad or not.

You will be confident in that decision. That's how simple converters can be to diagnose. Sometimes the hardest part is just finding it if it's a deck mount style and that's it.

Remember, if you're in your RV and you're experiencing some symptoms, you know, like the lights go dim when you're plugged in. So the converter might not be charging, the battery supplying or, excuse me, supplying the 12 volts to the RV.

Now if the battery is always dead after you're plugged in for a day or two, the converter might not be charging.

So the converter could be going bad, it might not be plugged in, could be a fuse issue, and the converter runs constantly, all you hear is that fan day in and day out. That means there's either an extreme load on the converter or there's poor ventilation and it's overheating, or the converter is just failing.

And generally there wouldn't be poor ventilation unless you have something on it blocking it, which probably isn't going to be the case. It's probably the converter failing. As I say that if you do have all the 12 volt stuff on your RV, there's a heavy load on it, that fan will run.

That's the whole point of it. It keeps the converter cool.

When a lot of 12 volt things are happening, even when it's charging, that fan is going to come on, it's going to cool it down. So if you constantly hear that fan, your converter is probably failing.

Now if you recently replaced your battery, thinking, ah, it's time to put a new battery and nothing works now. Well, your reverse polarity fuses are probably blown, so you want to check those before you go crazy and start doing anything else.

Before you take the battery back and throw it through the window. The place where you. I'm just kidding.

Before you take the battery back to the store where you bought it and say, hey, this battery is no good because they're going to test it and say, no, the battery is good. See you later, sir, and push it back at you. So check those fuses first.

In some RVs, like especially travel trailers, they have a circuit breaker on the tongue of the trailer. Sometimes that could blow or go bad at the same time you did the battery. You know, it could just be a coincidence.

So when everything used to work, you might say that, well, everything was working before. Now everything's dead. When I'm plugged in, check the breaker and the GFCI outlet. Make sure it's not tripped.

Those are some basic little diagnostic tips, you know, to identify the computer as the converter as being the fail point. So keep that in mind. It's not an emergency. The world's not coming to an end when you have some of these problems. It's probably just the converter.

It could be the battery, but the converter can be the culprit. Quite often it is, you know, it's either going to be the converter or the battery. But everything we talked about today would point to the converter.

So now I want to ask you to do this. Take just a few minutes of your time today, this weekend, but do it.

Find your converter, see where it's at, and write down the brand and model number. Get that information on it, or take a picture. We talked about that. Have that information at your fingertips.

And then if you need help in choosing the converter or you're thinking about upgrading, or you have questions about it even switching to different battery types, you can call us. And now we are at Highway 93 RV. The Smart Rver podcast is under the umbrella of Highway 93 RV. That's our brick and mortar store in Victor, Montana.

You can go to Highway 93 RV, or you can go to the Smart Rver and go to the contact us page and you'll find our phone number there. We're all the same family, so it's not like we're sending you someplace else.

And more than likely, you're going to talk to me when you call so I can walk you right through this. It's a piece of cake. Just let me know what converter you have before you call.

Get that information, then call with it, and that's going to help even the batteries. So I have a little information to work with so we can get it all done in one phone call, right? So I can get you going in the right direction.

As a reminder, we do YouTube videos and we have a YouTube channel. So if you go to YouTube.com the smartrver we are there so you can check out our videos and all that fun stuff on YouTube.

Now let's talk about RV fire extinguishers for a moment. So you have this great investment. You've bought this RV. Whether it's a million dollars, half a million, 100,000, 30,000, 5,000, it doesn't matter.

RVs cost money. It's a huge investment and you want to take care of that investment. And now all RVs come with a fire extinguisher when they're new.

They're supposed to anyways. And generally that fire extinguisher is going to be like within 24 inches of the entry door and you walk in, usually very visible.

So the fire extinguisher comes with it and it's going to probably be a kidda, which is K I D D E Kita. So they are a consumer home type fire extinguisher. Kita has a good brand. You see them all over the store. You go into big box stores are there.

You go into anywhere, you'll find a kit of fire extinguisher. You go to a sporting goods store like Cabela's, they're going to have Kita. That's the brand. They come in a nice retail package.

They're retail friendly. But it's not always the greatest fire extinguisher. Before I get into the quality, let's finish this about having a fire extinguisher.

You know, when you have an rv, having one fire extinguisher is what's required by law. But more than likely you're going to need two or three or maybe even four fire extinguishers. You're going to want them in different places.

You're going to want to have one by the entry door where they recommend it goes. Then maybe one in the bedroom, one outside in a compartment. Because you don't know where a fire can break out. It's an rv, anything can happen.

And a lot of times if you get to that fire extinguisher quick enough, you can put out the fire and save the RV and minimize the damage. And you might be thinking, well, I got insurance, I don't care if it burns. Yeah, wait until you go to file that claim.

You're going to find out how good your insurance really is. Oh, sorry, sir, we don't cover this, we don't cover that. Oh, fire on a Saturday. Absolutely not. We don't cover that. Oh, sorry.

You're the hundredth person to call in today. We don't file any claims after 100 or 99. You know, that's how it can go with insurance companies. That sounds crazy, but it's the reality.

Especially today. They're getting tighter on what they will cover, what they won't cover. Having multiple ones is important. Now let's get to the quality.

Kida is a very popular brand and I'm not going to say it's a bad brand. They're out there. But you have Amerix, you have Ansel and Badger as three other brands are more commercial.

That's what you're going to find in retail locations, commercial locations. Now those three, Amerix, Ansel and Badger, they're the type that have to be serviced.

So you'd have to find a company near you that services fire extinguisher. If you went with one of those. And that may or may be a deal breaker. May or may not be the deal breaker depends on what they charge to service it.

You know, you have to do it annually. Then there's a six year inspection. You might say it doesn't matter, I'm just going to buy the Kidda and that's fine.

It's having them is what's important. But the quality will matter too. If you look at a Kita, they typically have plastic handles which break.

Amorex, for example, all their handles are aluminum or metal. They don't break.

You know, these things are much more durable, especially if it's rolling around in a compartment which it shouldn't be, but if it is, it's going to survive much better.

And just for, I don't know how, you know, just for information here I've had Kita fire extinguishers and I've, you know, they've been around for years. And I'm going to see if this thing's still good. It still says it's good.

And if you look at the dial on it says it's good and there's a fire, you're going to use it, right? Heck, if there's a fire and it doesn't say it's good, you're going to still try it.

But even though they say good, it doesn't mean they're always going to work. And that's one of the problems with Kitta. And they have a lot of recalls on their fire extinguishers too, especially the plastic handled ones.

In fact, if you have one, you can get the number off it. It's a stamp on the bottom of it or the side bottom. Then generally embossing on the very bottom of it with the year that was made.

And you can take that information and go to Kita's website and see if it's under recall. Because they have millions of these things under recall, so it still doesn't mean they're the worst brand.

They're very popular brands, so they're everywhere. So to have one under recall might not be that surprising.

And also if you were to buy one in a store, you'd want to open up the box and check the date on it to make sure that hasn't been sitting in that store for years. Because you know, in a store they just put old product on new product. In a lot of cases they don't cycle it.

You know, put the oldest on top, newest on bottom. They're not going to do that. So check the date, make sure it's not two or three year olds years old when you buy it.

Because the, the time starts ticking from when the fire extinguisher is made, not when it's sold. So that's important.

And even with Amerix and some of the other brands, if you buy one of those online, go to a company that sells fire extinguishers, not the Jungle website, a company that specializes in fire extinguishers so you can make sure yours is new, as new as it's going to be, so you're not having to get it serviced maybe in three years rather than in six. Just little heads up there when you're buying them. Think about that.

But the real point here is if you have fire extinguishers, make sure you have enough for your rv. It's a huge investment.

And like a kit of fire extinguisher, maybe 25, $35 MRX, you can find them for $75 from like fire extinguisher depot.com they've always got deals on them so you can find them out there. But the Kita ones maybe have an extra one just in case one doesn't work when you pull the lever, have another one nearby.

Kind of sounds crazy, but you want to do that. And in the description of this podcast, I'm going to have the document there that shows what the requirements are for an RV.

Basically it's one 24 inches away from the door or approximately 24 inches away from the door. Very simple. But you'll have the document if you want to get that off the Smart rver or. Excuse me, in the description of this podcast.

And now we're going to talk about the Pickwick RV Screwdriver. Now I don't know how many of you guys have heard about the Pickwick screwdriver. This is a pretty cool little guy. Pickwick is Picqic Pickquick.

Picqic Pickwick. So this driver, it's popular. You find them in a lot of hardware stores, lawnmower shops, you know, wherever.

These things are kind of all over the place, but nobody has the one that we have. Ours is made for RVs. It has a bit load because these have interchangeable bits.

They come with seven bits and you take one out and push the other one in the handle out and so forth. You know, audio here, you can't see this, but we've had ours made with a special bit load.

It has two Phillips heads, the number one and two, two Allen heads which work on all carefree awnings with metal covers. If they have the Allen head screws in them, I'm not going to get into the models of that.

And then we have the square tip bits, number one and two, it covers you and a Torx head and number 20. So these bits are what you're going to find on an rv. And so it's a handy little driver.

It's great to just have in the toolbox or the junk drawer on the rv, wherever it's got the bits in it. In fact, in our studio I use one of these because it has all the different bits. It's so handy we use it around the store because of the bits.

We don't have to have multiple screwdrivers laying around, we just have one. So this will be on the, on our website, sunpromfg.com it'll be there so you can check it out and if you like it, buy it.

These things are pretty darn cool. We sell a lot of them in our store. People absolutely love them because they're made for RVs.

Now as a final reminder, here to sign up for our newsletter. So our newsletter we send out a couple times a month. It's not chock full of useless information. We're not trying to spam fill your inbox.

It's just nice information that's good for you. For the do it yourselfer who's maintaining his rv, that's what it's all about.

And it might just be an episode we refer you to, but it's going to be simple. So sign up for it. You won't regret it.

Now in our next episode, 197, we're going to talk about swapping out RV toilets and what the number one problem is to avoid. I'm Eric Stark, and if you'd rather be camping than sitting in a repair shop, you've come to the right place.

Until next time, take care of the little things and enjoy the trip.