What is the Parasitic Draw Spec 3rd Gen Equinox Premium?

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JackT

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What is the Parasitic Draw Spec 3rd Gen Equinox Premium? I know the rules-of-thumb out there such as reserve capacity (RC) divided by 4, which would be 120/4 = 30 milliamps. However, that was established a long time ago. Today's cars are always listening and doing things in the background that the older cars did not. I'd be interested to know what yours is or any place that has a spec for something like a 2020 Equinox Premium 2.0. Thanks!
 

Gyrocop

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It is not a flat number of amps. Depends upon the model you have and the electronics you have. Base model, LT, Premium etc. My premium was pulling 3-4 amps just sitting. If your car sets for long periods I suggest a trickle maintainer, or a solar dash board charger that plugs into the 12v port. Safe travels.
 

JackT

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It is not a flat number of amps. Depends upon the model you have and the electronics you have. Base model, LT, Premium etc. My premium was pulling 3-4 amps just sitting. If your car sets for long periods I suggest a trickle maintainer, or a solar dash board charger that plugs into the 12v port. Safe travels.
 

JackT

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3-4 amps is a lot. My 2020 Premium 2.0 has every option and it pulls 79-92 milliamps, e.g. always less than 1/10th of an amp.
 

57chevythunder

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Good question and comments.
And the way to make the parasitic draw (which all later model vehicles have, with may variables, and some worse than other) a non-issue is to plug in your battery maintenance device at the end of every day. -not just for periods of non-use.

When a battery is subjected to parasitic draw it slowly and steadily goes deeper and deeper into percentages of "sulfation" which is the number one enemy of battery service life. Even though battery technology has improved, service life has not.

Personally I have found the Del Tran product line of Battery Tenders -NOT trickle chargers, is the best way to go.
This diligence for the past few decades has at least doubled the battery life in every one of our cars and trucks.
 

TomG

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What is the Parasitic Draw Spec 3rd Gen Equinox Premium? I know the rules-of-thumb out there such as reserve capacity (RC) divided by 4, which would be 120/4 = 30 milliamps. However, that was established a long time ago. Today's cars are always listening and doing things in the background that the older cars did not. I'd be interested to know what yours is or any place that has a spec for something like a 2020 Equinox Premium 2.0. Thanks!
This might sound crazy but it could be the rear windshield wiper. I ran across that information when I was trying to figure out why there was so much current draw when we were towing our 2020 behind our motorhome. A company named RVI makes a battery maintainer/charger to keep batteries charged while the vehicle is being towed. They had a note on their website that said it wasn't compatible with 2019 and newer equinoxs'. I contacted their customer service and was told that the rear wiper draws 5 amps even when the wiper isn't running. They said the charge wire coming from our motorhome wouldn't have enough power to keep the battery up. I put a fuse switch in place of the #48 fuse ( I think that was the one) where I could disable the rear wiper while we are towing. If you are looking for things to try try pulling the fuse for the rear wiper.
 

JackT

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This might sound crazy but it could be the rear windshield wiper. I ran across that information when I was trying to figure out why there was so much current draw when we were towing our 2020 behind our motorhome. A company named RVI makes a battery maintainer/charger to keep batteries charged while the vehicle is being towed. They had a note on their website that said it wasn't compatible with 2019 and newer equinoxs'. I contacted their customer service and was told that the rear wiper draws 5 amps even when the wiper isn't running. They said the charge wire coming from our motorhome wouldn't have enough power to keep the battery up. I put a fuse switch in place of the #48 fuse ( I think that was the one) where I could disable the rear wiper while we are towing. If you are looking for things to try try pulling the fuse for the rear wiper.
Thanks for the reply. I will be pulling fuses unless the 92ma draw I see is normal. What I do know is that 92ma draw calculates to draining a 72ah battery down to 50% in 16 days. I have yet to find a spec.

PS: I found elsewhere on line where a mechanic stated that a parasitic draw in the 85ma area can be normal in vehicles with a lot of electronics, like mine. This makes a lot more sense because the 25ma max rule of thumb established decades ago cannot be true for vehicles constantly listening for signals from the mother ship and automatically connecting to your home Wi-Fi when in range to check for updates. The article said that a battery would go dead in ~29 days. This ties in closely to what it calculates to be for 92ma with the stock battery. Again, that would mean that you need to start and run it at least every 2 weeks if you plan to have it start, and if this much idle time is a common situation, consider a battery tender. Disconnecting the battery would work, but then you would need to use the manual key method to gain access to the hood release to reconnect. It's starting to gel that the 79-92ma that I'm seeing is about what it should be.

Summary: In the absence of a specific spec, I'll go on record that mine ranges from 79 to 92ma. Both my experience and that of the mechanic in the article implies that to be able to start the vehicle beyond 2-weeks of non-use requires charging or disconnecting the battery.
 
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