Julie

Three panels in series is probably way too much voltage for the solar charge controller (the thing that charges the battery). So the charger is probably turning itself off to protect itself from over-voltage for most of the day, and your battery is under charged.
Add the Voc specification for your panels and compare it with the maximum PV voltage that your inverter can handle. You can probably find this information on the back of your panels and the side of your inverter. 
And as gooseberry said, IF your charge controller is the PWM type as opposed to the MPPT type, then you have to wire your panels in parallel, not series. 

I'm assuming you have a PWM charger? In that case the higher voltage obtained by adding panels in series does not help, it will still only charge at the current one panel can provide. You need to connect your panels in parallel.