2 yr old 110 amp leisure battery - what to do with it

[themountaintiger]

I replaced my 2 year old 110 amp leisure battery with 2 new ones. What do I do with the old one. Should I be taking it to the skip? Not sure what else I would be using it for.... :Sad:

I keep thinking though, "it will have a use sometime"..please tell me its of no use and give me permission oh 'learned friends' to send it to battery heaven!

OR??

 

[harryoxford2]

???

why am i sat here watching the icon washing that car....its compulsive viewing just in case he forgets to do it one time


anyways....as good ole Morcombe and Wise would say regarding the ebay desuferisation kit.....

they are all the right parts..but not neccessarily in the right order.

Just in case you have deep pockets..Ctek are battery charger people and that alone....
they have some great kit for rvs including two pieces of kit that between them deal with incoming supply of electric and then distribute it to which ever battery needs them and if it senses either battery is in need of maintenance it fires up an 8 stage desulferisation and reconditioning programe.

The duo kit can also handle in coming solar power or wind power to keep batteries topped up.

A cool 400 to 500 quids.

The ebay item is similar to some kits I researched that are assembled and their sole task is desulferisation..for the life I cant remember where.

The following site however went to the trouble of giving comprehensive instructions as to what their gear does


Link Removed

 

[Snowbird]

Hi Arry,am realy interested in how well this ctec 7000 works.Will be gratfull if you would report on it as soon as you have tried it out. Like wildman I too have a mountain of batteries that were going to be weighed in at the local scrapyard,and if I can save a couple of them £100 is a cheap price to pay.
I have the Optimate 3 which is a similar charger,but not man enough for 100 amp plus batteries.I await you report on this product,and maybe if there is enough interest we can get a funsters deal off them

 

[Dodgey]

Yup, as other I'm keen to see how you go, though I don't have a battery mountain to sort it crosses my mind the the way 'we' use batteries a once a year reguvinate could make one of these worth while?:thumb:


There's one on the bay at £79 inc delivery I noticed.

 

[harryoxford2]

Eureka...Ctek 7000 report.

Well I never....(skip to the bottom for result if my waffle drives you crazy)

As a newbie I have something to give back to all you loveley people who have been helping me so here goes the report on the

Ctek 7000 charger.

Cons first...
The instructions are so bloomin small that with failing eyesight my brain couldnt absorb the content..so I scanned them on fit to page and hey presto. If I can work out how Im gonna post the instructions in pdf format so you can see if this device is applicable to your situation.

Pros.
The device has different settings...normal..(connect and forget).. dont worry if you dont know if your battery is normal or not...the charger will tell you...geezus its clever.

snowflake for charging in the cold or if its a specific type of battery...ie non wet acid lead (sealed or unsealed)..unless its cold of course.

recondition...a specific setting if you have a totally discharged battery as apparently the bulk of the acid drops to the bottom and therefore its weaker on top and seemingly this setting sorts that out....which saves the muscles from lifting the thing and shaking it I guess...

supply...connect the charger to the terminals not the battery and it acts as a supply whilst you swop batteries so you dont loose precious settings in the computer side of your vehicle like car radio codes alarm codes etc.....(just in case you are thinking you could crank off it in this situation to get an engine with a dead battery started the answer is I dont know and it doesnt say but the wires are thin and I dont think they look sturdy enough to crank off....so Ive emailed ctek to find out...what a plus if you can

Ok so the test...first I got a brand new 110 a/h leisure battery as I need stored power and crank power for the onan genny.....came supplied with half a charge..so on normal setting the Ctek took 8 hours to go through its processes on normal setting..
Normal setting
1. it analises the battery to see if it needs desulfating and if it does the first lamp in a 4 lamp stage starts to flash...when it stops flashing it is steady on gently charging until there is enough charged to proceed to lamp 2 where the bulk charging is done....it moves onto lamp 3 after what is going to be hours less or more depending on the size of the battery.
When fully charged off to lamp 4 it goes BUT this is where its going to tell you after a specific time period if your battery is faulty because the clever chappie secretly switches off....the light is still lit so you just have to trust that this process is going on....and then secretly it switches itself back on and annalises the drop in charge...(all batterys loose their charge if left to their own devices)....if the drop is acceptable to the charger then it maintains it indefinately until you want to use it ...this last stage maintentace is using very little of your electricity bill.
If the charger thinks anything it is wrong it tells you and you would change manually to the "recondition the battery mode"

Interesting isnt it that a brand new battery takes so long to charge up...imagine if I had just bunged it into the rv..I would have been killing it from the first moment I used it.

Ok the recondition mode which I used on my 4 year old battery is as follows..
You manually select recondition mode,
The charger starts in normal mode and desulfates if needed mixes the acid back up and then charges the battery and then analises if its holding its chargr and then maintains it. The reconditioning takes between 30 mins and 4 hours the charging takes many many hours.


Result....success..a dead battery revived and according to the charger passed all tests.

Did I accept that....nahhhhhhhh

The acid test (sorry about the pun)

Back onto the rv went my now resusitated 4 year old dead battery.
In the past after a full charge on a halfords bog standard battery and then kept in the rv for w week with shore power charging it the leisure battery lasted...well about 6 attempts to start the genny then it was dead.

Now....well I left all the lights in the rv overnight which would previously kill the battery but today when I got up it was not even half empty....so at 6.30 I switched everything I could thats 12 volts and its still not down to half empty...(I bought an accessory that are lazy boy eyelet fittings that attach to the battery and it has a display ..red (dead or nearly but certainly get it charged as sulfation is taking place) amber..(ok there is plenty of time for another beer, and watch the match but then you must get up off your fat but and charge me) green (all is ok master..no sweat..chill man) this display is watertight and I have it slightly hanging down so I just need to squat and I can visually see the charge state held in the battery and if charging is needed then I just plug the charger into the lazy boy fitting and off we go ...yes I know there is one on board my vehicle but I dont trust it and it a piece of poo....its showing green fully charged by the way.

So it looks like my dead battery (but remember it had hardly ever been used) has been revived....which is a bummer because I bought a new one didnt I???????? doh.

Next..the 4 year old vehicle battery 70a/h is getting the same treatment.

So success...it did exactly what it said on the can. If anyone considers themselves to be near stansted airport and wants to see if their dead battery can be revived before they shell out £100 for this charger then Im glad to process it for you.
Ctek make cheaper multi chargers and the price is related to the a/h of the battery you want to charge.
The chargers will hower MAINTAIN a/h batteries alot higher than the a/h it can PROCESS...
I was advised to get one that was 10% higher rating than I needed and so I needed the 7000 unit for my 110a/h battery.

If you have two lower rated batterys however but togeter they come to a higher a/h then you could buy a cheaper ctek which individually would PROCESS the batteries and then bung them back on the vehicle together and your lower rated charger would still MAINTAIN the twin set...does that make sense.

For everyone who skipped from the start to avoid my waffle...yes it works my 4 year old dead unused battery is living again.

If I find any pitfalls with this charger I will report it asap...btw as long as the mains plug is in the dry ..the charger is ok outside but check its specs to see if it matches your situation.

Its a long report but its an expensive problem...I hope this helps. if this is of help and admin want to post this elsewhere as well then please do...I just dont know how to or in fact if I should or not.