Dead leisure battery

[Brian/April]

Hi all,
Had a dead battery after a few weeks of non use, put van on hook up for 36 hours , panel was showing normal reading after, all lights etc working. 4 days later still no use and only a short drive its dead again.

Battery is a 110 ah, maintenance label shows may 23 ( when we bought van) 13.19 v and 70 ah and a price of £55 dealer said he had replaced battery , I assumed with new now assume with a secondhand.

Is it better now to bite the bullet and just replace it, don't have a charger so would have to spend on that and maybe not get the results I want.

Cheers Brian.

 

[Phill D]

£55 seems cheap for a 110ah battery,

It appears from your info that the battery is not holding its charge.

Is the cab battery holding up?

 

[Brian/April]

Main vehicle battery is doing ok after dying the other week I've been starting it and had a couple of short runs ,on the leisure the label shows 70 ah about a third of its capacity gone which is making me think about replacing it.

 

[Phill D]

Any idea what is draining your leisure battery when not in use?

Was it fully charged when you parked up for the period of no use?

I would want to know what was dragging it down when not in use before I changed it. Or you could be changing it again soon after.

 

[1967bowesj]

110ah for £55 is very cheap, probably not the best when all is said and done.
Agreewith Phill D find what’s draining it first

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[autorouter]

Is it better now to bite the bullet and just replace it, don't have a charger so would have to spend on that and maybe not get the results I want.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean when you say you don't have a charger. There is usually a mains charger built in, which charges the leisure battery if the EHU is connected and the charger is switched on. What is the make/model of the distribution/fusebox?

Also you say the battery voltage is 13.19V. To me that indicates that the battery is being charged by something, because if it wasn't, the voltage would settle to its resting voltage. A battery resting voltage is about 12.8V (full) to 12.0V (fairly empty). 13.19V is typical of a 'float voltage', which is what a charger will apply to keep the battery topped up without overcharging it.

Also I don't follow the bit that says it says 70Ah on the label, but it's s 110Ah battery. Do you have a photo of the label?

 

[Phill D]

Also I don't follow the bit that says it says 70Ah on the label, but it's s 110Ah battery. Do you have a photo of the label?

I assumed that the op meant it is 110 ah but was only showing 70ah available on the display.

But it’s all a bit confusing

 

[Brian/April]

The label I'm referring to is a sticky maintenance label( like a pat test label) so when I bought the van they obviously put in a second-hand battery that only registered 70ah.

I don't have a charger to remove battery and charge , the van is 20 metres away and not practical to run EHU across road for prolonged use.

anyway had it checked and it was well below useable so replaced it.

thanks for replies. Brian

 

[VXman]

The label I'm referring to is a sticky maintenance label( like a pat test label) so when I bought the van they obviously put in a second-hand battery that only registered 70ah.

I don't have a charger to remove battery and charge , the van is 20 metres away and not practical to run EHU across road for prolonged use.

anyway had it checked and it was well below useable so replaced it.

thanks for replies. Brian

I am not aware you can specify how many amp hours a battery has. If it had 70Ah it means it's about 2/3 full. You can tell the amount of charge a battery has by measuring it's charge on volts. 12.7volts is 100% full. However, you need to let the battery rest for an hour after charging sand have nothing drawing power from it to measure it's voltage.

Here is a chart for a standard lead acid battery (AGM is slightly different)

 

[Lenny HB]

The label I'm referring to is a sticky maintenance label( like a pat test label) so when I bought the van they obviously put in a second-hand battery that only registered 70ah.

Sounds like they tested it with a CCA tester which is for starter batteries not relavant for a leisure battery.
If its coming up with 70ah on a CCA test it's probably goosed for leisure use.

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[autorouter]

Have you kept the old battery? It could come in useful if you are having a problem connecting a hookup cable but it's parked nearby.

You could buy a small intelligent charger, and a small inverter. A 150W inverter will run a small 5A intelligent charger. I have used a CTEK MXS5.0 5A intelligent charger for this, plus a 150W Pure Sine Wave inverter from a car accessories shop.

Charge the spare battery at home with the charger. Then take everything to the van. Connect the 150W inverter to the spare battery. Plug the charger into the inverter. Connect the charger output to the leisure battery. Run it until the spare battery is flat. Then take everything back home and repeat the process. You'll probably have to repeat it three or four times to get the battery to full, but once it's full you can just top it up every week.

There are other ways to do this. If you have one of those lithium power packs, with a built-in inverter, you can do the same sort of thing. You can either plug it into the EHU inlet to use the van inbuilt charger, or use a separate charger to charge the leisure battery directly.

Alternatively you could use a CS Free, which is has battery-to-battery charger function, to charge the leisure battery from another battery. The other battery can be a spare battery like the old leisure battery, or even the car battery of your car, or a friend's car, parked next to the van.

 

[autorouter]

What new battery did you buy? There are different battery chemistries, (Flooded, sealed, EFB, AGM, Gel etc.) You might need to set the inbuilt mains charger so that it charges the battery with the correct charging profile. They are all much the same, but for best long-term battery life it's best to use the correct profile.

If your van is quite new, it may have a smart alternator, and a battery-to-battery (B2B) charger. That charger might also need its charge profile changing.

You haven't mentioned solar panels, so I assume there aren't any. But if there are, the solar controller unit might also have a settable charging profile - some do, some don't. By the way, a solar panel on the roof would be a good way to keep the batteries topped up without having to worry about mains hookup.

 

[1967bowesj]

What new battery did you buy? There are different battery chemistries, (Flooded, sealed, EFB, AGM, Gel etc.) You might need to set the inbuilt mains charger so that it charges the battery with the correct charging profile. They are all much the same, but for best long-term battery life it's best to use the correct profile.

If your van is quite new, it may have a smart alternator, and a battery-to-battery (B2B) charger. That charger might also need its charge profile changing.

You haven't mentioned solar panels, so I assume there aren't any. But if there are, the solar controller unit might also have a settable charging profile - some do, some don't. By the way, a solar panel on the roof would be a good way to keep the batteries topped up without having to worry about mains hookup.

Unless like mine and the panel blinking fails, good idea with the inverter/battery charger.
Now got to source a 1200mm panel