Don't forget to top up your hab battery

[Jake Royd]

Topped mine up (with water) today.
On my van it's a real barstreward job.
It's underneath the hinge of the fixed bed but you must use a crawling board so you don't cave the fragile cabinets in getting to it.
It's impossible to see 2 cells.
Anyway mine took maybe 200 ml in each cell.
I thought they were minimal maintenance these days.
Mine is an Excide with 'conventional' cell plugs.
It seems none the worse for being a bit dry.
Hadn't topped it up for a year so however hard it is to get to don't forget yours.
Cab battery next........

 

[dunnah01]

Not seen a non-sealed battery for years?

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Topped mine up (with water) today.
On my van it's a real barstreward job.
It's underneath the hinge of the fixed bed but you must use a crawling board so you don't cave the fragile cabinets in getting to it.
It's impossible to see 2 cells.
Anyway mine took maybe 200 ml in each cell.
I thought they were minimal maintenance these days.
Mine is an Excide with 'conventional' cell plugs.
It seems none the worse for being a bit dry.
Hadn't topped it up for a year so however hard it is to get to don't forget yours.
Cab battery next........

I've been banging on about this for a while. My Cab battery on a 2019 reg was a 2018one, and still wet cell type. I'm wondering how much of a contributing factor this is to the failing E.C.U.s, and the low voltage issue

 

[Lenny HB]

Not seen a non-sealed battery for years?

Me too.
Flipping difficult to top up Lithium's.

 

[cyberyacht]

Thought I'd best check the engine battery at the beginning of this year. Shift the rubber mats, Hike up the carpet, Remove the flexi Fiat flooring. Discover it's a sealed one. Put it all back. Grr!!

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[BouncyBoatFolk]

Thought I'd best check the engine battery at the beginning of this year. Shift the rubber mats, Hike up the carpet, Remove the flexi Fiat flooring. Discover it's a sealed one. Put it all back. Grr!!

Well, you now have a known unknown, and better that it's a known unknown,than a not known. As Donald Rumsfeld espoused.
.

 

[autorouter]

Topped mine up (with water) today.
On my van it's a real barstreward job.
It's underneath the hinge of the fixed bed but you must use a crawling board so you don't cave the fragile cabinets in getting to it.
It's impossible to see 2 cells.

My Cab battery on a 2019 reg was a 2018one, and still wet cell type

I hope that space under the bed is sealed off from the rest of the habitation area. A non-sealed battery produces hydrogen and oxygen gases as it charges and discharges, as part of the normal charging /discharging process. If the area is not well ventilated he gases can accumulate and be an explosive hazard, if there is a spark anywhere.

100% pure lead is too weak and floppy to be used for thin plates in a battery, so it is alloyed with other metals to make it stronger. Traditionally it was alloyed with antimony. Plates made from lead/antimony alloy produce gases during the normal charge/discharge process. In the 1930s they discovered that using a different alloy can stop gas production during normal charge/discharge.

If the plates are made from lead/calcium alloy, maybe with a bit of silver, then no gas is produced in the normal charge/discharge process. The battery can be sealed, with a pressure release valve to release any gases produced due to overcharging or faulty cells. However vented batteries are cheaper to make, so are still used in some situations where the gases can ventilate safely.

Motorhome manufacturers usually fit sealed batteries such as Gel or AGM, and specify that any replacements 'must be done by an authorised person', presumably to avoid fitting a vented battery. The fact that the battery space is very inaccessible leads me to conclude that the original batteries were the sealed 'low maintainance' type rather than the vented type. Of course I could be wrong, I haven't seen the setup. Anyway, now you know the situation you can take the appropriate action.

 

[The Wino]

I hope that space under the bed is sealed off from the rest of the habitation area. A non-sealed battery produces hydrogen and oxygen gases as it charges and discharges, as part of the normal charging /discharging process. If the area is not well ventilated he gases can accumulate and be an explosive hazard, if there is a spark anywhere.

100% pure lead is too weak and floppy to be used for thin plates in a battery, so it is alloyed with other metals to make it stronger. Traditionally it was alloyed with antimony. Plates made from lead/antimony alloy produce gases during the normal charge/discharge process. In the 1930s they discovered that using a different alloy can stop gas production during normal charge/discharge.

If the plates are made from lead/calcium alloy, maybe with a bit of silver, then no gas is produced in the normal charge/discharge process. The battery can be sealed, with a pressure release valve to release any gases produced due to overcharging or faulty cells. However vented batteries are cheaper to make, so are still used in some situations where the gases can ventilate safely.

Motorhome manufacturers usually fit sealed batteries such as Gel or AGM, and specify that any replacements 'must be done by an authorised person', presumably to avoid fitting a vented battery. The fact that the battery space is very inaccessible leads me to conclude that the original batteries were the sealed 'low maintainance' type rather than the vented type. Of course I could be wrong, I haven't seen the setup. Anyway, now you know the situation you can take the appropriate action.

It could hopefully have a vent tube through the floor.

 

[jumar]

Me too.
Flipping difficult to top up Lithium's.

Managed mine this morning...not to difficult once I'd drilled a hole in the top..

 

[LithiumConvert]

Topped mine up with another 150Ah.

330Ah in total now.

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[jumar]

Topped mine up with another 150Ah.

330Ah in total now.

It becomes an obsession....how much is enough? For me 400Ah...no more space... I'm fully topped up...

 

[Roger S]

Just of to Halfords to get a bottle of lithium

 

[Barriesimpson]

Just of to Halfords to get a bottle of lithium

Make your own, much cheaper.

 

[nicholsong]

It becomes an obsession....how much is enough? For me 400Ah...no more space... I'm fully topped up...

What do you lot do with your Ah?

We have 180Ah as leisure, B2B and 80W solar. We have just been away for 3 months Sept-Nov and sometimes stayed off grid, never on EHU, for 4 days.

OK we did not use a lot of Truma fan and we do not watch TV.

Maybe we would use more Ah if travelling Jan-Feb, but Basia does not like smoking outside in the cold

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

I hope that space under the bed is sealed off from the rest of the habitation area. A non-sealed battery produces hydrogen and oxygen gases as it charges and discharges, as part of the normal charging /discharging process. If the area is not well ventilated he gases can accumulate and be an explosive hazard, if there is a spark anywhere.

100% pure lead is too weak and floppy to be used for thin plates in a battery, so it is alloyed with other metals to make it stronger. Traditionally it was alloyed with antimony. Plates made from lead/antimony alloy produce gases during the normal charge/discharge process. In the 1930s they discovered that using a different alloy can stop gas production during normal charge/discharge.

If the plates are made from lead/calcium alloy, maybe with a bit of silver, then no gas is produced in the normal charge/discharge process. The battery can be sealed, with a pressure release valve to release any gases produced due to overcharging or faulty cells. However vented batteries are cheaper to make, so are still used in some situations where the gases can ventilate safely.

Motorhome manufacturers usually fit sealed batteries such as Gel or AGM, and specify that any replacements 'must be done by an authorised person', presumably to avoid fitting a vented battery. The fact that the battery space is very inaccessible leads me to conclude that the original batteries were the sealed 'low maintainance' type rather than the vented type. Of course I could be wrong, I haven't seen the setup. Anyway, now you know the situation you can take the appropriate action.

Mine was under the passengers foot space, vented to outside, perhaps why they went for the cheaper maintained type. Anyway, it got a higher specced sealed replacement. Making a maintained battery that has half the inspection caps covered with one terminal plate or the other is madness.
Mike.

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[jumar]

What do you lot do with your Ah?

We have 180Ah as leisure, B2B and 80W solar. We have just been away for 3 months Sept-Nov and sometimes stayed off grid, never on EHU, for 4 days.

OK we did not use a lot of Truma fan and we do not watch TV.

Maybe we would use more Ah if travelling Jan-Feb, but Basia does not like smoking outside in the cold

Hi Geoff , why do we have so much Lithium at our disposal...well if we travelled as yourselves we would be fine with your set up, as would most folk.
We use emtbs every day and these need charging ready for the next days ride..and if we are not driving, which is often the case, we need that buffer to provide us with enough amps.
Further to this, our cooking needed to be modified for several reasons....firstly we have Gaslow so no problem there....however as you know we live in Spain, cooking inside the van for a good part of the year is not possible, it just makes the van hotter and adding to this cooking with a naked flame outside the van is in many parts of Spain not allowed (high risk areas and camperstops for examples) and in most cases somewhat dangerous...so our cooking appliances are now electric powered.

 

[Jake Royd]

I hope that space under the bed is sealed off from the rest of the habitation area. A non-sealed battery produces hydrogen and oxygen gases as it charges and discharges, as part of the normal charging /discharging process. If the area is not well ventilated he gases can accumulate and be an explosive hazard, if there is a spark anywhere.

100% pure lead is too weak and floppy to be used for thin plates in a battery, so it is alloyed with other metals to make it stronger. Traditionally it was alloyed with antimony. Plates made from lead/antimony alloy produce gases during the normal charge/discharge process. In the 1930s they discovered that using a different alloy can stop gas production during normal charge/discharge.

If the plates are made from lead/calcium alloy, maybe with a bit of silver, then no gas is produced in the normal charge/discharge process. The battery can be sealed, with a pressure release valve to release any gases produced due to overcharging or faulty cells. However vented batteries are cheaper to make, so are still used in some situations where the gases can ventilate safely.

Motorhome manufacturers usually fit sealed batteries such as Gel or AGM, and specify that any replacements 'must be done by an authorised person', presumably to avoid fitting a vented battery. The fact that the battery space is very inaccessible leads me to conclude that the original batteries were the sealed 'low maintainance' type rather than the vented type. Of course I could be wrong, I haven't seen the setup. Anyway, now you know the situation you can take the appropriate action.

Good point, the battery (Exide) is a deep cycle one.
It has a vent pipe which I painstakingly routed through a grommet in the floor to outside.
So I'm ok I think.

Got to admit I just assumed all batteries were minimum maintenance types these days so it's been a suprise for me too.

 

[Lenny HB]

It becomes an obsession....how much is enough? For me 400Ah...no more space... I'm fully topped up...

Found to my cost that 460ah is nowhere near enough, could have fitted 600 in the same space.
To cap it off mentioned to the boss I wished I'd gone 600 ah ( the reason I didn't was because she keep moaning about my spending) she said why didn't you, it would been nothing in the overall scheme of things.

 

[AdrianChen]

Found to my cost that 460ah is nowhere near enough, could have fitted 600 in the same space.
To cap it off mentioned to the boss I wished I'd gone 600 ah ( the reason I didn't was because she keep moaning about my spending) she said why didn't you, it would been nothing in the overall scheme of things.

What was on the last van? Made same mistake since I was too impatient and wanted to get the LiFepPo4 in for the first trip - would have been a 2/3 month wait to get what I really wanted - Now thinking about selling the two 216's, and replacing with bigger especially since the price has dropped so much, but think I would put a new battery box in the garage rather than cram them into the existing space..... Would be a big loss on the current ones though....

 

[1967bowesj]

What was on the last van? Made same mistake since I was too impatient and wanted to get the LiFepPo4 in for the first trip - would have been a 2/3 month wait to get what I really wanted - Now thinking about selling the two 216's, and replacing with bigger especially since the price has dropped so much, but think I would put a new battery box in the garage rather than cram them into the existing space..... Would be a big loss on the current ones though....

Only a big lose as they are now dropping in price, so your new larger ones would be a lot less than if you had bought at the time you bought the ones you have now.
Plus you now know your true use so can get it matched better for a happier life!!

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[AdrianChen]

Only a big lose as they are now dropping in price, so your new larger ones would be a lot less than if you had bought at the time you bought the ones you have now.
Plus you now know your true use so can get it matched better for a happier life!!

Thats the same logic she uses when she buys rubbish in the sales - "Look at what I've saved" I'll try it

 

[PeterCarole29]

Found to my cost that 460ah is nowhere near enough, could have fitted 600 in the same space.
To cap it off mentioned to the boss I wished I'd gone 600 ah ( the reason I didn't was because she keep moaning about my spending) she said why didn't you, it would been nothing in the overall scheme of things.

I feel your pain Its why we have ended up with 2 x 460ah having said that my spending on a van doesnt come close to the lovely vans you buy

 

[LithiumConvert]

What do you lot do with your Ah?

Not too sure. But even small amps used for small hours all add up.