Have I got a dead leisure battery.

moggyg

moggyg

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newbie - again
We have had our new(to us) motorhome for a few weeks now and its been on hookup at the house.

Today we tried it off hook up and had one wee light on for about 30 mins and the battery went from 13ish volts to 10 volts.

Is my battery dud?

Any thought from you would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks again Marco
 
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I would say it definitely is dead, just beware though if you have more than one battery, just one bad one will drag them all down, you may be able to disconnect just the bad one :)(y)
 
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First impression I would say yes, some batteries are flooded lead acid and need topping up but don't get it very often so might be worth checking, otherwise if its a sealed battery and it was fully charged to start and you had next to nothing running then yes it time to invest.

Do you have one or two leisure batteries.

Martin
 
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if you have the room now is the time to move up to two if you think you will be off grid for more than a weekend
 
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It has expired there are sum fairly good flooded lead acid battery out their sure recommendation's will come flooding in but i got a recommendation from @Don Quixote find them very good battery's cant remember the name of them but thay have performed very well in conjunction with my solire panel my van has remained off grid since fitting and we have never wanted for power
bill
 
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After reading other threads on here I have ordered a Banner 110 AH Energy Bull Leisure Battery . I am also gonna get a solar panel so hope this is suitable for my needs.

@mitzimad Do you think I should have got two of the same now?
 
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moggyg said:
After reading other threads on here I have ordered a Banner 110 AH Energy Bull Leisure Battery . I am also gonna get a solar panel so hope this is suitable for my needs.

@mitzimad Do you think I should have got two of the same now?
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No you should have gone for Varta LDF 90 much better batteries.
 
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Lenny HB said:
No you should have gone for Varta LDF 90 much better batteries.
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Acht, oh well. Banner was getting praised elsewhere so you take you chances. It is being delivered tomorrow and will keep the Varta in mind for next one.

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moggyg said:
Acht, oh well. Banner was getting praised elsewhere so you take you chances. It is being delivered tomorrow and will keep the Varta in mind for next one.
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the banner will do you good service just look after them
bill
 
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moggyg said:
After reading other threads on here I have ordered a Banner 110 AH Energy Bull Leisure Battery . I am also gonna get a solar panel so hope this is suitable for my needs.

@mitzimad Do you think I should have got two of the same now?
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@moggyg how long are you going to be off grid and how much power do you think you will be using, lights are they LED?, is heating blown air, how much TV, and the big one is always are you going to want an inverter, are you going to be off grid in the winter and how much solar are you putting on.

People do manage on one battery two is ----- well twice as good(y)

Martin
 
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I have Varta AGM's in our new van but not through choice! My previous 2 new vans had Banner 95 amp AGM's (2) and they were great. I had the first van for 2 years and the new owner, another Funster, has had it 3 years and they are still going strong. The second van had the same set up and it is now almost 3 years old and the batteries are performing as they did new.

I hope the new van's Varta's are as good!

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funflair said:
@moggyg how long are you going to be off grid and how much power do you think you will be using, lights are they LED?, is heating blown air, how much TV, and the big one is always are you going to want an inverter, are you going to be off grid in the winter and how much solar are you putting on.

People do manage on one battery two is ----- well twice as good(y)

Martin
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We are going away mid Jan to mid April and will be heading to southern Spain / Morocco. I was thinking of putting on a 120W MPPT solar panel. At most we will be stopped 4-5 days before moving on but probably move most days. lights are LED (I think), no TV but mobiles/tablet, heating is blown air but can switch that off and just use the heater.

Any advice would be great.
Marco
 
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moggyg said:
After reading other threads on here I have ordered a Banner 110 AH Energy Bull Leisure Battery .
Click to expand...

I've had a single Banner 110Ah for 6 years and it has never given me any trouble. I'm mostly off grid, moving on (i.e. recharging it) every two or three days although it only powers the lights (they're not LED type), loo flush and the sink/basin/shower water pump. I don't want/need to lug around a second heavy battery.
'KISS' is my rule.
 
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@Spriddler 'KISS'?

Also (idiot alert), how do I know if the wee lights are LED?
 
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moggyg said:
We are going away mid Jan to mid April and will be heading to southern Spain / Morocco. I was thinking of putting on a 120W MPPT solar panel. At most we will be stopped 4-5 days before moving on but probably move most days. lights are LED (I think), no TV but mobiles/tablet, heating is blown air but can switch that off and just use the heater.

Any advice would be great.
Marco
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Hi Marco

If you are doing the solar yourself and assuming you are OK for payload I would be tempted to stick two 120watts up there and then you are sorted even if you want to go for an inverter in the future, yes use a MPPT controller, then yes for sure stick another battery on or you won't stand a chance of storing the power you will be getting from the panels.

If you want to keep the weight and cost down and don't think your power usage is going to increase over time you would get away with one panel 120w and one battery 110ah.

So the question is do you want to be just getting by or do you want to be comfortably off for your power needs.

It is better for your batteries to not be running them too far down and have the ability to charge them back up as soon as possible, the risk with two batteries and only one solar and possibly not enough sun is that the batteries never get a full charge, we have 4 Gel batteries and 320watts of solar and very rarely see less than 13volts on the display even late at night.

Martin

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KISS = 'Keep It Simple, Stupid'. ;)

Errr, well they will either be the traditional recognisable filament or fluorescent tube type or if they are LED they will be ummm, ummm, .............you'd have to remove any covers or shades to look at them when they will be either groups or a strip of sort of, ummm, .........LED's. like bubble wrap bubbles. Best to Google 'LED lights' or look on eBay for pictures of 'em.
I think LEDs only became standard fitments within the past 5 or so years so unless a p/o has upgraded your they will be ordinary filament type lamps.
Scroll through these LEDs here and you'll get the idea:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...A0.H1.Xled+.TRS0&_nkw=led+bulbs&_sacat=169486
 
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funflair said:
we have 4 Gel batteries and 320watts of solar and very rarely see less than 13volts on the display even late at night.
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And presumably you transport you 4 batteries on a trailer and receive an income by feeding your excess power to the National Grid?
;)
Blimey, I don't think I use that much electricity at home! I don't even need an electric toothbrush with my dentures, just a good soak :whistle:
 
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ludo said:
I have Varta AGM's in our new van but not through choice! My previous 2 new vans had Banner 95 amp AGM's (2) and they were great. I had the first van for 2 years and the new owner, another Funster, has had it 3 years and they are still going strong. The second van had the same set up and it is now almost 3 years old and the batteries are performing as they did new.

I hope the new van's Varta's are as good!
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You have just been very lucky, just do search of the German forums it you want to see how unreliable AGM's are. In the last van my Banner AGM lasted 18 months, still it was a lot longer than most Banners last.
New van I got rid of the standard fit Varta AGM and fitted 3 Gel's, last thing I wanted was unreliable batteries.
 
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Second battery, solar panel (100w+), battery master (to keep engine battery charged up) then B2B charger, in that order (and as funds permit, B2B's ain't cheap).
 
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OK, checked my wee spot lights at lunchtime and no, they are not LED :(. Is it as simple as changing the bulbs to LED or does it need different wiring? Im very quickly becoming a plumber/gas fitter/electrician. Brain surgery anyone?

Moggyg
 
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No need to change any wiring but if really do want LEDs take the current bulbs with you to match them to the LED replacements in respect of the way they fit into your existing light units' bulb holders. I.e. bayonet fitting, push-fit, clip-in, etc.
Shop around as I've found that at some suppliers (e.g. Halfrauds) they are much dearer than online suppliers. You can do your research by visiting Halfords or caravan accessory places so that you understand what you need, then buy online (y)
TBH for the small amount of current taken by 12v lights and the relatively short time that they are switched on I haven't bothered to go for LEDs.
 
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Lenny HB said:
You have just been very lucky, just do search of the German forums it you want to see how unreliable AGM's are. In the last van my Banner AGM lasted 18 months, still it was a lot longer than most Banners last.
New van I got rid of the standard fit Varta AGM and fitted 3 Gel's, last thing I wanted was unreliable batteries.
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The only GEL battery that I have had was on a brand new van from the Detleffs group and from Lowdhams. The battery lasted all of 3 weeks! Lowdhams replaced it with an AGM that was fine. Lowdhams told me that Detleffs had stopped using GEL because of them failing. As I said, the AGM batteries that I have personal and considerable experience of have all been brilliant. I agree no-one wants unreliable batteries no never a GEL again for me, thank you!
 
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