Leisure battery - how to keep charged

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Nov 11, 2023
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Hi the van is in a shed and will be laid up for 3 months without access. How do I keep the batteries charged for 3 months
 
Hi the van is in a shed and will be laid up for 3 months without access. How do I keep the batteries charged for 3 months
Want to leave on van can I use some kind of charger . Have access to mains electricity
 
Plug in the EHU and set a timer for 6hrs per week or something. Probably not a good idea to leave it on all the time.
 
If you have hook up, just connect to mains for a few hours every week or other week.

If you don’t have hook up, just use a battery charger once a week. Even better, use a battery conditioner, such as CTek, switched to the correct profile for your batteries.

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Since you have EHU, the solution is relatively easy. A multi-stage intelligent charger will fill the battery to 100%, then switch to 'float charge'. That will keep the battery topped up without overcharging. But there are a few complications with a motorhome.

First check if the built-in mains charger is a multistage intelligent charger. If it is, it should be OK to leave it on for several months. However some chargers are better than others, and some people like to add a timer to switch it on once a week for a few hours.

Then there's the question of whether the built-in charger also charges the starter battery. Some vans do, some vans don't. You can tell by looking at the voltage of the starter battery. If it's over 13V then it's being charged. If it's less then it's not being charged.

If the starter battery isn't being charged, then a small multistage charger, or a trickle charger, will keep it topped up. This can be left on indefinitely. As above, some chargers are better than others, and some people like to put the trickle-charger on a timer too.

I have a Victron BlueSmart IP65 15A charger for the leisure battery. It has a definite 'storage mode', so if there's no activity for a couple of weeks it switches off for a while, then back on if the voltage drops a bit. Also a CTEK MXS5.0 5A charger for the starter battery. I leave them connected 24/7.

I also use the CTEK 5A charger to charge the scooter batteries, it has a motorcycle mode. If I didn't need that I would get a CTEK trickle charger (0.8A).
 
If they were fully charged and you disconnected them they should be fine for 3 months. I do this to my car batteries whilst away on long motorhome trips and they are always still fully charged when I return.
 

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