Leisure battery losing charge…

[PhilandMena]

Have you considered the simple fact that while your hook up connection is working your charger is not! For gods sake listen to the advice you r getting from members and check this out??? Its not rocket science.

 

[Fulham Dave]

Have you considered the simple fact that while your hook up connection is working your charger is not! For gods sake listen to the advice you r getting from members and check this out??? Its not rocket science.

I don't think you need to have that tone when responding to someone. Play nice for goodness sake, no need for snide remarks.

It may not be rocket science to you, but to others it may be, so be courteous and considerate when responding please!

 

[IPrinceB]

The first negative message - I guess there’s always one!
Just to confirm that I have been listening to the advice from members and appreciate that it’s ‘not rocket science’ for some, but for others like me it’s certainly not straightforward.
I’m a newbie, so couldn’t respond earlier until I’d paid the membership subscription that I was intent on doing when asked to.
In answer to the more positive and constructive responses…
> we have 2 batteries onboard, the engine one and one leisure battery
> we don’t have any battery testing or charging equipment with us - this is the first time anything like this has happened
> I appreciate that the solar panel won’t work whilst we are sat under a large / dense tree but moving the Motorhome and having to take down our fairly-large attached awning wasn’t top of my to-do-list, if I could sort this in some other way
> I’ve spoken with a technical specialist at the dealer that we bought the Motorhome from… he shares my view that this isn’t straightforward and thinks that it ideally needs looking at by a specialist; that it could be the charger or the leisure battery and has advised me to be careful about doing anything that might do more harm than good or that might breach the warranty
I was merely looking (and am thankful) for some practical suggestions as to what we might try and nothing more than that…

 

[autorouter]

I was merely looking (and am thankful) for some practical suggestions as to what we might try and nothing more than that…

Here's one, hopefully not too far outside your comfort zone. You may not have used a multimeter before, but it's very easy and safe to take voltage readings in 12V circuits. Any cheap multimeter will be fine for this, and you can probably pick one up for a tenner or so at any DIY store.

Plug the red lead into the socket with 'V' in the label. Plug the black lead into the socket labelled 'COM'. Turn on the meter and set it to the 20V DC range. The symbol with two lines, one solid and one dotted, means DC. The symbol with a wavy twiddle means AC. Batteries and vehicle electrics are always DC, not AC.

Push the red probe onto the positive battery terminal. Push the black probe onto the negative battery terminal. You should get a reading of between 10 and 15 volts. If you get the probes the wrong way round, all that happens is a minus sign shows in front of the voltage reading.

Once you are happy doing that, you need two voltage readings at the battery terminals. One with the hookup disconnected, and one with the hookup connected.

 

[Moody41]

Dear IPrinceB,
I sympathise with your situation but I am not surprised at the quality of ‘official’ support you have received. I am a new owner of a brand new MoHo (less than a month old) and I am shocked at the lack of substantive and professional information available on the MoHo’s electrics. I am more used to the marine environment where the 12V systems perform functions similar to those in the MoHo but, at sea, a healthy 12V system is a life safety issue (VHF Radio, Nav lights, Engine starting etc.)

Based on this background I would not let my boat’s house (leisure) battery bank fall below 12.4V with warnings appearing at 12.5/12.6 ish. (At least in a MoHo you won’t end up on the rocks if your batteries fail!)

If I had your issue, I would tackle each element of your system independently.

Firstly the Leisure Battery: If your MoHo battery charger is anything like mine, it is, by its design, incapable of fully charging the battery. I would therefore isolate the battery completely and fully charge it using a multistage charger such as the 8-step Ctek MXS25, which also has a reconditioning feature. (Note: Your electrics may need your 12V to be continuously maintained to service a tracker or to avoid rebooting certain control units i.e. don’t just disconnect the leisure battery without checking this).

Secondly, I would measure the load (in Amps) taken from the leisure battery when the 230V is disconnected.

Until I had taken both these steps, I would be cautious about just replacing the battery for a new one. Heavily discharging a new battery would be very bad news.

Thirdly…….OK, I realise my suggestions require steps, equipment and investment that would be unreasonable for the average MoHo owner.

So, my real suggestion is:-
Tell the forum where you you/your MoHo will be when you get home and ask for a volunteer with the appropriate skills and kit to pop round and work the issue logically and safely.

Cheers
Bob

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[Pausim]

If your MoHo battery charger is anything like mine, it is, by its design, incapable of fully charging the battery.

I think Laika use a Schaudt system, if not it will probably be CBE. Both use multi stage chargers capable of providing good charging.

 

[PhilandMena]

I don't think you need to have that tone when responding to someone. Play nice for goodness sake, no need for snide remarks.

It may not be rocket science to you, but to others it may be, so be courteous and considerate when responding please!

I assume you must have sensed my frustration at my and other members repeated attempts to explain to the OP what his issue was. Looking at posts 14, 20, 21 & 28 I think its fair to say sound advice was given. Not sure how you defined the tone from my written word but then its something I'm not going to loose any sleep over either. If anything, we now have an informative post form the O.P. and it seems all is in hand.

 

[Moody41]

I think Laika use a Schaudt system, if not it will probably be CBE. Both use multi stage chargers capable of providing good charging.

Thanks Pausim,
That's good to hear.
I would want to fully charge (if possible) IPrinceB's current battery independently i.e. detached from the MoHo circuitry. Hopefully, you are correct and perhaps the charger output can be isolated for use on a disconnected battery? That would, at least, isolate the fault to either the charger, battery or, if the isolated charger/battery pair perform well, a problem in the circuitry.
Cheers
Bob

 

[wp1234]

With the engine running the control panel is showing 14.3v for the leisure battery - this then drops to 12v within an hour of turning off the engine and plugging the 230v back in…

I’ve had major issues with my Kreos 7009 batteries in Spain earlier this year and this forum really helped be track the problem down( thanks Lenny HB ) .
One of the two original Gel batteries failed after three years dragging the other one down. I then bought two new 110ah Victron Gels but unluckily for me one of them proved was also proved faulty which really confused me at the time.

Victron replaced the duff battery under warranty so I’m hoping I’m back to normal now , fingers crossed.

I know it might not help you right now but can I make a suggestion that you fit a Victron Smart shunt when you get home so that you will always know what’s going on with your batteries and charging system …. best £100 I’ve spent

 

[Richard n Ann]

I’ve had major issues with my Kreos 7009 batteries in Spain earlier this year and this forum really helped be track the problem down( thanks Lenny HB ) .
One of the two original Gel batteries failed after three years dragging the other one down. I then bought two new 110ah Victron Gels but unluckily for me one of them proved was also proved faulty which really confused me at the time.

Victron replaced the duff battery under warranty so I’m hoping I’m back to normal now , fingers crossed.

I know it might not help you right now but can I make a suggestion that you fit a Victron Smart shunt when you get home so that you will always know what’s going on with your batteries and charging system …. best £100 I’ve spent

Agreed a good battery monitor is a very useful gadget, ours (actually mine) is the NASA BM1.

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[athelas]

Here's one, hopefully not too far outside your comfort zone. You may not have used a multimeter before, but it's very easy and safe to take voltage readings in 12V circuits. Any cheap multimeter will be fine for this, and you can probably pick one up for a tenner or so at any DIY store.

Plug the red lead into the socket with 'V' in the label. Plug the black lead into the socket labelled 'COM'. Turn on the meter and set it to the 20V DC range. The symbol with two lines, one solid and one dotted, means DC. The symbol with a wavy twiddle means AC. Batteries and vehicle electrics are always DC, not AC.

Push the red probe onto the positive battery terminal. Push the black probe onto the negative battery terminal. You should get a reading of between 10 and 15 volts. If you get the probes the wrong way round, all that happens is a minus sign shows in front of the voltage reading.

Once you are happy doing that, you need two voltage readings at the battery terminals. One with the hookup disconnected, and one with the hookup connected.

I would suggest to follow autorouter's advice and measure the voltage straight at the two terminals of the leisure battery. Wether bad or not, while charging it should eventually reach a voltage level well above 13.6 Volts. If it does, the charger is fine. From post #9 I understand your leisure battery monitor shows 14.3V with the engine running. At that condition, please use the multimeter (as autorouter described quite well) and measure tha leisure battery voltage straight at the battery terminals. If it measures anything below 14V the large battery fuse is blown. These are like 30Amp or 40Amp fuses.
Switch off the engine, replace the fuse by the exact same rating even if it "looks" ok, restart the engine and measure the battery voltage again. The voltage should increase steadily. Leave the engine running or connect to EHU, and check the battery voltage using the multimeter again e.g. every hour. Note down the reading so you should see it steadily increasing.

A 2 year old battery sound too new to me to be broken unless it has been seriously misused.

Good luck!