Rapido 7099f 2007 battery problems

[TaffnDebs]

Hi we are very new to this only owned the Moho 2 weeks and were told 1 of the 2 leisure batteties needed replacing but apparently it’s both. When new it would of had 2 x Varta 90ah
At present it has 2 x L36 EFB
My question is should I keep them the same as is on board or go back to to original size
One battery supplier said to swap to AGM but another said my charger wouldn’t work with it
Pics of battery and charger for info
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks

 

[autorouter]

Enhanced Flooded Batteries (EFB) are better technology than standard flooded batteries, which is what would have been fitted originally. The size difference (100Ah compared to the original 90Ah) is marginal, so will not cause any problem to the charging system, and will last just a bit longer when off-grid.

Your charger, as it says on the label, is a 3-stage smart charger that has settable charge profiles for flooded batteries and gel batteries, but not for AGM which require a slightly higher charging voltage (about 14.7V, rather than14.4V or14.1V that this charger can do).

AGMs are not popular on here because they can have a short life if they are not charged with the correct charging profile. It's not a big job to change the charger, and if you do you can get one with several charge profiles, including lithium which is becoming very popular. But if you just want to get a couple of new batteries then the EFBs, or a pair of Gels, would just drop in.

One advantage of Gel batteries is that they can be safely discharged down to the 20% level without deterioration. So you get more total charge out of the same nominal Ah batteries. With flooded batteries, including EFBs, it's best not to discharge them below about 50% to make them last longer.

 

[TaffnDebs]

Enhanced Flooded Batteries (EFB) are better technology than standard flooded batteries, which is what would have been fitted originally. The size difference (100Ah compared to the original 90Ah) is marginal, so will not cause any problem to the charging system, and will last just a bit longer when off-grid.

Your charger, as it says on the label, is a 3-stage smart charger that has settable charge profiles for flooded batteries and gel batteries, but not for AGM which require a slightly higher charging voltage (about 14.7V, rather than14.4V or14.1V that this charger can do).

AGMs are not popular on here because they can have a short life if they are not charged with the correct charging profile. It's not a big job to change the charger, and if you do you can get one with several charge profiles, including lithium which is becoming very popular. But if you just want to get a couple of new batteries then the EFBs, or a pair of Gels, would just drop in.

One advantage of Gel batteries is that they can be safely discharged down to the 20% level without deterioration. So you get more total charge out of the same nominal Ah batteries. With flooded batteries, including EFBs, it's best not to discharge them below about 50% to make them last longer.

Thank you for the reply
Obviously we want to put the best in thst we can with the charger we have no one has mentioned gel batteries to us we do intend to go off grid more than ehu would you happen to know of any good gel batteries I could look up for price comparison etc
Thanks

 

[autorouter]

I've heard good reports of Exide, Sonnenschein and Victron gel batteries. For prices you could look up Tayna Batteries, Battery Megastore or Alpha Batteries, they have a wide range at good prices.

 

[Just smiffy]

If you can get them in (size) then these batteries are very good and your charger is designed for them, lots of people on here have them including me. If your going to go off grid a bit more then consider solar and a good controller… as above autorouter has mention lithium which are coming down in price will be a good option but although your charger will charge them it hasn’t got the perfect profile to get the best out of them but they will work…

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[Spriddler]

Most scrap dealers will pay you a tenner each for duff batteries. Every little helps!

 

[AdrianChen]

Hi we are very new to this only owned the Moho 2 weeks and were told 1 of the 2 leisure batteties needed replacing but apparently it’s both. When new it would of had 2 x Varta 90ah
At present it has 2 x L36 EFB
My question is should I keep them the same as is on board or go back to to original size
One battery supplier said to swap to AGM but another said my charger wouldn’t work with it
Pics of battery and charger for info
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks



View attachment 971721

View attachment 971726

If you do not want to change the charger at this point your choices are to replace with standard flooded including the EFB types, or upgrade to Gel. Sonnenschein "invented" Gel type batteries and are now owned by Exide. Either of those two makes will be good, and provide more usable capacity than standard lead acid. Ive had a couple of ES type Exides, and they were very good and will last a long time if not abused with big inverter loads etc.

Lithium could well be an option since the CBE charger if set to the standard lead acid setting of 14.1v/13.5v will do no harm to lithium batteries but may not get them to 100% charge, it will be very close though. You don't mention if you have any other charging sources on the van, such as Solar or a B2B, if neither I would tend to stick with the above types to keep things simple.

You may find that being off-grid becomes your thing and then want to spend a few £K on Solar/B2B/inverter and a mahoosive lithium setup, or alternatively that sites with EHU suit you best, in which case the van will mainly run off EHU, and the battery system as fitted will be fine for the odd couple of days off-grid.

If a life off-grid is a real possibility but your not yet certain, I would drop in the cheapest lead acid "leisure" batteries from one of the main suppliers autorouter has mentioned until you're sure. They'll last a couple of seasons for sure, but if you do decide to do a big Lithium install there will be little loss, and when they do expire, you could swap to gel types then, but by then lithium will probably be cheaper!

 

[TaffnDebs]

If you do not want to change the charger at this point your choices are to replace with standard flooded including the EFB types, or upgrade to Gel. Sonnenschein "invented" Gel type batteries and are now owned by Exide. Either of those two makes will be good, and provide more usable capacity than standard lead acid. Ive had a couple of ES type Exides, and they were very good and will last a long time if not abused with big inverter loads etc.

Lithium could well be an option since the CBE charger if set to the standard lead acid setting of 14.1v/13.5v will do no harm to lithium batteries but may not get them to 100% charge, it will be very close though. You don't mention if you have any other charging sources on the van, such as Solar or a B2B, if neither I would tend to stick with the above types to keep things simple.

You may find that being off-grid becomes your thing and then want to spend a few £K on Solar/B2B/inverter and a mahoosive lithium setup, or alternatively that sites with EHU suit you best, in which case the van will mainly run off EHU, and the battery system as fitted will be fine for the odd couple of days off-grid.

If a life off-grid is a real possibility but your not yet certain, I would drop in the cheapest lead acid "leisure" batteries from one of the main suppliers autorouter has mentioned until you're sure. They'll last a couple of seasons for sure, but if you do decide to do a big Lithium install there will be little loss, and when they do expire, you could swap to gel types then, but by then lithium will probably be cheaper!

Hi we do have a solar panel see pic think this has something to do with it sorry for my ignorance

 

[AdrianChen]

Hi we do have a solar panel see pic think this has something to do with it sorry for my ignorance



View attachment 971907

Not familiar with that type of solar charge regulator - but appears to be a basic PWM device without any battery charging profiles, but with dual outputs for the leisure and cab batteries - will be fine with a modest panel to keep a small system topped up, which is what you have!

It will work, but will not do the best possible job with Gel or Lithium - from what I can see it runs up to 13.9v charging which is a bit low for those battery types.

Once you know how you actually use the van, this would be one on the list to upgrade - an MPPT type Solar regulator, would probably get a bit more from the existing panel, certainly you would need to upgrade it if you were to install more panels.

 

[TaffnDebs]

Thank you for your help I think we will get the L36 EFB for now while we get used to the van and how things work
our long term plan is to travel a lot in it off grid as much as possible but that is a couple of years off yet sadly

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