Recommendation for battery check up Southern Scotland area

[Lbj]

Hello - just wondering if anyone could suggest a place where I could get my leisure batteries checked? I’m currently in Dumfries & Galloway but happy to travel (within reason!)

I had two Yuaso batteries installed in my Sunlight Cliff in April and have been travelling since then without needing hookup but checking several times a day to make sure they don’t go below 12v But in the hot weather the last week they have been losing power, not unexpectedly but even now the weather is cooler they are not keeping the charge as they used to. I’m wondering whether they have dropped below 12v at night but by the time I wake and check the sun has been up and the 100w solar panel I have has already charged them up again to over 12v I have an Isotherm fridge with a tiny freezer. I’m having to go for a drive before turning in to fully charge them overnight which is not ideal!

Thanks in advance

 

[Cush]

How are you measuring / estimating their state of charge. The voltage you see from the solar panel or after a drive may be the charging voltage? If you have a shunt or some form of BMS then I’m sure you will be more accurate. Usually rapid charging and discharging indicates a damaged battery. is your isotherm purely a 12v fridge or 3-way?

 

[Lbj]

How are you measuring / estimating their state of charge. The voltage you see from the solar panel or after a drive may be the charging voltage? If you have a shunt or some form of BMS then I’m sure you will be more accurate. Usually rapid charging and discharging indicates a damaged battery. is your isotherm purely a 12v fridge or 3-way?

I’ll try to answer these questions! The van has an NDS sun controller2 which is where I’m getting the info from and was fitted by the previous owner. The van also has a basic Control panel Which I’ve hopefully attached a photo of. Checking this battery level regularly the leisure battery is always green and has never gone to amber or red.

The fridge is not three way

 

[Cush]

Sorry nobody has been able to help with where you can get them checked. There are many more knowledgeable members than me and hopefully this will draw their attention

The NDS unit is your solar controller that takes the solar to your pleasure batteries. I could be that the demands of the fridge, especially in hot weather, is just too much for the batteries and solar. Green light may reflect the voltage that will be higher when charging, either from solar or driving, than at rest and not be a true indication that they are full.

do you know if they are LiFePO4 or lead acid batteries. The lead acid hold much less useable charge than the others. I think you would need a long drive to charge them but can’t really advise without knowing if you have a battery to battery charger. A day on ehu may fill the batteries up again.

sorry I havent been much help but my guess is that they aren’t getting a full charge.

 

[lorger]

Where are you in D&G as it’s a big place, also I’m sure most garages will have a meter that can check your battery as it’s just the same procedure as checking your engine battery.

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[bigtwin]

Without further information and based on what you’ve stated, I suspect that they have suffered from serial under charging. A battery sitting at 12V is, to all intents and purposes, flat.

Lead acid batteries do not like being drained without being charged shortly thereafter.

What voltage are they before you go to bed?

Ian

 

[Lbj]

Thank you for all your replies, as always from this forum helpful and knowledgeable advice.

I am (clearly!) very much a novice and learning as I go. I hadn’t appreciated the importance of fully charging the batteries when they get low and naively assumed with a top up from the solar it would be sufficient, (as well as driving every day)although at times not fully charging to what the NDS panel showed as capacity. I have been in the road since the beginning of April, so this may have had a cumulative effect perhaps, with the hot weather the last few days accelerating the process? I shall book into a campsite and charge them up, but won’t hold up too much hope. Thanks again!

 

[Lbj]

Where are you in D&G as it’s a big place, also I’m sure most garages will have a meter that can check your battery as it’s just the same procedure as checking your engine battery.

Thanks for the reply. I’m touring around and near Dumfries at the moment but happy to drive to wherever is recommended

 

[Lbj]

Sorry nobody has been able to help with where you can get them checked. There are many more knowledgeable members than me and hopefully this will draw their attention

The NDS unit is your solar controller that takes the solar to your pleasure batteries. I could be that the demands of the fridge, especially in hot weather, is just too much for the batteries and solar. Green light may reflect the voltage that will be higher when charging, either from solar or driving, than at rest and not be a true indication that they are full.

do you know if they are LiFePO4 or lead acid batteries. The lead acid hold much less useable charge than the others. I think you would need a long drive to charge them but can’t really advise without knowing if you have a battery to battery charger. A day on ehu may fill the batteries up again.

sorry I havent been much help but my guess is that they aren’t getting a full charge.

They are lead batteries (installed by Vanbitz) and pretty sure I don’t have a B2B!

 

[bigtwin]

Thanks for the reply. I’m touring around and near Dumfries at the moment but happy to drive to wherever is recommended

You could try The Green Frog in Moffat; a lovely little town.

Ian

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[lorger]

Try Keith Faulds garage at Heathhall on the outskirts of Dumfries, or you could try the local Halfords in the town centre I’m sure they’ll be able to check them.

Other places in Dumfries or close by

Parkdale garage
Dumfries caravan centre
Davidson’s caravan centre Lockerbie
Caravan leisure company Lockerbie

I do have a multimeter but we’re in the process of moving house so might not be able to place it, it’s probably in the MH which is in Glasgow having a repair done so if you’re still struggling by Wednesday let me know as should have it back. If you need plugged in to ehu for a couple of hours you’re more than welcome to pop round.

You’ll need your own cable and domestic plug adapter as mine are in the van.

 

[TheBig1]

You mention 2 batteries and just one 100watt solar panel. With uk weather you will rarely harvest enough sunlight to recharge the batteries. Expecting them to be fully charged based on apparent voltage is flawed. What you will be reading in the daylight is the charging voltage. The true state of charge needs to be read at least 30 minutes after any charger stops. Both solar and engine alternator will push up to 13.8 volts into the batteries. This then give a false reading until the surface charge has dissipated. What you have described is typical of batteries that rarely receive a proper charge. At least 24 hours on a battery charger is required to fully charge them

Failing to recharge deeply discharged batteries will rapidly shorten their expected life span. All batteries quote a maximum number of charge/discharge cycles without allowing them to drop below 50% depth of discharge.

The problem with taking a leisure battery to a garage to test is that most only have a basic drop tester, that puts a load across the terminals to see if it retains enough power to start an engine. What this can not measure on leisure batteries is the capacity. Batteries left discharged or getting old will appear fully charged but in reality the capacity has dropped from say 100amp/ hours to maybe 20 amp/hours.

Back to the basics of lead acid batteries, a 50% maximum discharge of a fully charged new 100ah battery is 50ah . So a fridge taking 4ah and occassional 4a tv would give maybe 8 hours before recharge is required. This gets complicated by adding solar, as it pushes in a couple of amps per hour. So think a 12 hour sunny day will give 24ah of charge. Obvious ballpark figures because I dont want to complicate the explanation.

I always suggest you fit as much solar as you can with a minimum of 100watts for every 100ah of batteries. Plus a back up charger capable of charging the bank of batteries. I wont go deeply into recharging from the alternator on the engine. But suffice to say you would need to drive for many hours to recharge a flat leisure battery. That is why B2B dc chargers are very popular on motorhomes and boats

 

[PhilandMena]

if you do manage to get someone to test them make sure its a capacity test and not a cranking test. A capacity test requires rather expensive test equipment too. I suspect your batteries have had it as a result of to many deep discharges. A cranking test will not show how much capacity is remaining in your batteries.

 

[Lbj]

Thank you, that

Try Keith Faulds garage at Heathhall on the outskirts of Dumfries, or you could try the local Halfords in the town centre I’m sure they’ll be able to check them.

Other places in Dumfries or close by

Parkdale garage
Dumfries caravan centre
Davidson’s caravan centre Lockerbie
Caravan leisure company Lockerbie

I do have a multimeter but we’re in the process of moving house so might not be able to place it, it’s probably in the MH which is in Glasgow having a repair done so if you’re still struggling by Wednesday let me know as should have it back. If you need plugged in to ehu for a couple of hours you’re more than welcome to pop round.

You’ll need your own cable and domestic plug adapter as mine are in the va

Try Keith Faulds garage at Heathhall on the outskirts of Dumfries, or you could try the local Halfords in the town centre I’m sure they’ll be able to check them.

Other places in Dumfries or close by

Parkdale garage
Dumfries caravan centre
Davidson’s caravan centre Lockerbie
Caravan leisure company Lockerbie

I do have a multimeter but we’re in the process of moving house so might not be able to place it, it’s probably in the MH which is in Glasgow having a repair done so if you’re still struggling by Wednesday let me know as should have it back. If you need plugged in to ehu for a couple of hours you’re more than welcome to pop round.

You’ll need your own cable and domestic plug adapter as mine are in the van.

 

[Lbj]

Thank you, that

Thank you, that

I’ll try again, was being pestered by a fly! Thanks, that is very generous. I’m now hooked up to electric on a campsite while I consider my next move

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[Lbj]

You mention 2 batteries and just one 100watt solar panel. With uk weather you will rarely harvest enough sunlight to recharge the batteries. Expecting them to be fully charged based on apparent voltage is flawed. What you will be reading in the daylight is the charging voltage. The true state of charge needs to be read at least 30 minutes after any charger stops. Both solar and engine alternator will push up to 13.8 volts into the batteries. This then give a false reading until the surface charge has dissipated. What you have described is typical of batteries that rarely receive a proper charge. At least 24 hours on a battery charger is required to fully charge them

Failing to recharge deeply discharged batteries will rapidly shorten their expected life span. All batteries quote a maximum number of charge/discharge cycles without allowing them to drop below 50% depth of discharge.

The problem with taking a leisure battery to a garage to test is that most only have a basic drop tester, that puts a load across the terminals to see if it retains enough power to start an engine. What this can not measure on leisure batteries is the capacity. Batteries left discharged or getting old will appear fully charged but in reality the capacity has dropped from say 100amp/ hours to maybe 20 amp/hours.

Back to the basics of lead acid batteries, a 50% maximum discharge of a fully charged new 100ah battery is 50ah . So a fridge taking 4ah and occassional 4a tv would give maybe 8 hours before recharge is required. This gets complicated by adding solar, as it pushes in a couple of amps per hour. So think a 12 hour sunny day will give 24ah of charge. Obvious ballpark figures because I dont want to complicate the explanation.

I always suggest you fit as much solar as you can with a minimum of 100watts for every 100ah of batteries. Plus a back up charger capable of charging the bank of batteries. I wont go deeply into recharging from the alternator on the engine. But suffice to say you would need to drive for many hours to recharge a flat leisure battery. That is why B2B dc chargers are very popular on motorhomes and boats

I had no idea about charging voltage and reading your clear explanation it makes absolute sense, when it is pointed out to me of course that I was looking at this and thinking my batteries were fine.

my van has 3 skylights and as it is 5.4 metres long there is only room for a 100 w panel.

Could I ask what might be recommended as it looks like the batteries will need to be replaced. An expensive lesson learnt. A B2B and not lead batteries? I know some people have strong views about batteries on this forum! and hooking up to electrics regularly…

 

[Lbj]

Just to add that I have the fridge but other than that use very little electric, I do charge my iPad, iPhone and router but do this as much as possible when I am driving. No TV or anything else plugged in. And I defrost the tiny freezer regularly as found that got iced up which probably makes the fridge work harder.