Which Leisure Battery?

[Richard n Ann]

No good for a gel, assume you meant 8 amps. It will only charge the Gel to 80% not good for longevity.
For a Gel you need a bulk charge up to 14.2/14.3 then an absorption phase i.e. remaining at 14.2 v with current limited to about 1 amp for 8 hours then drop to maintenance of 13.8v.
Votronic & Victron do suitable chargers.

Edit:
Just looked at the spec of your charger it is just a maintenance charger doesn't have a bulk stage as such it is only 0.8 amp, it will take at least 3 days to charge your battery.
You really need a bulk charge rate of at least 18 amps.

Holy moly they are expensive, is there anything reasonably priced? Say 100 quid?
At this rate it will be cheaper to buy a 100w solar panel for the garage roof and plug it into the Votronic duo in the van ?

 

[Richard n Ann]

If the battery is charged fully by the Votronic duo and solar while the van is on the drive.
Will the optimate be ok to maintain the gel battery after when it's in the garage?

 

[Lenny HB]

Holy moly they are expensive, is there anything reasonably priced? Say 100 quid?
At this rate it will be cheaper to buy a 100w solar panel for the garage roof and plug it into the Votronic duo in the van ?

Here is a cheap one but only 10 amp £79 from Photonic Universe (10% discount for C&CC members) no brand on it but it looks like a Ring one.
Could do with a bit more info on it spec is a bit vague.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Here is a cheap one but only 10 amp £79 from Photonic Universe (10% discount for C&CC members) no brand on it but it looks like a Ring one.
Could do with a bit more info on it spec is a bit vague.

Looks OK, downloaded the user manual and it has a gel mode. Good enough for me, Ordered it ?.
In the meantime Optimate have emailed me back and said...

"Using a traditional absorption stage is not necessary. The method employed by the OptiMate is less aggressive and works better for cell balancing." why have a gel mode then? ?

Anyway doesn't matter now. I'm going to remove the Elddis one and fit the new one in it's place in the van. It's got a power supply mode too. ?

 

[Richard n Ann]

Made by Carspa Energy. There's a 20 amp one on amazon with 5 star reviews ?

Chinese of course..

12Volt Battery Charger

CARSPA is one of the leading China 12Volt battery charger suppliers serving for various electric equipment shops in the world. We'll provide customers with high quality 12Volt battery charger at good price as well as OEM service.

m.carspasolar.com

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}