110 amp battery

[SteveP]

I have just ventured out this weekend on a club rally, i have enjoyed it apart from the fact i bought a 110 amp leisure battery before we went, charged it up (I thought)only for it to quit about 4 hours into the meet?

Any way to check if this battery is a duffer, to be returned, or just needs a good heavy charge?

 

[James_374408700]

Only 4 hours eh?

What appliances were you using?

Something sounds really wrong!

What charger did you use and for how long?

Jim

 

[SteveP]

Couple of interior lights, tv for an hour, water pump for washing up and mover for no more than 5 mins

 

[SteveP]

Couple of interior lights, tv for an hour, water pump for washing up and mover for no more than 5 mins

Should have added, i initially charged the battery with a charger, not 3 stage, but waited until the led lit to indicate charged.

i THEN FITTED IT TO THE VAN and left electrics on for 24 hrs, letting the Zig do the business

 

[ChrisUK]

Should do much better than that, either it was not fully charged or its duff.

 

[James_374408700]

Steve,

Do you have access to a voltmeter?

Jim

 

[Steve L]

Hi Steve.

Sounds to me like you have a duff battery.

I would invest in a basic eletrical test meter that can measure 12 volts DC. (maplins is a good place for this).

Charge the battery overnight off the caravan, then let it settle for an hour before fitting it to the van.

Now having selected DC volts upto 20V, connect the test probes to + and - (red on red and black on black).

You should get 14volts plus off a fully charged battery.

Now put on lights, tv etc to draw current. The voltage should not dip below 10 volts for at least 4 hours or even longer on a leisure battery as it is designed for a long low ampage discharge. If your battery goes down faster than this I would return it to the supplier under a guarantee claim.

If you have any queries I'll be more than happy to advise.

Cheers

Steve L.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

I regularly get long weekend use out of a 110Ah battery with use of the TV and intermittent use of a 12V coolbox.

The biggest culprit when we do get a problem is the fan for the heater being left on accidentally.

 

[SteveP]

Hi, thanks for the replies,

1> i have voltmeter, before charge it was 12.4v, red led in van, not able to use mover.

2> after overnight charge it reads 13.1 v, green light in van.

I was suprised how quick the battery seemed to drain over the weekend, little use of lights, some use of cool box (2 hours) 1& 1/2 hour of tv, some use of water pump (washing up only).

 

[ChrisUK]

How old is the battery? they can only do so many discharge cycles, typically they quote 500 depending on the battery type. My second battery is a 8 year old 80 Ah, but I suspect its capacity is now much less than that. Probably less than a 1/3 rd

 

[colin-yorkshire]

hi steve

I too suspect you have got either a duff battery or it has not had enough initial charge to its full potential.

the reason for this is during our 3 month trek we stayed on several CL's without hookup sometimes over a week using only 12v and gas at no time did the battery fall below the amber sector and there was still enough power to use the mover before we left.

however on return after the van was parked up for 2 weeks the battery went completely flat, a combination of the fridge that was still on and the mover isolater switch that was also left on seems to have done what a week on a CL could not do,it has been on charge now for nearly 2 weeks and seems fine again so it may also be worth checking that there is nothing switched on that you assume is off but still draining the charge.

colin

 

[James_374408700]

Steve,

Providing you feel confident to do so , if the meter has an amperage setting you could turn off all 12v appliances in the van and connect the meter in series with the battery to establish that there is no unknown current drain.

Jim

 

[xtrailman]

Steve

When you transported the new battery home, did you by any chance lose some of the battery electrolyte?

Also did you charge the battery up to 14.7 volts?

You need this to get the full capacity from the battery.

As your on board charger is only charging to 13.1 volts, you are not fully charging the battery, not getting the full 110 AH.

I think it is important to ensure a new battery has a full charge when new.

Finally as the last post suggested, you could have a discharge that you are not aware of, checking the current with the on board charger turned OFF, will give you the discharge current.

 

[xtrailman]

I did once have a charger that was slowly discharging the battery.