Hi,
Just as the subject title reads!
I was checking over some things in the caravan yesterday getting ready for my forthcoming trip. I'd had problems with the battery box lock previously and was checking that out when I noticed the built in charge indicator on the battery was showing faint red. I brought the battery into the house, stuck it onto a Gunson leisure battery charger (the type that takes the charge up to over 14 as recommended) and......nothing..... the needle on the charger display never even flickered. My first thought was the battery is finished and was not going to take a charge, it's about three/four years old. I did check it with a voltmeter and it was reading 13.6 whilst connected to the charger. Took it off charger, same reading. I'm sure I've been told before that to get a true reading that the battery should be disconnected from the charger for a period of several hours so left it overnight checked it this morning and getting a reading of 12.88. To me that shows battery is fuly charged but the built in indicator is still faint red. The indicator is like a small circular glass window down into the battery, glows green- battery o.k, red - battery needs charged. At the moment it is more red than anything although that could be just the way the light is hitting whatever is in there. It might in fact be neither green nor red.
My questions are:
Are these built in indicators in any way reliable? I realise they will not be 100% accurate but could the fact it is not illuminated green despite a reading of 12.88 be an indicator there is a battery fault, or could this built in indicator be faulty?
Could it be my battery charger that is faulty, any way of checking this ( did replace the fuse in the 230v plug as a precaution)?
Is the battery finshed, how best to check if it is?
Many thanks for any replies.
Robert
Just as the subject title reads!
I was checking over some things in the caravan yesterday getting ready for my forthcoming trip. I'd had problems with the battery box lock previously and was checking that out when I noticed the built in charge indicator on the battery was showing faint red. I brought the battery into the house, stuck it onto a Gunson leisure battery charger (the type that takes the charge up to over 14 as recommended) and......nothing..... the needle on the charger display never even flickered. My first thought was the battery is finished and was not going to take a charge, it's about three/four years old. I did check it with a voltmeter and it was reading 13.6 whilst connected to the charger. Took it off charger, same reading. I'm sure I've been told before that to get a true reading that the battery should be disconnected from the charger for a period of several hours so left it overnight checked it this morning and getting a reading of 12.88. To me that shows battery is fuly charged but the built in indicator is still faint red. The indicator is like a small circular glass window down into the battery, glows green- battery o.k, red - battery needs charged. At the moment it is more red than anything although that could be just the way the light is hitting whatever is in there. It might in fact be neither green nor red.
My questions are:
Are these built in indicators in any way reliable? I realise they will not be 100% accurate but could the fact it is not illuminated green despite a reading of 12.88 be an indicator there is a battery fault, or could this built in indicator be faulty?
Could it be my battery charger that is faulty, any way of checking this ( did replace the fuse in the 230v plug as a precaution)?
Is the battery finshed, how best to check if it is?
Many thanks for any replies.
Robert
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