battery charger recommendations?

[smoggie9]

I have just purchased a caravan with a 110Ah leisure battery and need to buy a new battery charger. My old charger will charge max 70Ah. Any suggestions will be welcome.

 

[AlanJ]

Just make sure which ever you buy it is for charging a leisure battery. Normal car chargers will ruin your leasure battery.

Both Caravan Club and Caravan & Camping Club web sites have advisory on-line leaflets on this subject so best go there for first class advice first.

 

[rob_jax]

David,

If all you want to achieve is a slow charge of the 100AH battery, then a charger rated for lower capacity battery will still work.

The difference between chargers rated for different capacity batteries is that the maximum charging current is higher - typically a multi-stage charger for a 70AH battery will be rated at 3 Amps, whereas a 100 AH charger will be rated at 5 Amps.

The big difference this has is in the chargers' ability to remove via pulse charging.

The point Alan makes about a car charger destroying a leisure battery isn't totally true, if it's a dumb charger then you need to monitor it carefully or you can overcharge the battery, but if it's "intelligent" or multi-stage it will simply cut off before the full charge point is reached.

So - if your existing charger is a quality make, like CTEK with multiple charging options - then it will suffice for a larger battery. If it's an unintelligent charger, then you might want to upgrade...

Robert

 

[smoggie9]

It is a challenger cmt6899 automatic charger from Argos and has a maintenance mode. WIll this be suitable?