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Battery Charging Issue

T

truckin73

Evening All,

After some advice around issues I am experiencing with charging of the leisure battery.

I have a 2014 Swift Challenger Sport 636 GTS, which has a single mover fitted to it. When bought second hand, in November 16, the dealer supplied it with a new Platinum Leisure Plus Battery, 100A (20Ah) Category C.

When we were last away, 2 days after arriving on site, there was a foul smell coming from the battery, it was very hot to touch and there was a sizzling sound. Battery was disconnected and left until we got home for further investigation.

Battery been at local dealer and they have said no issues with battery.

Tested battery today with multimeter and reads 13V. Connected upto caravan charger and charger commences charging battery at boost setting, red LED on on charger. Battery has charged to 14.14V and has sat at this level for 6 hours now. Battery back to being smelly, extremely hot and sizzling sound. Charger still on boost setting, as not reached float voltage setting of 14.4V.

Do the above scenarios/findings suggest a faulty battery?

Also, is the battery the correct rating for the van/mover combo?

Any advice would be appreciated, prior to returning to dealer with whole outfit for further testing/investigation.

Thanks. Keith
 
The size of battery you have should be fine for use in the caravan with the mover.

The symptoms you describe do suggest to me a fault with the battery, as 14.14 is well withing the forced charging voltage of a leisure battery.

I'm not familiar with teh charger you have, but most caravan float charging is done at 13.8V as the battery in a caravan considered to be standby rather than cyclic useage
 
Thanks for the response ProfJohnL.

Do you know what determines whether the charger operates on boost/bulk output 14.4V output or float charge 13.6V output.

The charger fitted is a Sargent EC444.
 
Think the charger is not swapping over between boost & float charge.

Charger is a Sargent PX300 3 Stage Switching Mode Charger.

Sargent EC444 that I quoted earlier is the Power Supply Unit. Sorry.

Visit to dealer booked for early next week.
 
If it's smelling/sizzling/getting hot then I'd switch it off & get out of the way.
Ours did this shortly before it exploded, sending shards of plastic everywhere, soaking the underside of the van with acid. I'd lifted it out of the locker to try & cool it down.
Minutes earlier my sons had been standing right next to it, topping up the water. :-(
I'm certain it was the battery (3yrs old but had had a dry cell when I checked it), but I'm fearful of using the caravan charger now so bought a CTek instead. Unless I'm off EHU the battery stays disconnected.
 
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