Battery Charging

[SIMON_374377661]

Hi All,

If I have my caravan connected to the electric hook up can I remove the battery and charge it with my CTEK ? - will everything still work in the caravan ? OR could I charge it with my CTEK when it was still connected to the caravan charger - will that work ?

The reason I want to do this is that I have just had an elecsol battery die on me and want to keep my new one in tip top shape

Very grateful for any advice

Thanks

 

[B4bill]

So why would you not just charge your battery continuously with the Van charger?

In 30+ years of caravanning I have never used anything other than the van charger and have only ever bought 5 batteries in that time. Current battery is 5 years old and still going strong.

However, you can take your battery out and still operate all the 12-volt equipment in your van from the charger.

I would NOT couple up the CTEK and the van charger at the same time.

Make sure that when you use the van without battery that the battery leads cannot touch each other while you continue to use the van charger to power your equipment.

 

[Philspadders]

built in chargers , especially on older vans do not fully charge the battery. This may sound odd ,but batteries develop a memory effect.

If you continually charge it to only 80% of its capacity then thats all you will ever get it to ,even if you take it off the van and charge it separately.

Disconnect it from the van and charge from a dedicated charger, in fact you should this anyway to cycle the unit to ensure it always reaches its full capacity.

 

[xtrailman]

I have done exactly the same as b4bill, my present battery is six years old, and my charger only goes to 13.7 volts.

Ok the battery never fully charges, but then it losses little water from gassing, and in practical use runs the motor mover.

Besides when the caravan is being towed, the charging volts should be higher than 13.7v, so maybe it does get fully charged on a run?

 

[B4bill]

Think your wrong.

New vans cannot fully charge a battery. Old vans could which resulted in gassing and a change in regulations, battery must not gas on new van hence the reason for charger being incapable of charging above 13.6 v

Lead acid batteries do not suffer from memory effect.

 

[Philspadders]

unlikely. it needs a proper cycle to ensure its full capacity and long life.

i have lots of battery chargers for various thigs such multiple lithium polymer cells,Nimh and Nicad( Nicad are no longer made by the way) and Pb cells with capacity readouts, volts put in amps put in etc.

Even after a run i am always able peak the battery and maximise it capacity by at least another 5amp/h.

 

[xtrailman]

b4bill

I thought the same, but swift do fit a 3 stage charger that takes the battery up to full charge, around 14.7 votls.

Its the one that keeps failing!

 

[B4bill]

Ray,

Didn't know that bit but I have a new Swift Challenger 580 so I will check what its doing. See if it goes above 14 v

 

[Philspadders]

its not the volts here , its the capacity . I can have a battery putting out 12.4v but the capacity may down at 8.5amph.

 

[B4bill]

I want to check that my new charger inputs over 14 volts to the batteryas Ray suggests

The amps will be high if the battery is discharged and will reduce as the charge level rises. With these three stage chargers the input voltage to the battery must also reduce to stop gassing as a lead acid battery does not gas above 13.6v.

 

[Phillip_374583628]

Hi all,

I'm a Master Distributor for Leisure batteries and am more than happy to give any help or advice you need. To clarify, it is true that lead acid batteries do not really have a memory however you do end up loosing capacity permenantly through plate sulphation if the batteries do not reach the maximum.

Most advanced chargers will provide at 3 steps.

1. Stage 1 - Bulk stage - Max current - constantly until the battery voltage hits a certain limit. For example, on an Elecsol battery thats 14.2V which is a little lower than some lead acid batteries. If you're running on a gel or Agm battery, you may well need a slightly different voltage limit. Some chargers allow you to change the voltage setting and some don't.

2. Stage 2 - The battery has reached the max voltage, at this point the intelligent charger will reduce current step by step over time, keeping the voltage at the upper limit.When the current reaches a low value of just a few amps (depends on internal resistance of the battery which is also being measured during charging) the charger will go to the next stage

3. Stage 3 - The battery is fully charged and the unit goes into storage or 'float' mode. This will keep the battery maybe 0.5v above it's open circuit fully charged state (usually a battery is fully charged if it reads 12.74 volts approx).

The in van chargers and charging from the alternator has roughly the same effect, the battery is undercharged.

For most battery designs this leads to a permenant decrease in capacity - and I suppose you could call this upper limit a memory.

A good quality charger used now and then coupled with a quality battery will help. As a point, I've just returned from a caravan site (Tollymore forest park) after changing out a 2 budget batteries. The customer called and asked if there should be 'steam' coming from his battery compartment. disaster averted.

I hope this makes sense.

If anyone needs any advice you can contact me at www.leisurebatteriesireland.com

Regards,

Phillip