Battery charging

[Herb46]

Hi recently brought a adria izonso and was wondering if the battery charges automatically
When plugged into electric hook up as cannot see anything to say it's charging unlike my last van
Thanks in advance

 

[Damian]

The easiest way to find out is measure the voltage at the battery terminals, when disconnected from the mains, and when connected.
Disconnected voltage with a good battery should be around 12.6v
With mains on and charger on 13.8v

 

[Gagakev]

Hi Herb, my van was built by Adria when they took over Fleetwood caravans.
There is no control panel in mine and yes it charges when plugged in.
The only controls so to speak is a switch for the water pump and a volt meter for the battery.
Hope this helps.

 

[SueF]

While I am not the expert (that would be hubbie) our Isonzo has a panel by the front door where everything is co-ordinated (heating, mains lights etc). I am fairly sure that on that panel there is a voltage thing that shows what voltage the battery is at and from that you can see if it is not fully charged. As we usually use mains hook up it always shows at 12v as the battery (so I understand) charges while on the hook up. As I say I am not the expert but just seem to recall that was what my husband told me it was there for.

 

[paws]

Wow Sue!
If your voltmeter is showing 12v then its indicating that the battery is about 75% discharged.... or looking at it from another point of view only at a state of charge of about 25%
As Damian said in an earlier post:

Disconnected voltage with a good battery should be around 12.6v
With mains on and charger on 13.8v

Happy Caravanning
paws

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

The small volt meters used in caravans are notoriously inaccurate. Ours displays 13.0 volts when on hookup but checking with a multimeter on the battery terminals the correct voltage is 13.7 volts, so I just make allowances. A quick look on the meter tells me all is OK when it displays 13.0 volts. When it read under 12 volts last year I immediately knew the charger had failed.

 

[Dustydog]

Sir WC
interesting
How do you know it's the charger and not the battery or vice versa?
I agree the caravan voltmeter is a joke. Mine has never gone above 12.7v.
I judge the system by how well the mover works. That takes the biggest drain of all on the battery.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

How do you know it's the charger and not the battery or vice versa?

Because when the EHU is switched off or disconnected (or forgotten to be switch on ) then the reading is less than the normal display of 13 volts.

 

[SueF]

I did say I wasn't the expert on this! Ran what I had written past the OH and I may not have explained it terribly well but I was along the right lines apparently! The voltage of the battery is between 12-13.5v which shows on this panel at the door and you can see the voltage when the battery power switch is on, you can see the difference once the mains is plugged in as the battery should be charging once hooked up as the voltage increases.
Have just checked with him now and it usually shows 12v before being hooked up and then (as stated above) increases to about 13.5v.
Not sure if I am making this better or worse - needless to say OH is sure our voltage is fine and it certainly runs the 12v stuff perfectly ok in the caravan.