Battery Charging

[Hutch]

Well after lots of reading, about Batterys etc, I decided as we hadn't got the van out for two months, I should check the Battery, It was down to 12.7 on my Multi meter.

The battery is 4 year old and a silver /cacium batter.y110 Ah. Google sItes states these batterys should be charged at 14. 5. V.

My old Halford Smart charger, wiith Gel ,t switch. Has charged my Silver f/ cacium ok. At 13.6 volts?

After 12 hours OFf charge its at 12.9. . Should I be worried,
From October to December it went down to 12. 7 volts.,in storage.

 

[SteveW77]

12.7 volts is fully charged for a 12 volt battery

 

[Craigyoung]

Well after lots of reading, about Batterys etc, I decided as we hadn't got the van out for two months, I should check the Battery, It was down to 12.7 on my Multi meter.

The battery is 4 year old and a silver /cacium batter.y110 Ah. Google sItes states these batterys should be charged at 14. 5. V.

My old Halford Smart charger, wiith Gel ,t switch. Has charged my Silver f/ cacium ok. At 13.6 volts?

After 12 hours OFf charge its at 12.9. . Should I be worried,
From October to December it went down to 12. 7 volts.,in storage.

Hutch , You've too much time on your hands & bored arn't you !

On our last van not once did i disconnect the battery whist in storage or have to charge it ever in the 4 year off having it !!

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Hutch,

The information I have found suggests that Calcium batteries were being fitted to cars which have stop start systems, and that the alternators produced 14.8V.

Apparently the batteries do not last well if the charge voltage does not reach that level, they start to sulphate reducing life and performance.

 

[otherclive]

Hello Hutch,

The information I have found suggests that Calcium batteries were being fitted to cars which have stop start systems, and that the alternators produced 14.8V.

Apparently the batteries do not last well if the charge voltage does not reach that level, they start to sulphate reducing life and performance.

I have read that if you switch off stop start this can reduce the life of the cars battery. Part of my pre take off checks is to switch the darned stop start off and when the caravan is coupled up it switches itself off.

 

[Craigyoung]

Hello Hutch,

The information I have found suggests that Calcium batteries were being fitted to cars which have stop start systems, and that the alternators produced 14.8V.

Apparently the batteries do not last well if the charge voltage does not reach that level, they start to sulphate reducing life and performance.

I have read that if you switch off stop start this can reduce the life of the cars battery. Part of my pre take off checks is to switch the darned stop start off and when the caravan is coupled up it switches itself off.

As I have said before the stop / start system on our Kuga is switched off the minute I get in regardless of the caravan being on or not , hate it !!

 

[paws]

Hutch. The figs you quote are exactly the sort of figs one would expect from a healthy battery...... so no need to worry
If you want to worry about something then the figs could change tomorrow, next year or whenever!
Happy Caravanning
paws

 

[Hutch]

I have left the battery on charge for a full 24 hours at 13.6 volts from the Halfords Smart charger, took it off charge last night and this morning its showing 13.1 volts, so I am happy.
Thanks to all for the replys.
And for Craig. You are correct.

 

[otherclive]

Hutch's posts has fired me up. I normally power up the van for battery charging about every four weeks from the domestic EHU. But as we are planning a winter trip I thought I might just check out the battery which is two years old. So I took it out of the van to connect up to the CTEK XS 3600. So after connecting it for charging everything looked okay from the CTEK indicator lights. So I thought I might get ahead of myself and grease the connections and check cable tightness into the clamps. Surprise surprise each of the four cable screws was loose by quite a bit. They are now nicely tightened. So when the battery goes back I expect the mover to move the van at warp speed.

 

[Hutch]

Hutch's posts has fired me up. I normally power up the van for battery charging about every four weeks from the domestic EHU. But as we are planning a winter trip I thought I might just check out the battery which is two years old. So I took it out of the van to connect up to the CTEK XS 3600. So after connecting it for charging everything looked okay from the CTEK indicator lights. So I thought I might get ahead of myself and grease the connections and check cable tightness into the clamps. Surprise surprise each of the four cable screws was loose by quite a bit. They are now nicely tightened. So when the battery goes back I expect the mover to move the van at warp speed.

Well at last I have helped somebody out , in a little way. :cheer:

 

[Guzzilazz]

Hutch's posts has fired me up. I normally power up the van for battery charging about every four weeks from the domestic EHU. But as we are planning a winter trip I thought I might just check out the battery which is two years old. So I took it out of the van to connect up to the CTEK XS 3600. So after connecting it for charging everything looked okay from the CTEK indicator lights. So I thought I might get ahead of myself and grease the connections and check cable tightness into the clamps. Surprise surprise each of the four cable screws was loose by quite a bit. They are now nicely tightened. So when the battery goes back I expect the mover to move the van at warp speed.

I had a boating mate who had a volt meter indication of 5V on his engine start. That was loose and dirty battery connections...

 

[Buckman]

Went Online to check our battery and it is reading 12.6v. It once stood for nearly a week at about 5v and recovered okay however it is an AGM battery.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Went Online to check our battery and it is reading 12.6v. It once stood for nearly a week at about 5v and recovered okay however it is an AGM battery.

I had a 3 x110AH brand new AGM bank that went down to 4V and recovered, didn't last as long as I expected...only 7-8 years :woohoo:

 

[A9]

You have never spoke a truer word I hate mine soon as I get in of it goes. I don't think it does your starter motor any good stopping and starting.