Battery discharing problem

[Tim2]

Hi all

I am posting on behalf of a IT challenged/IT illiterate friend. (Sorry that the details are a bit sketchy) He has recently bought a new Lunar DS caravan. On leaving the 'van in storage with alarm on, as required by his insurance, he has found battery discharges to fully flat in only couple of days. He spoke to the dealer who firstly exchanged battery for a larger one at additional cost. This did not solve the problems so he tried a trickle solar panel. Still problem with battery discharging quickly. At dealer's suggestion he has checked that all items are turned off including tv aerial booster.

Any suggestions. The battery has charged up okay when he has taken it home for charging.

Any suggestions? Is it a duff battery?

Thanks

Tim

 

[antrimboy]

Tell him to make sure that the heater fan is switched off. If left on accidentally, it will drain the battery very quickly.

 

[Martin_E]

The amp for the status draws a fair bit check that it is off as well.

 

[rayc]

Tim, the "control" box itself will be drawing current and may be fitted with a disconnect when the batterry volts gets to 10.8v or thereabouts.

If the battery is good and it is discharging "quickly" then current must be flowing somewhere. Disconnect the battery positive terminal lead and connect an ampmeter between the lead and the terminal. What discharge current is shown?

 

[JeremyClarksson]

If he turns off the 12V switch this should not affect the alarm but will turn off the heater fan, TV booster and ignition systems for the hot water and fridge.

Something must be left on as we expect to get at least 2 days (non EHU) from a battery when living in the van and using TV etc.

From experience the biggest culprits for running the battery down tend to be those mentioned above - we ran out of gas one night and the battery was flat in the morning due to the igniters trying to do their job.

We have also suffered from leaving the fan on although the TV booster seems to have less of an effect and we have left that on over a weekend.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Tim,

As you will have seen from the responses here, trying to diagnose a problem like this on the forum is always going to be difficult.

A trained electrician would use an iterative process to identify the fault. Such a process is difficult to monitor accurately on a forum, as one test result inventively raises a new question and the need for a subsequent test - and so on.

It may be best to bite the bullet and arrange to have the caravan checked by an electrician.