Battery Flat on Lunar Ultima EW

[JimC]

I found my battery completely flat this morning. The Lunar Ultima EW had stood for about 6 weeks since the last outing.I found that I had left the 12v Isolation switch in the on position, nothing else was on apart from my Alarm system a Concept 2 which has never caused a problem before. However I do remember reading that even if the radio is switched off it can use a fair bit of power.Would this be enough to completely drain a 110 Ah Hi Fase marine battery?
Jim C

 

[Parksy]

It's quite possible for the battery to be drained in the way that you described Jim.
Battery chargers which are fitted to caravans and which work via the e.h.u. never fully charge the leisure battery in the way that a C-TEK or even a cheaper version available for around £14 from Aldi will charge.
The weather has turned considerably colder in the last week or so which may also have also had the effect of draining the available battery power. If the problem has only ever happened on this occasion when you left the isolation switch in the on position it's a fair bet that this has been the cause of the power loss but it's worthwhile looking for any evidence of a short circuit / blown fuse just in case.

 

[GrahamDerby]

It might be worth mantioning while the subject of batterys crops up , that if you take your battery off to store over winter dont just put it on the cold concrete garage floor, this will drain it with the cold coming through the bottom. This happened to me once and it cost me a new battery.

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Jim as you quite rightly say the radios are notorious for flattening a battery,a good tip here to ensure that doesnt happen if you have a removable front take it off the memory will drain your battery faster than anything .
Also you should be able to isolate completely when you close up for the winter.
Good Luck
Sir Roger

 

[Dustydog]

Jim
Make sure the fridge is set to off. Otherwise with the door ajar for storage, the internal light will be on and that'll also flatten the battery.

 

[JimC]

Thanks for the replies, however it seems my battery was terminally ill excuse the pun.It was 5 years old and a couple of cells are US.
I have just bought a new Elecsol 110Ah to replace it. I was giving it a conditioning charge before installing in the van and noticed the voltage at the terminals on my multimeter had reached 15 volts after 3 hours. Elecsol say to charge at 14.4 volts. However this did not cut off my Halfords Fully Automatic charger off, to read "battery charged" as I would have expected. My next question is should the voltage be checked with the charger still switch on, or should one disconnect the charger and take a reading? I am aware that after 24 hours the reading settles back to 12.8 volts if fully charged. The Halfords charger has always cut off automatically when the previous battery was charged.
Jim

 

[Heethers]

l had the same problem with my Clubman SE first l new of it was when Tracker informed me l had a power down on my battery, cause master switch left on causing circulating pump on the Alde Heating to activate.
Heethers

 

[Steve L]

Hi Jim.
It is concievable that your alarm and back up for radio memory plus any other accessory left in stand-by mode could drain your battery within 6 weeks.

However once the battery had gone below 10 volts, the alarm should of gone off. So, was the van at home or in storage, and if it was in storage why didn't the manager contact you on hearing the alarm. It is quite common for this feature to be in an alarm system.

Now you could isolate the battery, but that would de-activate the alarm system, so how would you stand with the insurer's?

One way to ensure your battery stays topped up would be, to fit a solar panel chager system.

 

[JimC]

Hi Steve, I did ask the question if my alarm had gone off at the Gold site where it is stored, its a very big site and no one had noticed anything.However the van main isolator switch does kill everything except the alarm. It was my own fault for not isolating this last time I put the van away. I get an alarm discount from the Caravan Club insurance so I need to have the alarm operational.
I intended buying a new battery for my new van which is due for delivery 1st week in December so no loss there.
Jim

 

[Steve L]

Hi Jim.
I would expect a site for secure storage of the highest rated standard to be certain about caravan alarms going off. In our moder technological world it would not be beyond practicality to record sound at the site and by deduction of time scale, they could be certain what time any alarms went off.

I have a very good quality all be it not admisable in court, recording of a 45 min ATOS medical interogation of me, to see if I'm realy ill and requiring an operation to correct a comperssed disc in my back. That was done with my mobile phone tucked upside down in the top pocket of my shirt. If you wanted to be sure of your caravan's safety, you could place a mobile phone connected to a 12V charger in the van. Set it to auto answer and on silent mode and then you have a private and un-announced way of hearing if your van's safety & scurity have been compromised. All you need to do is ring the aforementioned phone.

 

[Parksy]

......... If you wanted to be sure of your caravan's safety, you could place a mobile phone connected to a 12V charger in the van. Set it to auto answer and on silent mode and then you have a private and un-announced way of hearing if your van's safety & scurity have been compromised. All you need to do is ring the aforementioned phone.

But the whole point of the post is that the battery was flat Steve