Battery swap

Feb 13, 2020
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I am going to swap leisure batteries this week, so need to know; will the caravans charger be enough to get the new battery 'up to speed' ( it will have some charge, but no idea how much till i get it?) Or will it need charging the usual way? Also, will removing the present battery somehow 'throw out' the powrtouch mover (as can happen with radios, requiring a code to be entered). So will it need resetting at all?

Thanks.
 
Jan 31, 2018
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Car batteries come ready charged-not sure re Leisure but I would assume they will due to them not liking being discharged.

I always disconnected our battery in our 2017 pegasus to attach a 10w solar panel over winter instead of trekking home with it-too heavy ! We had a autoengage powertouch and it always seemed very happy when reconnected!
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Mike, my caravan charger a BCA unit, has recharged my vans battery from less than 11 volts when the battery was drawn down by Fridge, radio and Ariel booster, I now have a isolator "connector" so the said items do not drain the battery. s-l1600.jpg
 
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Damian

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When you buy a new battery it comes only dry charged and MUST be conditioned by a good charger before use to get the maximum benefit and long life out of it.
Problem is, no one selling batteries will tell you about this and that is wrong.

Unless your on board charger is one of the smart ones that takes the charge up to 14v or thereabouts and then drops to a maintenance charge, then charge at home on a good charger before fitting.
It will need a minimum of 24 hours on charge.
 
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Oct 8, 2006
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Mike, my caravan charger a BCA unit, has recharged my vans battery from less than 11 volts when the battery was drawn down by Fridge, radio and Ariel booster, I now have a isolator "connector" so the said items do not drain the battery. View attachment 102

Your caravan battery does NOT supply the fridge cooling although it may power the light so the static drain will be very small. The aerial amp will draw well less than 100mA so can be ignored. At normal listening levels your radio will draw maybe 1-1½A which compared with a 85Ah or greater leisure battery is nothing.
If you battery is getting down to 11V you must have something else drawing too much current, or your battery or PSU (BCA unit) is stuffed.
 
Feb 13, 2020
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When you buy a new battery it comes only dry charged and MUST be conditioned by a good charger before use to get the maximum benefit and long life out of it.
Problem is, no one selling batteries will tell you about this and that is wrong.

Unless your on board charger is one of the smart ones that takes the charge up to 14v or thereabouts and then drops to a maintenance charge, then charge at home on a good charger before fitting.
It will need a minimum of 24 hours on charge.

I know my charger goes up to around 13.9 volts, and though i'm not 100% sure about the second bit, i have a feeling it does then 'maintain'. But, as i get on with the garage boss that's supplying the battery, i may just ask them to stick it on charge for me before i collect it.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Your caravan battery does NOT supply the fridge cooling although it may power the light so the static drain will be very small. The aerial amp will draw well less than 100mA so can be ignored. At normal listening levels your radio will draw maybe 1-1½A which compared with a 85Ah or greater leisure battery is nothing.
If you battery is getting down to 11V you must have something else drawing too much current, or your battery or PSU (BCA unit) is stuffed.
Hi Woodentop, when all my battery power is switched off. Ie, in storage, my fridge, control panel is still powered, as is the aerial booster, the radio front and also the caravan alarm and the awning light , through the battery alarm, so i fitted the disconnect connection so now the battery doesn't drain down in storage.
 
Oct 8, 2006
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Hi Woodentop, when all my battery power is switched off. Ie, in storage, my fridge, control panel is still powered, as is the aerial booster, the radio front and also the caravan alarm and the awning light , through the battery alarm, so i fitted the disconnect connection so now the battery doesn't drain down in storage.

Don't remember the OP saying anything about storage - which was the basis on which I answered.
 
Feb 13, 2020
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Don't remember the OP saying anything about storage - which was the basis on which I answered.

I think 'storage' got thrown into the mix by way of what can happen with a battery - which is also useful info, despite myself not broaching the scenario specifically. Thanks to all.
 

Underwood

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When you buy a new battery it comes only dry charged and MUST be conditioned by a good charger before use to get the maximum benefit and long life out of it.
Problem is, no one selling batteries will tell you about this and that is wrong.

Unless your on board charger is one of the smart ones that takes the charge up to 14v or thereabouts and then drops to a maintenance charge, then charge at home on a good charger before fitting.
It will need a minimum of 24 hours on charge.


This link describes the difference between dry-charged and wet-charged batteries.

https://www.rbbattery.com/articles/...-vs-dry-charged-car-battery-which-do-you-need

There is absolutely no likelihood that a leisure-battery will be sold ‘dry charged’ to a retail buyer. Most wet-acid vehicle batteries marketed nowadays are maintenance-free, designed so that the quantity of electrolyte within the battery cannot be replenished, and are sold ‘wet charged'.

It is nevertheless the case (as you have warned) that the charge-state of a new leisure-battery when bought may well not be high and that a traditional caravan/motorhome onboard battery-charger with a 13.8V output will be incapable of allowing the battery to attain full charge.
 

Damian

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There is absolutely no likelihood that a leisure-battery will be sold ‘dry charged’ to a retail buyer

There is every likelihood that they are sold dry charged as the electrolyte is not added until after the dry charge, and retailers do not condition batteries as a normal course of business, mainly because thy do not have the correct facilities to do so.

It is no good pulling an article from Google to try and prove some point as that is not the case in the real world, and having been involved with batteries for a very long time and reading that article it is plainly their advertising.
Wet charged batteries cannot be stored for very long before suffering damage, whereas dry charged can be stored for much longer, and as retailers do not know the volume of sales on a given period of time they will not want useless wet charged batteries which they then have to dispose of.
 
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Underwood

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I was not “pulling an article from GOOGLE to try to prove some point”.

I have been driving and owning, motorcycles, cars, motorhomes, trucks etc. for some 60 years and I’m very vehicle-battery literate. I once encountered a retailer who told me that the battery I would be purchasing was dry-charged and that there would be a delay before I could collect it, but that was in the 1970s and related to a 6V motorcycle battery that had the capabilty to have electrolyte put into it and subsequently be topped up if the need arose.

Just in case I might have suddenly become ga-ga , I phoned a couple of major vehicle battery distributors and asked if they handled and retailed batteries ‘dry-charged’. I was told that the only vehicle batteries that were delivered to them dry-charged (ie. with no electrolyte in them) were some wet-acid motorcycle batteries that arrived empty with an electrolyte ‘pack’ that needed to be added. I was informed that, in such instances, the buyer needed to collect the battery from the distributor’s premises as it was no longer permissible to courier the acid-pack to a retail customer.

Ignoring AGM and gel batteries where the electrolyte is sealed within the battery’s casing, the majority of wet-acid vehicle batteries are essentially disposable. A measured quantity of electrolyte is put into the battery towards the end of the manufacturing process and the battery’s cell-caps are then covered over, making the battery non-maintainable from that point on. The distributor receives the battery with its electrolyte inside it and retails it (direct or on-line) in a ‘wet-charged’ state.

Hopefully the battery will have a reasonable level of charge when the retail buyer receives it (I always confirm a vehicle battery’s charge state with a multimeter when I get it) but that cannot be guaranteed.

The link I provided that you were dismissive about says of dry-charged batteries

The dry charged car battery comes without the electrolyte installed. This makes it ideal as a backup battery, as it can be stored for a long period of time without the fear of corrosion or leakage.

and about wet-charged car batteries

The wet charged - mainteance free battery functions in the opposite way - instead of having to install an electrolyte on your own, the wet cell comes with the electrolyte pre-installed.

A wet charged battery can't be stored for a very long time before use. Therefore, it's best when installed immediately and put into use.

Fortunately, though, this means that your maintenance on the battery is much easier because you don't have to install the electrolyte yourself.

I fully accept that a dry-charged battery can have a much longer shelf-life than a wet-charged battery if the charge-state of the latter type is not monitored and maintained, but the reality is that distributors of wet-acid vehicle batteries normally receive them wet-charged, store them wet-charged and retail them wet-charged. This practice does indeed potentially impact negatively on the retail buyer as the battery he/she purchases may have some age (it is usually possible to find a date of manufacture somehere on the battery) and/or its charge-state may not have been maintained prior to it being purchased.

Received wisdom on motorhome forums is, if purchasing leisure or starter batteries on-line, to do so from a large distributor (Tayna, Battery Mega Store, etc.) as their high throughput means that their batteries should tend not to kick around on a shelf at the back of a warehouse.


(I hesitate to say this, but I was under the impression it would be common knowledge that vehicle batteries were handled by distributors and retailed by them ‘wet charged’. That’s why I was so surprised that you suggested otherwise. If you still believe that vehicle batteries are generally retailed ‘dry-charged, I suggest you check with the sellers.)
 
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Damian

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Woah !!!! hold on.
This is now a prime example of how a question can be hijacked by what is insignificant detail.
The question was

will it need charging the usual way?

The answer is yes it will to condition it to get the best out of it.

However, the topic has been hijacked into what way are batteries for sale, wet or dry charged, which I guess is partly my fault, but at the end of the day it makes no difference whether it is wet or dry charged before sale, it still needs conditioning.
This is how from a simple question the actual meat is ignored and the minuate is made the full thing,,,, totally pointless and shows why some people come to the forum for help and get bombarded by information which is neither helpful or interesting considering the actual question.
 
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Underwood

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...However, the topic has been hijacked into what way are batteries for sale, wet or dry charged, which I guess is partly my fault...

The reason that I commented was because you said "When you buy a new battery it comes only dry charged” and that is not the case. There is enough twaddle on forums without incorrect and misleading advice being gratuitously offered, particularly when that advice comes from someone with 15 years of Practical Caravan forum participation who might be expected to have plenty of battery expertise. If you had said "When you buy a new battery it MUST be conditioned by a good charger before use to get the maximum benefit and long life out of it” that would have been perfectly acceptable. Trying to wriggle round your lack of knowledge by playing an emotive ‘hijacking’ card does you no favours as a forum moderator. The truth is that you were wrong and are unwilling to admit it.
 

Damian

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which I guess is partly my fault
I guess you missed that part...….

Secondly, when I post in this colour it is not as a Mod, as I have explained to you in the past.

Thirdly, do you remember this : " No, I don’t want to change my forum user-name. " Posted on 16th January

or this " I had hoped, when the Practical Motorhome forum was rejigged to use the Xenforo software, that this might reinvigorate it, but it’s plain that it’s as comatose as ever and that the chances of it becoming more lively in future are minimal. Posted on 19th January

or this " Auf Wiedersehen Pets and grosses bises" Posted on 19th January.

Yet you came back on the 28th January as Underwood and not as your original forum name of Hobbt600

Now that we have established that you are sockpuppeting, and now resorting to personal attack situation the time has come to stop this in the bud before it poisons the forum, so you are banned !!
 
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Feb 13, 2020
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As a final question (now the dust has settled); having got the new battery charged and installed, if its not being drawn on, and not 'on charge', what voltage should it 'rest' at, before time (many weeks?) starts to have an effect? Not that i intend it to stand either unused or off grid for any length of time. I have never had brand new leisure bat before, so nothing to measure it against. Its 110ah. Thanks.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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This article in PC should help. The two Clubs also cover battery care in their technical help sheets.

33991-how-to-take-care-of-leisure-batteries

The battery is normally charged in my garage with a CTEK I can then leave it for a month with no discernible drop in no load voltage. But I then give its charge for 24-48 hrs on the CTEK.
 
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Nov 16, 2015
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This article in PC should help. The two Clubs also cover battery care in their technical help sheets.

33991-how-to-take-care-of-leisure-batteries

The battery is normally charged in my garage with a CTEK I can then leave it for a month with no discernible drop in no load voltage. But I then give its charge for 24-48 hrs on the CTEK.
OC, what voltages are you seeing, I charge my caravan battery about every two weeks, away from the caravan, my old Halfords charger (15 year old) maintains the battery at 13.8 volts,
Off charge and after two days the battery sits at about 12.8 volts then after two weeks maybe down to 12.6 volts. And will sit there for "Along time".
Put it back into the caravan and it gets the full Smart charge, ie. 14,5 then down. To maintain at 13.8. Volts. Happy with it for the last 5 years.
 
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OC, what voltages are you seeing, I charge my caravan battery about every two weeks, away from the caravan, my old Halfords charger (15 year old) maintains the battery at 13.8 volts,
Off charge and after two days the battery sits at about 12.8 volts then after two weeks maybe down to 12.6 volts. And will sit there for "Along time".
Put it back into the caravan and it gets the full Smart charge, ie. 14,5 then down. To maintain at 13.8. Volts. Happy with it for the last 5 years.
Hutch
It’s been off charge now for about two weeks and I’ve just been out to measure it and it is at 12.86 volts. It’s a 105 amphr lead acid Banner nearly 12 months old. When it’s off charge I always cap the terminals mainly to minimise the risk of shorting if I am doing anything in the garage whilst in the vicinity of the battery. Like moving step ladders or just putting down the long handled loppers :)
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Are you sure we are not the same person under different forum names.
My loppers are still in one of the garden sheds. .
Once the battery is reinstalled and the fridge chills the beer and wine, we are fine.
 
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Are you sure we are not the same person under different forum names.
My loppers are still in one of the garden sheds. .
Once the battery is reinstalled and the fridge chills the beer and wine, we are fine.
Since moving to this house last April my garage is my shed. As of today we’ve had twenty very large Leylandii taken out but the chaps chipping machine failed yesterday so all of the trees is just laying all over the garden. And my loppers didn’t move once.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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So no , were not the same person, but maybe one day we might get together for a beer, Maybe Devises C and C site, I like the cider house down the canal. Near the bridge.
 
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