Charging Battery

[Stuart_5100362]

I have a 1992 abbey 14.5 piper which does not incorporate a battery charger from mains. It will only charge via the 12S socket when actually towing. The caravan has been stood all winter and the battery is now flat. Before I take the caravan away I want to charge the battery. 2 Questions, 1 - can i use a standard (cheaper) car battery charger instead of the more expensive leisure battery chargers and 2- can i charge the battery whist it is still connected to (but turned off on the control panel) the caravan electrics (the reason why i ask this is that if i can then i will fix the battery charger permanently into the caravan to charge the battery whilst out and about during the day when hooked up to mains voltage on-site)

thanks

Stuart

 

[laurieW]

Hello Stuart. Yes a "normal" battery charger will do what you want.I bought a cheapo(4amp) from a motor factors to do just this. We used to have a Swift Corniche(brand new) and the onboard charger would not operate in Spain as the input voltage was too low(220v instead of 230v).Swift did fit an alternative as an option, apparently, but nobody told me. So I connected my "cheapo" charger and all was OK.Modern caravan chargers are now "switch-mode" so input volts is not an issue now.

 

[RogerL]

The nominal 240V UK supply has always varied from 210-240. Other countries in the EC have other nominal values.

Recently mains electricity was declared as 230 nominal but all devices should cope with normal variation.

Mains devices bought or installed in the UK should still work down to 210V but there may be a reduction in power output. 220V in Spain shouldn't have caused a problem.

 

[laurieW]

The nominal 240V UK supply has always varied from 210-240. Other countries in the EC have other nominal values.

Recently mains electricity was declared as 230 nominal but all devices should cope with normal variation.

Mains devices bought or installed in the UK should still work down to 210V but there may be a reduction in power output. 220V in Spain shouldn't have caused a problem.

Well it caused a problem on my van AND another British van of a different make.