Do I need a leisure battery?

Nov 8, 2018
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Hi everyone (me again!). My sister's caravan (Early 90's-ish Abi Award Transtar) does not have a leisure battery in it. It will be connected via EHU and I assumed this would be enough but now I'm a bit more educated I now know that certain features run only from 12v electrics. I know the water pump does and I'm assuming other things do also. The question is. Do I need a leisure battery or is there some workaround like a voltage converter? If I did buy a leisure battery would my EHU charge it or would it be wise to buy a separate battery charger and keep that plugged in to it to regulate the charge automatically? I've got to have a look properly but I can even see where the leisure battery is supposed to be housed and connected. There's two bare wires that come from the water pump inlet though which I think at some point were connected to a leisure battery.

I'm also unsure of what works in the caravan so would like to test it out. I know there are differences between normal car batteries and leisure batteries but would a car battery be suitable for testing a few things?

Sorry for the mass of questions!

All the best,

Tom
 
Jul 18, 2017
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Hi,If your sister is going to use the caravan always on hook up then a car battery will be adequate to test for things and for future use.If she is going off grid a lot then you're wasting money ,I'd buy a leisure battery.Personally we're always on hook up,so a car battery is fine(actually it's a fiat 500 stop start battery) and will power motor mover ok.cheers.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Tombo, as your not going to be moving your sisters caravan, then you will just need a small car type battery to back up the 12 volt power system.
 
May 7, 2012
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The battery evens out the power flow and should be fitted as without it things can malfunction. If the caravan is simply to be used as a static then a cheap car one will do the job.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hello Tombo,

Whether you need a battery is not a simple question to answer, but for simplicity fitting a battery won't do any harm and it might help.

As your caravan was manufactured in the 1990's, it will almost certainly have a mains powered 12V power supply unit already fitted. This is not just a simple battery charger but a proper regulated power supply capable of producing a steady smoothed output voltage and on its own, and is suitable for running most 12V items in the caravan. In the 1990's power supplies were typically rated at between 8 to 12A (later ones went up to 16A) capability at a nominal voltage of 13.8V dc. It will not run a motor mover, and it might struggle to run all the items at the same time, Water pumps can sometimes be a problem if other appliances are using current at the time.

So it does depend on the capacity of the power supply fitted, and what 12V appliances you would want to operate all at the same time. Being careful to turn off unneeded items is a sensible strategy and would be likely to keep the current load down, but if your using a 12V TV, and a few lights with the blown air heating (the fan needs 12V) you might find trying to the pump may have difficulty in starting and the water flow may be reduced.

Fitting a battery would certainly carry you through these full load events, and of course see you through power cuts.

Especially as you will be using an EHU full time, any battery fitted will be kept in a good state of charge, becasue it will continually be topped up by the power supply. Consequently you do not need a caravan or Leisure Battery, which is designed to be tolerant of long slow almost full discharge cycles. A normal small car battery will be more than adequate.
 
Sep 29, 2016
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Tombo,

On the question of charging the battery, obviously if there is no existing battery chatger then one will be required.

You can get a reasonably good (actually they are pretty good) charger from Aldi or Lidl for about £15.00.

They do have a few shortcomings (google will help), better chargers like CTek and Optimate will cost you around 5 times more but worth the extra in my experience, someone else may comment on dedicated caravan battery chargers.

As for car battery or leisure battery, in your case where always on EHU it probably does not matter too much.

I'm not saying that Halfords is the best place for batteries but it might be worth popping into one of their stores to make comparisons (there is not a lot in it), Halfords own brand leisure batteries are said to be YUASA's, I have one and I'm happy with it and it was reasonably priced.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Anseo said:
Tombo,

On the question of charging the battery, obviously if there is no existing battery chatger then one will be required.

You can get a reasonably good (actually they are pretty good) charger from Aldi or Lidl for about £15.00.

They do have a few shortcomings (google will help), better chargers like CTek and Optimate will cost you around 5 times more but worth the extra in my experience, someone else may comment on dedicated caravan battery chargers....

I have and continue to use a number both the Aldi and Lidl models to maintain some batteries. They work quite well, but they have one major drawback compared to similar models for Ctek. When mains power is disconnected the units reset to off and need to be manually turned on again. The Ctek models I have, remember their last setting and when power is turned on they carry on from where they were.

Another possible concern with the lower powered models like the Aldi and Lidl models is the limited charging current, which may be tight especially during winter months when you are likely to use more power.

I suggest you look at some of the branded multi - mode chargers which will maintain the battery probably better than any built in unit supplied by the caravan manufacture - but they are not cheap!
 
Oct 3, 2013
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Tombo,
Depends how you intend to use the van.Our first van we didn't use a battery,we intended only to use an electrical hookup and the van didn't have anything to convert mains to 12 V dc.We had to buy a transformer rectifier and since we intended to always use an electric mains hookup we didn't need a battery.
We had that van for 10 trouble free years.
If memory serves me correctly the T/F rectifier cost about £50.00 in 1991
Be aware though some power supply units require a battery to be connected to smooth the dc output otherwise the dc can be pretty rough .
 
Sep 29, 2016
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ProfJohnL said:
Anseo said:
Tombo,

On the question of charging the battery, obviously if there is no existing battery chatger then one will be required.

You can get a reasonably good (actually they are pretty good) charger from Aldi or Lidl for about £15.00.

They do have a few shortcomings (google will help), better chargers like CTek and Optimate will cost you around 5 times more but worth the extra in my experience, someone else may comment on dedicated caravan battery chargers....

I have and continue to use a number both the Aldi and Lidl models to maintain some batteries. They work quite well, but they have one major drawback compared to similar models for Ctek. When mains power is disconnected the units reset to off and need to be manually turned on again. The Ctek models I have, remember their last setting and when power is turned on they carry on from where they were.

Another possible concern with the lower powered models like the Aldi and Lidl models is the limited charging current, which may be tight especially during winter months when you are likely to use more power.

I suggest you look at some of the branded multi - mode chargers which will maintain the battery probably better than any built in unit supplied by the caravan manufacture - but they are not cheap!

Prof,

I think we are at cross-purposes here re battery chargers, like you I was referring to general type battery chargers, car type or leisure.

When I mentioned 'dedicated caravan battery chargers' I meant those types that come fitted in most caravans, not the AldiLidlCtekOptimate types.

I may be wrong but I have not seen typical battery chargers such as the Optimate etc. come pre installed in caravans.

Not certain Prof, but I have heard that the latest generation Aldi or Lidl chargers (I cannot remember who is selling the latest model) may actually reset after a power supply failure, it would be good if someone could confirm (or otherwise), advertising blurb from either company does not absolutely state this.
 
Nov 8, 2018
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Thanks for all the helpful replies. I'm going to whip my car battery off just to test a few things. If it all works as expected then I'll get a battery bought and wire it all in. Upon closer inspection there is a 10A charger situated next to the water heater.

What should I expect to be powered by 12V? Currently the ceiling lights/cooking fan/heater do not work from 240v EHU. These all have switches on a panel above the cooker as well as a "pump" switch which I already know runs on 12v. Also on this panel is a toggle switch that has a centre "off" position as well as "car" and "caravan" positions (anyone know what these settings do?). There's also a battery charge meter on the panel so I'm assuming all of that is 12v.

Thanks again!

Tom
 
Oct 12, 2013
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Not much will run off 12v as we found out the hard way when the charger burnt out in France !
The 'car / caravan' switch will (probably) be the switch for the fridge to keep cool mode whilst hooked up to the car whilst towing via the cars electrics on your (or sisters) travels .
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Given the age of your caravan your idea to test everything on fir 12v operation is fine. If you live in a field or lose EHU quite a lot of items can still be operated but you would need gas to be comfortable and to live normally. Typical things that work from 12v will be lights (not necessarily all). Heater fan. Water heater igniter, toilet flush, fridge controls, water pump, cooker/grill ignition, vent fan.
 
Nov 8, 2018
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otherclive said:
Given the age of your caravan your idea to test everything on fir 12v operation is fine. If you live in a field or lose EHU quite a lot of items can still be operated but you would need gas to be comfortable and to live normally. Typical things that work from 12v will be lights (not necessarily all). Heater fan. Water heater igniter, toilet flush, fridge controls, water pump, cooker/grill ignition, vent fan.

You pretty much just listed everything that isn't currently working on 240v so hopefully a battery will solve all these problems : )

Thanks again
 
Nov 8, 2018
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Craigyoung said:
Not much will run off 12v as we found out the hard way when the charger burnt out in France !
The 'car / caravan' switch will (probably) be the switch for the fridge to keep cool mode whilst hooked up to the car whilst towing via the cars electrics on your (or sisters) travels .

Ahhh that makes perfect sense thanks : )
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hello Anseo,

I never even thought you meant that Aldi etc type chargers were fitted to caravans, as you say they wern't in the 1990's but of the most recent systems do apparently have some multistage chargers.

The Aldi models have changed over time, and I have three from different promotions but not from the last two. All the models I have do reset to the OFF condition if the mains supply is disconnected.
 
Nov 8, 2018
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Once again, a big thanks for all the help. I now have absolutely everything I need working in the caravan now. A 12v battery (electric fence battery from the farm!) Is in place and being charged from the on board charger. The water heater took a bit of jiggery pokery but I got it working before retiring for the evening.

Now all that is left is finishing touches and cleaning : )

Thanks again!
 

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