HELP Required ~ Dead Battery

[jasPALL]

Hi All,
Bought our first caravan in October with new battery etc, there has been nothing left on in the caravan except the alarm and we've even had it hoked up to house power for about two weeks whilst family stayed with us (Extra bedroom(Great).
I noticed an erratic problem with the alarm going off and whilst investigating this I unplugged the power lead from the house and then flicked the rocker switch to Van power and there is no battery power whatsover ~ Any Ideas??

On a seperat note for future reference ~ Is there any problem with leaving the mains lead connected at the van whilst power at socket end is off?
Cheers in advance.

 

[Beehpee]

Hi, I'm no expert on caravanning being a relative newbie of just 3 seasons but, firstly I'm fairly certain there is no problem leaving the hook up in while it's not switched on at the mains, I assume your wondering if this is gonna suck the power back out the battery which I reckon is impossible, as for your battery being dead I had the same thing recently, I leave my van hooked up all the time and when I went on there I found that certain 12 volt items were not working, when I did some investigation I found a blown fuse in the supply to the charger so battery simply wasn't charging, other thing to check is has the battery charger on your van got a switch on it? I don't know how common it is but mine has an on/off switch actually on the charger itself under the seat locker, I seem to remember other people mentioning there being a switch on a control panel that switches the charge on and off, I'm sure someone else will either confirm or refute that tho, has the battery ever charged or is it a case of it was charged when you got it and it may be that it's never charged and has just gradually gone flat? I'm pretty certain the cause will be easy enough to diagnose, if you have a multi meter and know how to use it I can easily tell you how to check if the charger is putting out anything just let me know and I will get back to you asap, lastly I reckon worst case scenario is the charger is knackered, again easily fixed but probably the most expensive, anyway best of luck and make sure you get back to let us know how you get on. Beepee

 

[Beehpee]

Ps the alarm going off is almost certainly going to be because the battery has gone flat, the alarm is probably only powered by 12 volts and as the battery went down that would cause it to trigger.

 

[RogerL]

If the on-board power supply / charger isn't working, either faulty, fused or switched off, then the battery will gradually lose charge even though 230V mains is still connected.

 

[jasPALL]

Hi BeehPee & RogerL,
Thanks for your quick response,
The Battery was charged by dealer when bought but not by me since other than I thought it charged whilst connected to mains power.
There is a rocker switch labelled charger on the Power Supply Unit which is in the On position and illuminates whilst it is connected to 240v mains but it isn't illuminating whilst its supposed to be on battery power?
I also notice that there is a blue 15amp fuse labelled charger also on the PSU.
I do have a multi meter if I can find it that is ;-) so any recommendations/guidance much appreciated.
I think I've read somewhere that if the battery is completely dead it will need to be removed and connected to a trickle charger because it wont charge off the caravan charger ~ is this correct?
Cheers

 

[Beehpee]

To check the charger has an out put with the battery connected to the caravan but not hooked up to the mains use your multi meter to see what voltage you have at the battery terminals, then switch on the mains and check the voltage again, the voltage without mains on will be anything from zero to 12 ish when you switch on the mains the voltage across the terminals should go up to at least 12.5/13 volts, if there is no increase in voltage when you switch on the mains then you know you have no output from the charger, the next thing to do is find out why as in check the charger is on and fuse is ok.

 

[TerryIvybridge]

Hi,if it was a new battery in October and only the alarm was on, i think it should still have some life in it. Did the 'van come from a dealer? if so, I would contact them and ask their advice first of all. Does your 'van have a main switch and/or a voltmeter? When hooked up to 240, this should be on/showing 13+ volts imo. The onboard charger will only keep the battery topped up,,it wont recharge a flat battery. You might have to remove the battery and charge it using a car charger for 24/48 hours. hope this helps.

 

[Sproket]

One of these chargers in "Recovery Mode" will bring it back to life

 

[forestgump]

tv booster and radio may be to blame as well.

 

[Woody3]

Keep your eyes open at Aldi and Lidl. One or t'other often has a controlled charger on sale - one of them a couple of weeks ago at £12.99. It will trickle charge a flat battery, then go to boost at 3.8A when it is high enough, and back to trickle when the battery is charged. It is quite small and has long leads so it may be possible to connect it without removing the battery although it would be a good idea to disconnect the 'van cables. It will also charge 6V motorcycle batteries in the same way.

 

[jasPALL]

Hi All,
Many thanks for your comments.
I've done the voltage checks across the terminals with both 230v mains connected & not connected ~ No Change in voltage.
15amp fuse for charger replaced but the battery is only showing 3volts now so decided to purchase one of the battery chargers from Aldi as suggested by a couple of you.
Battery is now removed from Van and I've connected the charger but it's not allowing any changes to be made to the mode (In fact I took one back thinking it might be faulty for the same reason) ~ I've just checked the voltage with Lidl charger connected and the voltage is gradually dropping, Is this normal for voltage to be reduced before being re-charged?
Once the battery dilemma is sorted I'm then going to do further checks with battery back onboard the caravan but fear it may be the onboard charger which is faulty!!

 

[Sproket]

Just a thought, have you got it set so that the far right led ( looks like a snow flake ) is lit & the second one on the bottom, from off i think it's three clicks to tab it across, that is recovery mode

 

[Royston]

Internal battery charger, is your caravan a bailey by any chance,I had a problem wheremy battery went flat on me when I was at Ferry meadows, the site warden put in on overnight charge for me , so that I could operate my mover at home.
removing the outer case where the charger is located,found that themains connection to the charger was simular to ones that are fitted on your kettle, theconnector had worked loose , refitted the connector into the charger everything worked okay, always check this connection before our first journey of the year.
Its worth a look.

Royston

 

[jasPALL]

Hi Sproket,
I cant get the charger to do anything ~ the Standby light is lit but when I try & change the mode using the red button it does absolutely nothing?

 

[Sproket]

By standby light do you mean the led at the bottom left ? indicating mains power is on to the charge......
When you press the big red button ( it says mode ) it should click the led across to the one that you want.......
Can you clip your multimer to the battery charger clips ? that will tell you if it is charging.........
The far red led on the bottom is not lit by any chance ? to indicate a fault ?
Have a look here at this PDF file it might help

 

[jasPALL]

Hi Sprocket,
Yes the bottom row extreme left indicator is lit stating power is on for the charger to work.
When I press the big red button (Mode) nothing happens
The far right light (Fault) light is not lit.

I'm wondering whether the charger will only charge so long as the voltage hasn't dropped too far but the Booklet states it will charge a dead battery so I'm baffled?
As I said earlier I took one charger back to Lidl & replaced because it did the same (Not able to change mode), I thought it might be faulty.

 

[Sproket]

Taken from the pdf :
Regenerating / charging
empty (used, overcharged)
12 V batteries
The battery charger detects the battery voltage automatically
once the battery charger is connected
to a battery and the charging process has started.
It changes to pulse charging mode if the voltage is
in the range of 7.5 V ± 0.5 to 10.5 V ± 0.5 V.
This pulse charging process is continued until the
battery voltage has increased to 10.5 V ± 0.5 V.
As soon as this state is reached, the battery charger
switches into the normal charging mode that you
selected earlier.
Now the battery can be charged quickly and safely.
Most empty batteries can be charged and used
again using this procedure.
Another thought is that if your battery is so low in charge, have you any jump leads ?
If so you could try to put a bit back in from the car & when the voltage is higher the charger will then work ok
The car won't trip out like the charger is doing......

My MIL mobility scooter has twin batterys fitted & one died right down but with the jump leads & car i managed to bring the voltage back up & then put the charger back on........

 

[jasPALL]

Hi Sprocket,

Many thanks I'll perhaps give it a go but probably be tomorrow now as we are losing the daylight.
I'm convinced that due to the low voltage (Only 3v) the charger isn't registering the connection.
I'll let you know how things proceed
Cheers

 

[TD42]

From your description of the ALDI/LidL charger mode button not operating I can say it is definatly faulty (I had the same fault) get it exchanged.
As said if its a Bailey remove the front cover of the distribution panel (mains off) the charger is at the top & slides out.Check the kettle type mains lead is fully in. On my unit there is also an inline 10amp inline fuse between the charger & the battery & I have had that blow
as also said you can try connecting another battery to the van battery & allowing it to equalise then try again with the charger as it will not begin to charge unless it can detect at least 7v

 

[jasPALL]

Hi All,
Many thanks for all who helped.
Thought I'd do a progress report for future so anyone like myself with basic electrical knowledge

may find of help.
The caravan is an Avondale argente 480-2 but I'm positive (No Pun intended) the flat battery can be across the board.
The Van has a Sargent 2005 PSU unit with integral charger and an inline 15amp fuse.
With the battery being very flat (showing only 3 Volt) I bought a charger from Lidl's as suggested by a couple of you but they didn't appear to work (I say 'they' because I returned one thinking it to be faulty).
I borrowed a CTek Multi XS7000 charger off a neighbour which has succesfully charged the battery to full capacity ~ Incidentally I've checked the Lidl charger now that the battery is in good condition and low & behold it now works so it appears that if the battery power is below 7 volt the charger can't sense the power to choose a relevant charge mode

I've changed the inline 15amp fuse from the onboard charger but to no avail and contacted Sargent who suspect a failed charger ~ they offer a service to repair 'out of warranty' items complete with final check, 12 month warranty and return postage for about £90 inc Vat.
I have a few more preliminary checks to do but it appears the Sargent repair service is the way forward.

Again, Many thanks from a Caravan novice to all who helped ~ I was told it was a very friendly community and this has demonstrated this perfectly

.

 

[Sproket]

Glad you have got it sorted