Is this battery dead?

[Robtel]

Fairly sure I have a dud battery but looking for some quick confirmation before going for a replacement tomorrow morning.

The battery has been on charge via the caravan electric hook up for the last week. As far as I am aware there were no problems with the battery previously, all 12v systems were working o.k.

I went out this afternoon,removed the hook up,tried to operate the mover and found everything completely dead. Checked the fuses, they are fine. Replaced hook up, all 12v systems worked o.k.

Brought the battery indoors and connected it to a charger specifically for leisure batteries. Charge rate rose to 6 amps and has remained there for the past hour. Information with charger suggests this may be sign of faulty battery.

Any one any ideas.

Thanks

Robert

 

[Jaydug]

Check that the levels are correct in each cell. If you have a multimeter, leave the battery on charge for a couple of hours. Then switch off and disconnect. Check the battery's voltage. It should read somewhere around 12.8. Take the reading again two to three hours later. If it's doesn't read the same, it's not holding the charge.

 

[Robtel]

Thanks John. Its a sealed "maintenance free" battery so I guess I can't check each cell nor do I have a multimeter (wouldn't know what to do with one). Electricity, in either 240 or 12v is not my strong point, I tend to leave well alone.

Three hours later on charge and it's still reading 6 on the charger!

 

[Chris_374413356]

Hi, if you have no means of checking just go to any garage and I'm sure they would put on a hand held discharge tester, they would know in a minute if the battery was good or not.

 

[paul_374410560]

some people fall into to the trap of saying because i have it plugged in it must be on charge, some vans have an inline fuse 20 amp yellow on the inside of the van behind the battery box its worth checking that, put a meter on the leads to the battery you should get approx 14 volts

 

[WilliamLX]

12.8? My manual for my Bailey (and the Compass I had before) both for some reason say a fully charged battery should give a 13.8V reading. The best I have ever seen was 12.4, and based on how much use I get out of my battery, there is nothing wrong with it.

 

[Robtel]

Thanks to all who took the time to reply.

After being on charge in the house overnight the battery did start to re-charge. Still not sure whether battery is faulty, van charger is faulty or a combination of both but battery had enough charge to operate the caravan mover this morning. I now have time to get the battery checked at a garage plus have a look at the van charger. I really needed to use the mover this morning to get access to part of the driveway and garden to start some work.

Thanks

Robert

 

[Guest]

If you are really stuck then use the car battery. It is a pain swopping them over, but better than breaking your back muscles pushing a heavy lump. I did it when I forgot to put the 2nd battery in the car while visiting the caravan in store. After 20 minutes of near hernia, I gave up and swopped the battery and watched the van move itself.