leisure battery chargers

[michael_5098672]

Hi there ,we've just decided to put our caravan away for the winter after a great year caravaning .I just wondered what was the best procedure for our leisure battery ,we wont be using the caravan until march next year.I look forward to your replys cheers Mike

 

[Viking1]

we just left owes in the van last year had no trouble with it.

Mark

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Mike,

A good question. As Mark said it could be just OK if you ignore it for the Winter, but I'd prefer to charge it once a month or so just to keep the battery at 100%.

Why?

1. lead acid leisure batteries have a self discharge current (internal losses) of between 20 and 50 milliAmps - depends on temperature, exact cell design and chemistry.

This means you lose at least 0.5 Amp Hours from the battery each day - if you have a 100 AH battery - that's 100 days from fully charged to 50% and 200 days to 0%

Below 50% the cells will suffer from irreversible sulfation, and the battery will be damaged (not much at 50%, quite a bit more at 25%, and real cell death at 0% charge)

So if you don't recharge the battery every three months, you will start to damage the battery.

2. If you put the caravan away now, allow the battery to discharge, and in January the weather turns to freezing - then the cells of a discharged battery can freeze and split the casing. Dead battery and a real mess when it thaws out.

A fully charged battery won't freeze in UK weather.

3. If you have a motor mover and want to move the van - then a 100% charged battery is nice.

Robert

 

[RonD]

I have a small solar panel (Battery Saver plus from Maplin Electronics) which is positioned in a south facing window of my 'van. It supplies a very small trickle charge on a fine day to keep the battery fully charged.

 

[RayS]

Depends if you have mains available where your van is kept. If not, solar seems the only answer, short of removing the battery and taking it somewhere where you can charge it.

If you have mains then there are several chargers which will top up without over charge - there was a good article on all this in the CC magazine a couple of issues ago.

 

[clivea]

Hi,

during the Spring-Autumn I keep the battery on the van and it keeps charged via the car or site electrics. In Winter I bring it home and cahrge it using a CTEK Multi XS 3600 which is good for a van size battery and also fora car if required. The CTEK takes the batery toa full charge level of 14.4v at 3.6 amp, then will drop it to the lower float voltage. The CTEK is very compact and can be taken on site if required and used via the van's 240v supply with the battery disconnected.

 

[Pelyma1]

Clive, would this be big enough for a 110 ah battery. I am getting confused. In a CC magazine a guy had the one up which is quite a lot more. If I can get away with the smaller one it would be great!

 

[Rod_5041370]

Paul,

Forget the rest and go for the best.

Sterling Pro Budget multi-stage charger/ psu charges lead acid or gel batteries or powers the caravan (12vdc @ 10 amps) without a battery) whilst on mains sites.

I bought mine from here:

www.jgtech.com

Look under "marine chargers" only

 

[clivea]

Clive, would this be big enough for a 110 ah battery. I am getting confused. In a CC magazine a guy had the one up which is quite a lot more. If I can get away with the smaller one it would be great!

Hi Paul,

I have a 100amp hour carbon fibre battery and the CTEK is well able to cope with it. There is a larger variant with more poke but with the van I find that it never really gets too low in charge. We have a mover and agian I hav enot found any problems with battery charge levels. I guess that I tend to work on the little and often philosphy and having worked with large sub batteries traet my van one similarly. The CTEK is a multi phase charger and can be used on gel, carbon and lead acid units. It has a cold weather setting for outdoors use in Winter, being Swedish I guess it is required!

Cheers Other Clive