leisure battery

[scrancat]

Just been out getting van ready for our next outing. Noticed our leisure battery is drained. Think this has been caused by leaving the master switch on coupled with the tv booster. Have plugged into mains for a few hours but still no 12v power. A DMM across battery terminals reads 9.9v. Just wondering if battery will come to life or if i've cost myself a hundred quid.

 

[Oldsalt49]

Hi James,

Bet you have a Swift Group caravan? I did the exact same thing with mine, my battery was down to 3volts and never recovered. New battery, most likely. The manual that came with my caravan does not highlight the need to switch the Sargent unit off. I disconnect mybattery terminals now as a precaution.

 

[hollypop1]

Hi James,

do you have a seperate 12 Volt charger, if so take battery of Caravan and leave on trickle charge for 24 hours. This may kick start it in to life.

 

[DomDom]

If you can beg/borrow etc a C-TEK charger this has about the best chance of recovering it. There is a "Recondition" mode on it which pulses at 16 volts. This has the effect of de-sulphating the plates and mixing up the acid. If a C-TEK can't recover it then I don't know of anything else which will.

 

[marlot]

If the battery's at 9V then the CTEK might work.

I can tell you that a CTEK will NOT charge a battery which has dropped to 4v, but a Black and Decker 1084/1085 will. Not that I recommend letting your battery drop that far!