Leisure Battery

[missdiamonique]

Just letting you know the van was serviced last week. I mentioned the alarm problem to the dealer, who checked our new battery. Lo and behold, the battery was faulty. They replaced it, of course, and we have set the alarm on site. Fingers crossed, problem solved. Another question now, when we leave our van on our seasonal pitch, when we go home for the week, can we set the fridge to 'battery' and leave it on all week? Of course, the electric hook up will be disconnected. If so, how much power will the leisure battery use? Can we charge the battery with a charger in the van connected to a 3 pin point and if so how many amps will it use. We don't want to trip the electric. Would it be safe to take the battery home and charge it there?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[UKHunk]

Yea the best thing i believe is to take the battery home with you and charge it up there,although it should be ok in the van all time,The only time i take mine out of the van is at the end of the season to store it,and during the summer months it never gets charged at home only via the car or the site mains when i am there,Regards Eddie

 

[missdiamonique]

Yea the best thing i believe is to take the battery home with you and charge it up there,although it should be ok in the van all time,The only time i take mine out of the van is at the end of the season to store it,and during the summer months it never gets charged at home only via the car or the site mains when i am there,Regards Eddie

Hi Eddie What I am asking is can I connect the charger to the battery via a 3 pin socket in the van? We cannot take the van home as there is no room, it is on the same seasonal pitch all year. You can't connect the battery charger to the electricity supply on the site, only inside the van. Would that be too much for the supply? We don't want to trip the meter. Please be more specific.

Thanks

 

[ThePlotter]

If you run the fridge from the battery then the battery will be flat in next to no time so not a good idea,if you plug thew van into a 13amp plug which I think is what you mean you can charge the battery and run the fridge for probably not more than a couple of amps.

 

[ThePlotter]

I have just read your note re elec supply I assume the charger is inbuilt in the van if so the 13amp supply from the site should not be a problem,even if it is a seperate charger(not the best for leisure battery) the supply is more than adequate.

 

[missdiamonique]

If you run the fridge from the battery then the battery will be flat in next to no time so not a good idea,if you plug thew van into a 13amp plug which I think is what you mean you can charge the battery and run the fridge for probably not more than a couple of amps.

Do you mean I could plug the battery charger into a 13amp plug and charge the battery?

 

[missdiamonique]

I have just read your note re elec supply I assume the charger is inbuilt in the van if so the 13amp supply from the site should not be a problem,even if it is a seperate charger(not the best for leisure battery) the supply is more than adequate.

I have read that the "inbuilt charger" is not really a charger, but a power supply. I mean I will be buying a separate proper battery charger, but I don't want to have to keep lugging a heavy leisure battery home. I want to be able to operate it and charge my leisure battery onsite, if possible.

 

[Icemaker]

anne, your fridge will not work from your leisure battery anyway as it is wired to only use 12 volt when the car is connected and the engine is running, this is to stop it flattening the car battery when the engine stopped. most of the seasonal vanners that i know leave the fridge on gas when they leave the van without power as its only uses the equivelent of a pilot light. not sure what you meen with the rest but if you plug your van in to the mains your fridge will use about 90 watts of power (about 1/2 an amp) and your charger will use anything up to about 5 amps depending on the charge state of you battery. on site i leave my charger and water heater permanently on and my fridge on 240 volt all the time, i can also run the heating on 2 kw without tripping a 16 amp hook up.

 

[Damian]

Anne, having read your posting, firstly, the van fridge will NOT run off the van battery. It only runs off 12 Volts when conected to the car withthe engine running, as when towing.

Secondly, disconnecting the electric from the van on site will stop any battery charging, as well as stop any 240 volt appliances working.

When the van is set to van battery, with no electric connected, the only items which will work on 12 volts are the taps, and 12 volt lights

The alarm should be wired as such that it is permanently connected to the battery, but of course, that will only work as long as the battery has charge in it, once it has discharged, the alarm will not work.

 

[Icemaker]

Sorry anne just seen your note, i have never ever heard that the inbuilt charger is anything other than just that "a charger" infact my instructions have always been that the charger must not be used without a battery connected as it will pulse the power as it tries to read the batterys charge state and probably over heat. in 9 years of caravanning i have never once had to charge my battery in any other way than with the vans in built charger. a good friend of mine collected his vanfrom storage after it had been there for 4 month and his battery still showed full charge so one week is not a problem for you.

 

[missdiamonique]

Sorry anne just seen your note, i have never ever heard that the inbuilt charger is anything other than just that "a charger" infact my instructions have always been that the charger must not be used without a battery connected as it will pulse the power as it tries to read the batterys charge state and probably over heat. in 9 years of caravanning i have never once had to charge my battery in any other way than with the vans in built charger. a good friend of mine collected his vanfrom storage after it had been there for 4 month and his battery still showed full charge so one week is not a problem for you.

Thanks for your reply. We are still learning about caravanning - hence the naive questions, but we want to understand it and get the best out of our van. I always leave the "charger" on and the gauge on the wall is always on green (fully charged) so I presume from what you say that it is, in fact, a battery charger. You read so many different things about technical matters. We'll try your suggestions over the next few weeks. Thanks

 

[ThePlotter]

I think i agree with Icemaker and in any event whilst i do not know his background perhaps his name says it all!

 

[Icemaker]

I think i agree with Icemaker and in any event whilst i do not know his background perhaps his name says it all!

icemaker is my old cb handle, i started to use it on here after it became apparent that two of us had the same name, my handle derived from my old job as a refrigeration / airconditioning engineer before i started to drive trains for a living.

 

[UKHunk]

Hi Eddie What I am asking is can I connect the charger to the battery via a 3 pin socket in the van? We cannot take the van home as there is no room, it is on the same seasonal pitch all year. You can't connect the battery charger to the electricity supply on the site, only inside the van. Would that be too much for the supply? We don't want to trip the meter. Please be more specific.

Thanks

Hi Anne

You can charge the battery on the van on site as long as you use the mains lead from an electic socket directly to the three pin socket which is usually in the battery compartment on the van,make sure you have your switches in the right position in the van(if you have them)I find it is not nesserary to charge up for over a week as you can do damage to the plates in the battery,can you not take the battery home with you and charge it up there,Hope this is informative enough for you,Eddie

 

[RogerL]

Caravans with in-built units aren't fitted with chargers (14.4v) but power supplies (13.8v) which are designed to supply 10-20 amps continuously.

In doing so, a power supply will charge a battery up to about 80% of it's rated capacity, a proper charger is needed to get right up to 100%.

For most caravan equipment there's NO need to have a battery in place but for very sensitive equipment, like laptops, it's best to have one in place just to smooth the supply. Of course, without a mains hook-up and without a battery then no 12v equipment will work!