Nordel battery charger

[Angela3]

We have an Abbey GTS 418 and noticed last weekend while away hooked up to mains, that the battery wasn't being charged.

It appears to be faulty and I'm sure I've read on here previously about problems others have had with this unit.

We have contacted our dealer but they say it's a 2 week turn around to sending it away, fault finding and sending a replacement unit to us, not too bad I guess but we're going away for 2 weeks on Saturday so they told us to take our domestic charger with us,hopefully this won't be too much of a pain, any thoughts anyone??

Charger is a Nordel Elecktronica NE 143-P

Thank you

 

[Angela3]

anyone?

 

[raccoon]

Hi Angela, I am not an expert on this matter, but I know that if you use your car battery charger you will not hurt anything. Just make sure it has plenty ventalation. It would be best to have a charger that can charge the size of your leisure battery. Some home chargers dont go as high as the caravan one. As caravan batteries are usually over 85amphr and car ones are a lot less.

If you give it a charge at home first then make sure you have your cable connected to run anything in the caravan from your car you will be ok. I have found that a battery that is used just to run lights or water pump in the caravan lasts a long time. If you have a water heater then some of these need the battery to be of good charge or will switch themselves off.

To recap.....you can use a home charger to top up the caravan battery. If you run a lot of things in the caravan of the battery only and dont charge it, you will find it can be run so low that it is hard to get it fully charged again.

Hope this helps you.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Angela,

I'm sorry but I have to cast some doubt on some of "racoons" posting.

There are many different types of car battery chargers, and some of older and cheaper ones can damage your caravan battery. The more modern ones with three of four stages of charge should be fine, as these carefully monitor the battery whilst it is being charged. ( Ctek models and other specialist chargers)

The older ones do not check the battery and will continue to push current even though the cells are fully charged. This will cause the battery fluid to 'boil off' and will ultimately damage it.

Ventilation is important for any charging situation, as one of the by products of charging is Hydrogen gas which is highly flammable.

I'm not quite sure what racoon means when he says some home chargers don't go as high the caravan one, In point of fact, caravan chargers are designed to be limited to 13.8V output. This voltage is not quite enough to fully charge a battery but it does help prevent battery damage if left on for long periods like when you are on site.

Multi stage chargers will often go a little higher 14.2 to14.5V for one of their stages, as this is the optimum voltage to fully charge a battery, but they automatically shut down to a lower voltage when the charge has been completed.

Having the caravan connected to the car when towing and the power control switches in their correct positions will allow the cars alternator to top up the caravan battery when the engine runs. It is usual to disconnect the car when on site, and rely on the caravan battery or a electric hook up if available.

Racoon is correct when he tells you that some water heaters incorporate a low voltage cut out, But for this to operated the battery has to almost empty, and it really should not bother you if you are sensible about power usage.

I'm sure racoon meant well, but he/she was wrong on some important facts.