Which new battery should we buy?

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Aug 23, 2009
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Hutch, not saying you would be bothered, to be honest I didn't even bother to look and see who had miss spelt the offending word.

It's me that's bothered because I don't like to think of anyone who has made the effort to contribute to any site being picked on for a spelling mistake. There are plenty of people that may struggle with their spelling and could be put off contributing by what, and I make no apologies for this, is no more than bullying behaviour.

I prefer to think that we are all above that and are all encouraged by the validity of a post than how it is written.

Going to pull my neck back in now, and go back into my normal drug induced state of oblivion. :silly:
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Ok folks, back to the thread, whilst I had my battery out for a charge last week, first time since fitting it two years ago, I noticed that the cable connections to the battery connecters, were very badly joined and quite loose. I could imagine the cables arcing whilst using the motor mover. All fixed, albeit with very cold hands.
Hutch
 
Aug 23, 2009
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Good job you checked. I must admit with the solar panel keeping things topped up I haven't been going into that locker at all as SWMBO turns the mover on and off. I'll get her to check things when we bring the van home soon
 
Jun 11, 2012
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Ok Guys I have today been to check our van which is in storage and I know I mentioned Tayna Batteries which is where I bought mine from,Just like to say they deal with nothing else so able to cut cost.Our van has been in storage since October and on checking it today it has 11.39 Volts in it.Im not a penny pincher but count what I spend being an OAP.I paid £59 for a 110 amp battery .I have tracker and alarm on the van and this battery is doing better than any Leisure battery I have bought before .I have posted this just to let you know what I have for my money so far.
Sir Roger
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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SirRogerFFS said:
Ok Guys I have today been to check our van which is in storage and I know I mentioned Tayna Batteries which is where I bought mine from,Just like to say they deal with nothing else so able to cut cost.Our van has been in storage since October and on checking it today it has 11.39 Volts in it.Im not a penny pincher but count what I spend being an OAP.I paid £59 for a 110 amp battery .I have tracker and alarm on the van and this battery is doing better than any Leisure battery I have bought before .I have posted this just to let you know what I have for my money so far.
Sir Roger

Your battery is "flat", 11.5 volts of a resting leisure [C20 rated] battery is zero charged. At this voltage it is in a self destruct mode and urgently needs to be slowly recharged as soon as you can. Leaving them less than 50% charged 12.3 volts, causes this very hard to reverse form of damage and yours is way below that point.
 
Oct 8, 2006
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Your battery is "flat", 11.5 volts of a resting leisure [C20 rated] battery is zero charged. At this voltage it is in a self destruct mode and urgently needs to be slowly recharged as soon as you can. Leaving them less than 50% charged 12.3 volts, causes this very hard to reverse form of damage and yours is way below that point.

Oh no it isn't.
(i) A lead-acid battery is specified as flat at 1.8Vpc or 10.8V in total. That is why most smart chargers that don't have a 'restart from flat' capability often won't charge if the plate voltage is less than 10.8V.
(ii) The sole purpose of a 'leisure' battery is that its design is such that even if the total plate voltage does go below - and I mean below - 10.8V it can still be brought back, usually if charged at a low limited current for a long period (which is what 'restart from flat' does.) Generally you can't do it with a standard car battery as the internal structure starts to collapse.

And on my other point, the only reason I put aerial in capitals was not shouting but rather so that the correct spelling would be obvious within the text. What gets me is that misspellings are automatically highlighted by red underline so there is no excuse on this forum far spelling mistakes of non-specialist words.
 

Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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Woodentop said:


And on my other point, the only reason I put aerial in capitals was not shouting but rather so that the correct spelling would be obvious within the text. What gets me is that misspellings are automatically highlighted by red underline so there is no excuse on this forum far spelling mistakes of non-specialist words.


If a forum member has enabled spell checker on their web browser it's true that mis-spelled words are underlined with squiggly red lines.
Many forum contributors now submit their comments using smart phones, tablets etc, and predictive text notwithstanding, not all devices have spell check enabled.
Spell check offers a choice of 'correct' spellings via a drop down menu that isn't always fully visible on some devices and surely if spelling is not ones forte a multiple choice wouldn't be much help anyway.
This forum has never embraced any requirement for spelling proficiency and never will, some contributors may be dyslexic and shouldn't be put off by criticisms of their spelling by other members.
I read most of the content that is submitted and if a post was illegible I'd use my edit facility to rectify the situation so please, no more grammar police
:)
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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Woodentop said:
Your battery is "flat", 11.5 volts of a resting leisure [C20 rated] battery is zero charged. At this voltage it is in a self destruct mode and urgently needs to be slowly recharged as soon as you can. Leaving them less than 50% charged 12.3 volts, causes this very hard to reverse form of damage and yours is way below that point.

Oh no it isn't.
(i) A lead-acid battery is specified as flat at 1.8Vpc or 10.8V in total. That is why most smart chargers that don't have a 'restart from flat' capability often won't charge if the plate voltage is less than 10.8V.
(ii) The sole purpose of a 'leisure' battery is that its design is such that even if the total plate voltage does go below - and I mean below - 10.8V it can still be brought back, usually if charged at a low limited current for a long period (which is what 'restart from flat' does.) Generally you can't do it with a standard car battery as the internal structure starts to collapse.
.

Unfortunately, where you picked up your information has failed to advise you correctly.

1) I was being generous in quoting 11.5 v as flat. Depending on the trace alloying in the lead it varies a bit but flat, and by that I mean empty of charge, 11.9 Volts is generally the figure. See Table 2 in the following independent link.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_measure_state_of_charge
2) Leisure battery or not any state of discharge overtime starts degeneration of lead acid batteries. True deep cycling batteries better withstand it, but a budget leisure battery is not quite one of those and as said they only better withstand it, they still are damaged by it. The guide figure for a really good deep cycling battery is not stay below 50% discharged for long, and a starter battery which at the price point, is what we are discussing here, that figure is 80% fully charge. ie 20% discharged.

The info I gave earlier just as this, was stated to try and help you and also to not lead others to be mislead; leaving our batteries so very lowly charged is very damaging to them

Edit: John Wickershams article for this publication fully supports the normally accepted voltage figures I referred to and the irrevocable damage, draining below this causes; see "user guide;
http://www.practicalcaravan.com/advice/33991-how-to-take-care-of-leisure-batteries
 
Jun 11, 2012
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I am quite pleased I posted this battery issue because I now have another issue but firstly thanks for your replies.Now ...our van is fitted with a tracker,Halocate and this will send me a text when my battery gets down to 9 Volts this sort of argues the point of a flat battery.Im not taking any chances I will bring it home over the weekend and recharge it .
Sir Roger
 

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