hi all i am having problems with my battery i charge it up to full and when i connect it up the caravan it reads on the onboard battery level panel in the caravan that it is only about half full I have a zig unit connected and it seems to be working but when i use the built in tv aerial it drains the battery very quickly to the point its in the red if i turn the aerial off the battery level goes to just above red and it seems to charge up a little any ideas, also could i wire my charger up so that it charges whilst i am using it or do you have to have it disconneted to charge it, sorry if the questions seem vague but i am not very good on electrics
How do know its full,does the charger your using say full ?
It could be the battery thats knacked and your getting a true reading when connected to the van,presuming your charger has no meter on it.If the cells in the battery are duff they will not hold a charge and will empty quickly not matter what you switch on.
If you have not got a proper caravan charger and are using a car battery charger,you must disconnect it when the battery is full as, some one said it will warp and damage the plates also,with a standard charger you cant draw off power and charge it at the same time,,something called "Float" ?
Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 28/9/2012
also,with a standard charger you cant draw off power and charge it at the same time,,something called "Float" ?
Quote: Originally posted by Francophile1947 on 28/9/2012
Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 28/9/2012also,with a standard charger you cant draw off power and charge it at the same time,,something called "Float" ?
That's a new one on me - I've done it for years
and me. I have a home made solar system at home that gets charged and draw off it at the same time
It was Lister Diesel who mentioned about "Float"when i was going to install a smart charger.As far as i remember he said some ordinary 12v chargers cannot handle discharge and charge at the same time...i dont think i picked him up wrong but he might come along and set the record straight..
Float charging is where the battery is on continuous charge at a setting that will not overcharge the battery, something like 13.80V.
What I originally commented on was that a lot of multi-stage chargers don't always like having a load connected to them as they jiggle up and down between the different stages.
Our own system has a 26A 13.8V power supply connected to the batteries all the time, and if we put a load on to the battery the power supply will feed that as well, while not dropping the voltage at all.
'Shore supply' is a marine/industrial term for such a system.
There is nothing wrong with Smart Chargers if they are used in an application where their features are used, but otherwise a single-stage charger is fine as long as the output voltage is fairly tightly controlled.
Ebay 180578908138 is the one we have, it comes as a 13.5A unit and you can adjust the output voltage to suit your battery type.
We also have two 80W solar panels and a 20A MTTP controller now, which means that we are more or less independent of EHU when we go away.
Give me a shout if you're not sure about anything, we make chargers for a living, but nothing in the consumer line, even I have to buy one! Our range goes up to 100kW output, but most are 6-12kW output for the rail industry and utilities. diesel at easynet.co.uk
i had a similar problem and it turned out to be that all the in line fuses were corroded and dirty, so that it allowed the battery to drain very quickly but not recharge through the built in system. since all the fuse holders and fuses have been replaced ive had no problems
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Topic: battery problems
