I need a new battery this season as I managed to completely drain my fantastic ecolsol one. It still works but not sure how much charge it will hold. My van weighs 1500kg and has a motor mover, which I have to use for about 50 meters to get on and off my drive. So I know I need a 12v 110ah as a minimum but do I go for one that costs £65 or one that costs £130?
I have done some searching on here and net but there are so many different makes. Tayna seem to be good value. I also do a couple of EHU weeks and weekends and the occasional non EHU weekends.
Sorry this has been asked before many times but any recommendations from a similar user would be good.
Tayna are only a retailer of batteries but one with a good reputation.
If you want a reasonable quality battery then buy one meeting the European standard EN50342 with a C20 rating. That means basically of the readily available products a Banner Energy Bull, Varta Professional or an Exide, these will not dissapoint and are likely to be way better than you have, even when that was new.
Arguably you dont need a 110 Ah battery for your requirements if it is a decent quality one [an EN rated], if you go budget then buy as big as you can because it will be most unlikely to be as high a capacity[at the all important 20 hour discharge, C20 rating] as the label wants you to believe; if it was then they would comply and label it with the EN standard.
Road Pro is another retailer I would trust. If going locally use a proper battery retailer not a Leisure company. There are big discounts in batteries for the asking; use Tayna and Road Pro prices as a guide to what to pay.
Battery weight, like for like is a very good guide to sort out the weaker products from the better; lead is needed and lead is very heavy.
I also live in South Staffordshire and when I needed to replace my leisure battery last year I found the best prices were in the Cannock area which is not that far away. I bought mine from a small unit that supplies commercial, marine and leisure batteries and nothing else so you get a selection of the best at competitive prices. I exchanged my old 110 ah. for a Lucas 100 ah. battery for around £75 complete with a 2 year warranty. Yes you can pay over the odds for a brand name but with batteries, if you don't maintain it and keep it fully charged on a regular basis then the extra cost paid is pointless.
If you use it primerily for your motor mover, you would be better off getting a H/D commercial vehicle battery. They withstand high drain better than a leisure battery.
Quote: Originally posted by rabbin8 on 10/2/2014If you use it primerily for your motor mover, you would be better off getting a H/D commercial vehicle battery. They withstand high drain better than a leisure battery.
However even the drain of a motor mover is not "high" in comparison to a commercial vehicle starter application and here the OP clearly stated a requirement for off EHU usage where a leisure type battery is better suited.
At the price point the OP is considering the drain of a motor mover will not be in anyway an issue.
Quote: Originally posted by rabbin8 on 10/2/2014If you use it primerily for your motor mover, you would be better off getting a H/D commercial vehicle battery. They withstand high drain better than a leisure battery.
I have just been looking at getting a ne motor mover for my new van, and have looked at all the specs. Most makes suggest either an 85ah or 110ah battery. They also claim that a 110ah battery will run the mover for about 2 hours. Normal current consumption is about 20amps, certainly not in the high drain bracket.
I had both a 110ah battery and an 85ah battery. The former weighed 26kg and would only fit in the battery box at a tight squeeze, which often left the battery box getting water in when it rained. The 85ah battery weighs in at 17kg, quite a considerable weight saving. I don't think these days that more lead means a better battery.
Incidentally before chucking out your present battery, connect up a high current (say 24watt) 12v light bulb and leave it on measuring the battery voltage every few hours. You will soon find out how much capacity there still is in it. A 24watt bulb will use 2amps of electricity per hour.
You can get smaller batteries that still have a 110AHr capacity. They used to stock them in a local auto electric supply outlet but it has changed hands now.
Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 11/2/2014You can get smaller batteries that still have a 110AHr capacity. They used to stock them in a local auto electric supply outlet but it has changed hands now.
However did those smaller batteries meet EN 50342 and the quoted 110Ah comply with that specification's C20 rating?
Anybody can paste a misleading label on a battery. Unfortunately many did which is why the EU introducded EN 50342 to protect those purchaser interested enought in knowing.
A useful read is the CCs "Power Players" of October 2010, accessible via the website archives.
I wouldn't get too hung up on ratings. Which magazine did a 'test' on cycle helmets years ago and failed all of them bar three for not surviving the collision testing. They didn't actually test the three as they met BS standards. If they had tested the three they would have got the same result.
What the testers in their total ignorance didn't understand is that cycle helmets are meant to destruct on impact to absorb the energy.
Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 12/2/2014I wouldn't get too hung up on ratings.
You
might not but more interested readers could well be interested in whether they
are being mis-sold caravan batteries as I strongly suspect those buying the
“smaller” ones you quote, must have been.
I
did however point out that EN 50342 C20 was there for “those purchasers
interested enough in knowing” what they were purchasing.
I
struggle to see that if as you claim “Which” mis tested cycle helmets, that in
anyway discredits the EN standard on the construction and testing of Lead Acid
batteries.
Alpiner’s
link hopefully will also help “those purchasers interested enough in knowing”
what they were purchasing. I had not
seen this before but was well aware of the testing done to supportearlier battery awareness articles.
How do you know that smaller batteries being made by reputable companies like numax are ripping people off? EN standards are european. Does this mean that Japanese or US standards are rubbish. Of course not.
I wasn't saying that the which test discredited EN standards in any way. I was just illustrating that the testers had become so duped by standards that they assumed the helmets would have passed their test whereas if they had tested the they would have got the same results. I have never had trouble with my numax but there seems to be endless lectures on here about which batteries we must buy.
The best article I have seen is one by sterling power and they actually know their stuff.
http://www.sterling-power.com/support-faq-2.htm
The caravan show video shows some batteries that failed and a semi-traction battery that had not.
I am not saying that standards have their uses but you arrogantly assumed that the more compact batteries are rubbish when for all you or I know they may well conform to EN numbers.
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Topic: Another Battery question - sorry
