had new caravan with new 110V leisure for the equiv of sprite major 6 van as we have motor mover.
Have had 4 outings since march when it was collected.
Battery alway charged obviously on site and when back at home. Our last trip was end of May.
went to check van yesterday as in storage to find a complete flat battery.
have checked nothing left on.
Should this battery be flat already?
Next question I am charging on a 4 amp battery charger , how longer should it need charging for as this one doesnt say when it is fully charged. only showes upto 5 amp
Never leave my battery in the van at storage, always bring
it home and then use a C-tek charger. These start the charge at 14.7v, drops to
13.8v then monitors, you leave it on all the time and it will trip back in to
keep the voltage up, pulse charging. When I put the battery back in the caravan
and put the switch to van the led shows 13.1v, fully charged.
Is the battery powering an alarm or tracker system when in
storage?
I understand on the newer Sprites, you have to isolate the
12v system as it still draws a small amount of power from the battery?? May
have got that wrong.
Never leave my battery in the van at storage, always bring it home and then use a C-tek charger. These start the charge at 14.7v, drops to 13.8v then monitors, you leave it on all the time and it will trip back in to keep the voltage up, pulse charging. When I put the battery back in the caravan and put the switch to van the led shows 13.1v, fully charged.
Quote: Originally posted by scrufts on 29/7/2013I do leave my battery in the caravan whilst in storage and have a solar panel mounted under the rooflight to keep it topped up -never had a problem.
What size / make of solar panel? any chance of a picture?
Thanks
On Swifts,and probable others ,when not using van for a long period,you must put the rocker switch for car/van in its center position,otherwise there is a very small constant power draw from the relay.Even when all other switches are in off position.
Been there and got the T shirt !!
I also can recommend the C-tek chargers
I think you may need a more powerful charger. We ended up buying one from Halfords and it charged up our very flat 110 v battery fine. Possibly an 8 amp? but might be wrong... However, as I say it did work for us as the lower charger couldn't do it.
Teresa
I also purchased the c-tec after reading several reviews on hear and elsewhere.
I also charged my battery on a Halfords charger recommended for leisure batteries and it showed fully charged and monitoring.
I then hooked up the c-tec which showed the battery was ready to use but not fully charged, good piece of kit.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
Leave my baby 85ah battery in van with everything switched off and no alarm/tracker connected to it. Never had a flat battery although after a few winter months of van dis-use I have noticed the motor mover is a bit slow and the relays seem to drop out/click a fair bit but not actually flat. I have used on one occasion an absolutely ancient halfroads 12v car battery charger which stopped charging after an hour or two. When I put battery back into van the mover was faster! So I suppose it does lose a bit of charge over many weeks but it still holds enough to allow the mover to work so all is ok. BTW the battery is labelled as a deep cycle one and is at least 6 years old.
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
I think that the lower amp chargers wont charge a 110amphour battery fully,I had to buy one with a higher charge rate,is your battery sealed,or does it have the plugs to enable you to refill the cells,as they do tend to go lower over time.
Took a look at these c-tek chargers, they look good but seem to be expensive.
are they really worth £100 plus??
Kerrys Dad,
you mention on the swift put the rocker switch into the central position.
Please explain more (treat me like an idiot as this is my first ever van and have absolutely no clue what you mean)
many thanks again to everyone
I bought the c-tek mxs 5 for just over £50 which I think is smart enough for battery charging but its more than just a battery charger if you read the spec.
I am certainly delighted with mine.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
A 3.5amp battery charger will fully charge a 110ah battery but it takes longer to do so, A non smart charger will charge at over 14volts so need to be disconnected in order not to over charge. when the battery is fully charged ie shows 12.8 v AFTER it has stood disconnected from charger for about 6 hrs.A smart charger will not commence charging if the battery is below 7volts.If this is the case try using jump leads from the car battery to the leisure battery this usually equalises the batterys & put in enough to allow the smart charger to begin charging.
you do not need an expensive smart charger in fact mine cost £14 from AlDi /Lidl
a tracker will discharge the battery over several weeks but it has an internal battery that should keep it operative for a period if the main battery goes flat
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Topic: Flat battery
