Leisure battery question

clummzie · Post by **clummzie** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:14 pm

Hi,

Just been camping and found that the electric blinds, fridge and pump gave up after about 24 hours.

Tested the leisure battery (Varta 75Ah) and it was showing about 10V

We've got a Waeco CB40 fridge that was on a pretty low setting for all that time (although it was a very hot day) and would have used the pump a few times.

Is this normal or should there have been enough voltage left for the blinds?

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:24 pm

Dont know the answer clummzie but I have been struck by how my leisure battery does not appear to be a miracle worker. A week of running a Maplins electric shower and a bit of watching LCD TV had it starting to fade. I was wondering only yesterday how long even a Waeco would take to flatten it. It is for these reaons that I have hesitated about moving things like electric blinds over to the leisure battery.

Suddenly, it occurs to me that a switch that allowed you to move power supply to blinds, pump, Waeco etc . from leisure battery to main battery might be a good idea. Although you'd have to be careful to only use the starter battery as a last ditch, it would at least allow life to continue for a bit esp. with the blinds, which it is irritating not to be able to open and close easily and quickly and which cant take much power or the time needed to operate them.

Mike

francophile1947 · Post by **francophile1947** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:28 pm

Hi
I'm no expert, but compressor fridges are supposed to be very economical in the use of the battery - are you sure your battery was fully charged to start with?

jimsmimm · Post by **jimsmimm** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:30 pm

I believe the leisure battery should last about 3 days in hot conditions running a compressor fridge.... do you have your cd player wired to the leisure battery and were you using that as I'm told powering up the lazer on a cd player can take its toll ...

dandywarhol · Post by **dandywarhol** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:37 pm

Leisure barreries don't get a full charge from the split-charge relay systems and can run low. I've just had mine on a mains charger all day at 6 amps and its still not fully charged according to the hydrometer readings.
It's best to use a long slow mains charge a couple of times a year to maintain a decent level

AndAndDen · Post by **AndAndDen** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:40 pm

We have a compressor fridge and we've been away for 5 days and not had a problem with it or electric blinds etc. We start the Bongo up everyday for about 10 mins to keep the batteries ticking over

clummzie · Post by **clummzie** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:38 pm

Thanks for the replies guys,

Leisure battery should've been fully charged as we drove for 3 and half hours and had the van on a hook up the night before going to the festival.

Only the blinds (used once), an interior halogen light (about half hour) and the tap were used in that period. Didn't use the stereo.

Really annoying as previous trips it'll last the weekend as we always switch the fridge off at night.

dandywarhol · Post by **dandywarhol** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:58 pm

Best then to get a hydrometer to test each cell and see if one's duff

daveblueozzie · Post by **daveblueozzie** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:05 pm

take your battery to a friendly garage they will test the battery for free,try a couple of places to see that they are all telling you the correct thing.just walk away if they start pushing you to buy a new battery.

bigdaddycain · Post by **bigdaddycain** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:14 pm

The 110 amp/hour leisure battery fitted to my bongo ,will drive my cd player/head unit for over 4 days constantly.... i have no idea about a fridge

(the radio is wired to the l/b,i forgot to switch it off!

)

clummzie · Post by **clummzie** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:02 pm

bigdaddycain wrote:The 110 amp/hour leisure battery fitted to my bongo ,will drive my cd player/head unit for over 4 days constantly.... i have no idea about a fridge (the radio is wired to the l/b,i forgot to switch it off! )

I've thought about buying a more powerful leisure battery as a solution but aren't they supposed to be the same Ah or less than the starter?

francophile1947 · Post by **francophile1947** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:14 pm

clummzie wrote:I've thought about buying a more powerful leisure battery as a solution but aren't they supposed to be the same Ah or less than the starter?

Nobody seems to know where that info came from - lots use leisure batteries higher than the starter battery.

daveblueozzie · Post by **daveblueozzie** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:07 pm

me and big daddy both have larger leisure batteries (110) than our starting battery ,no problems at all.

pippin · Post by **pippin** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:14 pm

There are several possibilities why your battery ran down so quickly.

1] There may be something that you don't realise is actually on that is draining it. Like radio/cd unit.

2] The battery has permanently lost capacity due to having been totally discharged one or more times and then not been totally recharged.
As mentioned above, the split charge system struggles to achieve this.
Clever batteries require clever chargers.

Our experience of using the Waeco CB40 is that the leisure battery would power it for several days without any charge and that it never ran down at all if we went for a drive every day. And I am talking about south of France in August type temperatures!

moonshine · Post by **moonshine** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:24 pm

The Waeco fridge on my boat got left on by accident once, when I forgot to turn off the batteries when I left the boat. It ran for a week and there was still plenty of charge left in the batteries the following weekend. I do however have 220ah at my disposal on the boat.

Are you sure your leisure battery is up to scratch, clummzie?