Leisure battery on last legs?

[Muffatt]

I've only had my bongo 11 days and before I take it on any overnight excursions I'm testing everything.

My leisure battery seems to charge up fine when I'm driving and when I have the mains hook up plugged in. I have a PMS3v/H panel and when I've driven anywhere and flick the car/off/van switch to van the 5 bar LED readout always says fully charged.

I can run the fridge when driving and again when I've turned off the engine and checked the LED readout it says fully charged.

If I then leave the fridge on and the switch to van, literally within a few minutes the LED readout goes from fully charged to red. I've also tested to see how long the leisure battery would last with just the two spotlights switched on (not the fridge), the readout said fully charged and within an hour it was back to red.

The fridge I have fitted is an indel B

So I am now thinking I have a very poorly leisure battery? Before I go to the expense of buying a new one, I just need someone to confirm this or am I doing something silly?

Thanks

[g8dhe]

Are you sure that the L/B is being charged from the Alternator?
When the switch is in the Car position it will show the voltage of the S/B rather than the L/B.
The PMS3 doesn't handle split charging, you will need a separate relay to do that.

[maxi_77]

Have you checked what happens to the battery when you remove the load. Voltage based battery capacity meters only give a true indication when there is no load, as soon as you run a reasonable load on a battery the voltage drops and will recover when the load is removed.

[Muffatt]

Thanks for the replies, I have just spoken to the auto electrician at 321away and he thinks one of the cells is knackered on the LB as its not holding its charge.

I'm going down there tomorrow so he can do a drop test.

[mikeonb4c]

I'm going down there tomorrow so he can do a drop test.

Careful! You've already told us the battery was on its last legs. It might collapse in a crumpled heap if its dropped.

Boom Boom!