Bongo Fury

Just wondering.........What,s the best way to charge a leisure battery
assuming on site and using a conventional battery charger on the 240v supply?

1. Continuously while using appliances supplied by the L/B?

2. Through the night while nothing is draining the battery?

3. It doesn't matter.

May be a silly question but I don,t want to risk damaging the l/b by wrong technique,

Cheers,

Steve

The best thing about being a pessimist is you're never dissapointed!!

Dunno the correct answer but I always use method 1.

Depends on what you mean by a "convential" charger.

An old-style battery charger will knacker a battery in double-quick time if left on after the battery is fully charged.

A battery that simply trickle charges the battery will never catch up if the battery is on load.

A new-style three-stage charger is the bees knees and can happily be left on for days/weeks/months.

So, what sort of "convential" battery do you have?!

I would see if you could get hold of the zig unit from a caravan/camper.
You can't beat the proper thing.

Many thanks for the info. There is a Zig unit fitted in the van but it,s
only the Marque 1 and doesn't have charging

I currently have 2 chargers, a trickle unit in a 3 pin plug ( Not impressed with this at all, and a Gunson charger/starter.

Pippin, this 3 stage unit sounds just the job. Any advice on brand please?

Cheers again,
Steve

I use this companies products.
http://www.exegon.com
They are very experienced in all aspects of battery charging matters.
The ones I use are the Prolite range of switched mode chargers. They are very light and powerful for their size but need to be used inside or at least under cover. If choosing a charger from their range specifically for LB charging, I would go for their "Yellow Box" range because they are inherently more rugged, yet still have to be kept in the dry.
I keep a pair of the Prolite ones in the Bongo for work use and had a unit fail due the the large coils pulling away from the circuit board with the vibration and stop start/cornering forces on it over a year or so. I mentioned it to the company and they replaced the unit without quibble but I modded the pair of chargers with extra nylon ties and a quantity of araldite to stop the movement.
As to current rating of the charger, It is diffuclt to know what to advise. Keeping the charger on contantly is fine and it would be down to what the average daily consumption is I guess.
If, for example, you have the telly and coolbox running a lot, your daily use might be up to 250AH assuming 8 Amps for the coolbox X 24hours and 50 AH for the telly and everything else. To put that much charge back into the battery would require at least a 12 amp charger when charging losses are allowed for. In practice, with a decent run out every day, the LB would charge in the normal way with the engine running so the contribution the charger would have to make would be less.
Since the charger is a 3 way type and the battery cannot be harmed by overcharging I would go for an 8 or 10 amp charger to keep things fully charged even if you stayed put on site for a few days. You could go for a lower rating by disconnecting the coolbox overnight as a way of keeping the power requirements down (and the fan noise).
Hope this helps,
Tim

I have wired in a CTEK intelligent charger which is just the job. Continually trickle charges leisure battery while on site with no problems and "knows" when battery is fully charged

stringman wrote:I have wired in a CTEK intelligent charger which is just the job. Continually trickle charges leisure battery while on site with no problems and "knows" when battery is fully charged

Modern chargers are brilliant I think they have a bigger brain than I have, now where do I plug in.

pippin wrote:Depends on what you mean by a "convential" charger.

An old-style battery charger will knacker a battery in double-quick time if left on after the battery is fully charged.

A battery that simply trickle charges the battery will never catch up if the battery is on load.

A new-style three-stage charger is the bees knees and can happily be left on for days/weeks/months.

So, what sort of "convential" battery do you have?!

Perhaps a randy monk could be construed as a "convential charger"

Gotcha!

pippin wrote:
Depends on what you mean by a "convential" charger.

An old-style battery charger will knacker a battery in double-quick time if left on after the battery is fully charged.

A battery that simply trickle charges the battery will never catch up if the battery is on load.

A new-style three-stage charger is the bees knees and can happily be left on for days/weeks/months.

So, what sort of "convential" battery do you have?!


Perhaps a randy monk could be construed as a "convential charger"

Gotcha!

I think you must be ready for a holiday Alan

Veg_Ian wrote:

pippin wrote:
Depends on what you mean by a "convential" charger.

An old-style battery charger will knacker a battery in double-quick time if left on after the battery is fully charged.

A battery that simply trickle charges the battery will never catch up if the battery is on load.

A new-style three-stage charger is the bees knees and can happily be left on for days/weeks/months.

So, what sort of "convential" battery do you have?!

Just back Ian - can't you tell from the lack of postings?


Perhaps a randy monk could be construed as a "convential charger"

Gotcha!

I think you must be ready for a holiday Alan

Just back from a fantastic week in the Tuscan hills Ian - obviously haven't been missed!