Bongo Fury

My leisure battery doesn't seem to want to hold a charge any more. After a long drive or a good charge from a mains hookup, it gives up the ghost within an hour or two of use, with voltages dropping to under 9v.

It's slightly over 3 years old, and a "110 AH Platinum Low Height Leisure Battery" bought from Alpha Batteries (for the princely sum of £94.99).

I have a 100w solar panel, which is permanently connected so it's always been kept topped up, and of course charges when we use the van for non-camping purposes (which is normally 2-3 times a week).

We use the Bongo a lot during the summer months, so I've had good use out of it but is this a normal lifetime for a LB?

Easily, if you use it a lot and use a Solar panel then it gets LOTS of charges they have limited number of charges sometimes less than a 100 charge cycles.

Would it be better then to turn the solar off when I'm not camping? I'd always assumed it was good for the panel to keep it topped up.

Don't really grudge buying a new battery, just want to make sure I maximise the life of the next one!

No you don't want to turn off the Solar Panel, but you do want to make sure that there is only minimal drain, especially overnight! Its the complete cycle of charge & discharge that takes its toll on the battery. Leaving the fridge on is an example, drains the battery overnight, Solar Panel charges up during the day and runs the fridge, next night battery drains again .... cycle repeats each contributing to wear on the battery.

I've been thinking about this as I plan to get to the same point if I can ever figure out how to mount a 100w panel next to the roof box!


There are some really good leisure batteries but the cost is too much to make it good value for money.


I ended up figuring that a cheap battery would be as good as anything and cross your fingers that it lasts as long as possible. So I will be looking for the cheapest Leisure Battery with the longest guarantee.

Just a quick look on ebay shows an 'Auto Elite' 110Ah Leisure battery for £55 delivered with a 3 year warranty.

The way I figure that is that is ends up as £18 a year. If it dies before 3 years you should get a replacement free, if it lasts longer than 3 years then the cost per year becomes less.

Check the small print that the warranty is not constrained by a max charge cycles which is too low for you.

A post by Geoff here might help weigh up where on the cheap-expensive spectrum is best for you.
http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... es#p677031

I knew I had seen it somewhere, forgotten I had contributed! There is a discussion here about somebody trying to return a battery that had failed within its warranty period
http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... nt#p672073

g8dhe wrote:Leaving the fridge on is an example, drains the battery overnight.

Hmm. I think someone may have left the fridge on with the door open recently... Could've been like that for weeks.

Even a new battery can be killed by complete disharge and this isn't a warranty issuue, its misuse.

Had to try and explain this to my Mum when she left her car lights on overnight days after getting a new battery. Its never just before you buy one.

Bob wrote:Even a ne battery can be killed by complete disharge and this isn't a warranty issuue, its misuse.

Had to try and explain this to my Mum when she left her car lights on overnight days after getting a new battery. Its never just before you buy one.

Funny you say that, 4 weeks after buying my car it first replacement battery for 6 years, left a map light on parked at airport for 2 weeks.