Leisure battery urgent advice please

[JapanRed]

Hi all,
Collected our caravan from storage today and the leisure battery is completely dead (as expected as not used it since last year). It’s not got enough charge to power the motor mover but I’ve managed to get it plugged into the mains at home.

How long will it take to get the battery recharged? Do I need to do anything specifically to recharge it (eg flip any switches) or will having it plugged into mains automatically charge the battery.

We are going away for a few nights tomorrow morning and will need the motor mover working so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Rob

[Mr Pointy]

Have you got any indication on the charger that current is actually flowing into the battery? Not all chargers will cope with a completely flat battery so your sucess may depend on the type of charger you have. If it is working then you've got a good few hours to get some charge into it & the car charging should top this up on the drive to the site.

[JapanRed]

Thanks Pointy. No there’s no indicator on the battery. I’m hopeful that if I leave it overnight it will be ok in the morning...

Any advice to stop this happening in future? What do people do when they don’t use their caravans over winter?

[SS2.]

If there's nothing on the charger, the battery voltage may have dropped sufficiently low that the charger won't start.

You could try connecting the leisure battery to your car battery for 15 minutes or so - may be enough to get the leisure battery to a high enough voltage that the charger then works.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the battery may have died.

If the caravan is stored where there is no mains hook-up, there are solar panels you can buy which would keep the battery topped up.

[MXRod]

Sorry to say , letting a leisure battery go totally flat , is very likely terminal .It may recover a bit , but will never have the same capacity .
In future , it will be best to remove the battery and store it at home , give it regular top up charges , or use a battery maintainer .
If you have a caravan alarm, again the back up battery will have suffered .
Our caravan is plugged into the mains all the time , so battery is always fully charged .

[Mr Pointy]

JapanRed said:

Thanks Pointy. No there’s no indicator on the battery. I’m hopeful that if I leave it overnight it will be ok in the morning...

Any advice to stop this happening in future? What do people do when they don’t use their caravans over winter?

Not being funny, but do you know if you have a mains charger & can you see it? I'm sure most caravans do but it would be a good idea if you could find yours & see if it has a meter on the front.

Do you have a car battery charger? If you maybe run an extension lead out & use it to charge the battery. I'd advise disconnecting the cables on the terminals first.

[JapanRed]

Thanks all. Having kept the caravan plugged into the mains overnight the battery has fully charged.

MxRod - if I remove the battery when in storage will this not mean the alarm doesn’t work?

Thanks.
Rob

[SS2.]

Solar panel battery chargers / savers start from about £35.

One of these should keep your leisure battery topped up when you're not using it. It will also enable you to keep the battery connected such that your alarm stays active.

The alarm will be pulling current from the battery whilst it's active. You would need to ensure that any solar panel your purchased was capable of delivering more than the alarm was drawing, otherwise the battery will keep going flat during long periods of no use.

[MXRod]

JapanRed said:

Thanks all. Having kept the caravan plugged into the mains overnight the battery has fully charged.

MxRod - if I remove the battery when in storage will this not mean the alarm doesn’t work?

Thanks.
Rob

That is the problem with modern caravans , they now have on-board electronics that cause a continual current drain .
I had to replace front window seals on ours , and was fortunate to be able to store and carry out the work on our caravan in a large green house at the garden centre where OH works .
The problem was though , the caravan was “off grid “ and in the month I was working on it the battery died( likely on the way out any way ) .It did recharge but now it only has about 10% of its rated capacity .As I don’t want to be caught out with a dead motor mover at a critical time , the new battery is on order .

The alarm will have its own stand by battery , but even that will go flat eventualy , as did ours , gell batteries will also suffer if allowed to go flat ,yet to test ours
So the suggestion of a PV panel should be a serious consideration

[JapanRed]

SS2. said:

Solar panel battery chargers / savers start from about £35.

One of these should keep your leisure battery topped up when you're not using it. It will also enable you to keep the battery connected such that your alarm stays active.

The alarm will be pulling current from the battery whilst it's active. You would need to ensure that any solar panel your purchased was capable of delivering more than the alarm was drawing, otherwise the battery will keep going flat during long periods of no use.

Thanks. I think I’ll get one of these

[Spare tyre]

Funnily enough my solar charger for a leisure battery has just given up the ghost after about 12 years outside. It’s for a security system but same principle

What solar panels are good

[LeadFarmer]

Fully charging a flat battery is one thing, knowing if its still healthy is another. Testing how the battery copes under load will help determine this. Take a reading of the battery voltage, then use the motor mover and watch the voltage drop. Then, see how long it takes for the battery to return close to its original voltage. An unhealthy battery may not return to its higher voltage.

Plug a 12v battery gauge into the caravans 12v socket so you can easily monitor what the battery is doing.

Edited by LeadFarmer on Friday 17th July 09:51