Leisure battery dead

[Robertspaw]

Hi
I’ve rented my van out (was never the intention but change in circumstances mean we can’t use it much and I need the income). The people renting it forgot to plug in the EHU a couple of nights ago and woke up to find they couldn’t start the van. They got a jump start but have since said that the usbs and sockets in the back aren’t working although lights do. We have a smart charger so assume leisure battery will need plugging in for a while before it’ll hold a charge but does it sound like it’s wrecked? I’ve read stuff about them being ruined after going dead?

 

[Spaghetti]

Many smart chargers won’t recognise there is a battery there if it dips below a threshold voltage.

It may need a trickle charge to bring the voltage up before the smart charger will ‘see’ the leisure battery as connected. This assumes it’s a lead acid.

Lead acids do get upset about going completely flat and it’ll normally diminish their capacity.

I can’t see why it’d flatten the starter battery though, as ideally this should be isolated from the leisure circuit while camping.

 

[Qnapper]

The battery may be past saving. I take it they paid deposit? - show them battery replaced and take it from deposit. If they forgot to plug in after you telling them I would consider not returning the deposit.
Consider writing a hiring contact which they sign and have copy off for future renters. Good luck.

 

[Qnapper]

Many smart chargers won’t recognise there is a battery there if it dips below a threshold voltage.

It may need a trickle charge to bring the voltage up before the smart charger will ‘see’ the leisure battery as connected. This assumes it’s a lead acid.

Lead acids do get upset about going completely flat and it’ll normally diminish their capacity.

I can’t see why it’d flatten the starter battery though, as ideally this should be isolated from the leisure circuit while camping.

They may have been running the radio whilst parked up as many seam to do..... that will kill the battery.

 

[Nickg60]

Check your fuses, i've blown the split charge fuse before starting a van with a flat battery, tries to draw current from the leisure battery.

 

[Lubrown]

Check your fuses, i've blown the split charge fuse before starting a van with a flat battery, tries to draw current from the leisure battery.

I do wonder if that’s what happened in ours (by the previous owner). LB was dead when we came to collect it so they paid to replace it as it was working when we viewed the van. However the thing never seemed to charge just by driving around - I always assumed there was some parasitic discharge somewhere and kept it topped up by plugging the EHU in every so often.
On further investigation I realised there had never been a click from the split charge relay (no stop start so it wasn’t a fancy one) and the LED never illuminated.
I changed the relay and have never had an issue since. Just a nicely charged LB.

 

[Robertspaw]

Is there a way I can check if the battery is ruined? They’ve said it’s all working fine now but it’s hard to know whether it’ll hold its charge as it did previously in the half an hour that we’ll have for hand over? Would checking with a multimeter give a good idea or do I need specialist equipment?

 

[Lubrown]

Is there a way I can check if the battery is ruined? They’ve said it’s all working fine now but it’s hard to know whether it’ll hold its charge as it did previously in the half an hour that we’ll have for hand over? Would checking with a multimeter give a good idea or do I need specialist equipment?

Not entirely sure RE an instant check - maybe speak to a garage that does battery tests? See if they can give you any tell tale signs.
I do know our batteries have little indicators that are green for good and red or no colour for bad but perhaps that is just condition and/or level of the acid rather than overall condition or ability to hold a charge?

 

[david173]

Halfords offer free battery check, they place a diagnostic machine on it that tells you the health, charge capacity and some other things I wont pretend to understand. I think they call it a 'health check'. We had it on my wife's car a few months back to rule out other potential electrical gremlins. Battery was fine.

That was for starter batter though, you would have to check if they would offer it for a leisure battery.