Leisure Battery Problem

[Skinns]

Evening all
Just noticed leisure battery is dead and isn’t charging when driving the van
To be fair it’s never been great, and has been run right down on a few occasions
I’m guessing it’s the battery that’s worn out and nothing more serious?
No loose connections etc
Can anyone recommend a really good “heavy duty” leisure battery

 

[widu13]

How old is the van and what is charging (or not) the battery?

 

[Skinns]

It’s a 16 plate and even when driving it isn’t charging up
As it usually does. Gotta a digital screen and its reading
8ish so really flat
Before when it’s been low as soon as you start the van it
Goes right up, 12+
It’s drained flat a lot of times so do you think it’s just died?
Cheers

 

[Pete C]

Probably, but what device is actually charging it.

Pete

 

[Wills]

Have you tried charging via EHU if you have it?

 

[Skinns]

Evening Pete
Don’t pretend to be an expert but I’ve always thought the
Way it’s worked is that leisure battery is wired to engine
Battery so when van is running it’s charging the leisure
Battery? When ever it’s got low I’ve started the van and
It always seems to charge it up
Cheers
Simon

 

[Pete C]

There will be some sort of device between the engine battery and leisure battery which regulates the charging.
That could be faulty.

Pete

 

[widu13]

Have you got something like this either near the leisure battery or in the engine bay? It's about 3" X 3"

 

[Skinns]

Thank you for all your interest with this
It’s certainly brought up a few things to check
Before getting another battery
Wish I had the knowledge of you chaps with
All this stuff!
Thanks again
Skinns

 

[Skinns]

Just another question, how long would you expect leisure
Battery to run fridge, interior lights etc before it needs
Re charging? Mine has only ever lasted 4-5 hrs max
I was told it should be 12-18hrs
What do you think?

 

[Pete C]

Depends on what sort of fridge you have, and how big your battery is.
Our 130Ah battery would run the fridge plus lights for a couple of days max.

Pete

 

[Skinns]

Pretty sure our fridge is the standard one as I’ve seen it so many times
In other campers ( YouTube, vw bus mag) tell me I’m not a sad case!
So my battery has never been that good. Got a good garage down the
Road so off there this weekend to hopefully sort it out
Thanks Pete

 

[rolling_stone]

Hi. I had a similar problem last week, and got a lot of help that may be useful to you on my thread: Leisure Battery Charging

 

[Salty Spuds]

Pretty sure our fridge is the standard one as I’ve seen it so many times
In other campers...…..

There are 3 types of "standard" fridge:-

1, Thermo electric (Peltier) type, these will flatten a healthy battery in 6-8 hours
2, Absorption/3 way fridge, these will kill the same healthy battery in 12-15 hours
3, Compressor, this should run for a weekend on a healthy battery.

as you can see, the technology of your fridge has a huge bearing on how long your battery will last.

 

[Skinns]

Thanks to salty spuds and Paul for that information, if it ever stops raining i’ll
Go out and check all that!