novice leisure battery worries

[Ems]

Hi
I have looked at many articles and videos about how to charge a leisure battery, but my wonderings are so basic I don't think anyone has thought that this would have to be explained. I think someone needs to explain it to me like I'm a two year old who owns a T6.

I have had the van for two weeks . It was serviced in July, brand new conversion. However the leisure battery (Sargent EC155) does not seem to be charging even after long journeys (it has traveled 600 miles already) . What am I doing wrong? I have a mains adapter arriving soon.

two questions I have.

1st. Does the EC155 have to be switched on when you are driving for the battery to charge?
2nd. When I charge from home does must The EC155 be switched off or on?

The dealership did explain things but I was too excited and nervous that I didn't write down proper instructions.


thanks in advance for your patience.

 

[Dellmassive]

You will most likely need to upgrade the charger to a dc-dc chager.

More info.

[Guide] DC-DC Charger (for leisure battery) -- How I Done It --

DC-DC Charger (for Leisure battery) -- How I Done It -- ************************************************** Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread ************************************************** Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --...

www.t6forum.com

.

Can u post a few pics of your kit?

 

[Pete C]

You need to speak to your convertor again. We are only guessing at your setup at this stage.
As an example, I don’t think that Sargent device does the charging you are looking for, but it might interact with something else in your van.

Pete

 

[Ems]

You will most likely need to upgrade the charger to a dc-dc chager.

More info.

[Guide] DC-DC Charger (for leisure battery) -- How I Done It --

DC-DC Charger (for Leisure battery) -- How I Done It -- ************************************************** Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread ************************************************** Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --...

www.t6forum.com

.

Can u post a few pics of your kit?

 

[Ems]

Thanks for your reply, I have e-mailed the dealer also.

 

[Dellmassive]

ok,

so you have a standard deep cycle lead acid (SLA) battery 110ah

and the Sargent.

so you either have a split charge relay . . . . or you using the Sarget to charge the leisure battery . . .

either way is not ideal, and will result in a flat battery.

can you get any more pics from around the battery area?

are there other magic boxes about?

 

[Dellmassive]

oh also ,

welcome to T6F BTW . . .

when your ready come join the VIP club,

VIP Membership

VIP Membership Information

www.t6forum.com

and have a look at the events page to see if you can get to a meetup . .

Upcoming VW Events

Info & Discussions on Upcoming VW events

www.t6forum.com

 

[Dellmassive]

have a look over these posts . . .

Battery Chargers - How I Did It -

Battery Chargers - How I Did It - So its that time of year again, cold, rainy. . . . . . . flat battery =[ This time we look at Battery Chargers. Our vans will most likely come with a AGM style starter battery, for this type of battery we need a "Smart Charger" . . . . but what does this...

www.t6forum.com

Which Jump Starter?

Advice required. Hi guys - I thought it would be prudent to carry one of those small JumpStarter powerpacks about with me as I have an electric lift seat installed for my better half and am a little concerned that with the extra demands on the van battery I might get caught out one wintery...

www.t6forum.com

Battery Monitoring -- How I Done It --

Battery Monitoring -- How I Done It -- Part #1 Battery monitoring is a very important part of your 12v system . . . . whether its just the vans starter battery or your leisure setup keeping an eye on the power in your battery bank will keep you from breaking down and make sure your weekends...

www.t6forum.com

Stop/start...regen...smart Alternator... Dc-dc Charger For Leisure Battery Or Not?

So With all the talk regarding the Bluemotion thing and regen breaking and leisure batteries our T6 has finally arrived. The first thing we done was to checkout the factory fitted setup,...... Stop/start=check, Regen Braking=check, AGM starter battery=check leisure battery under passenger...

www.t6forum.com

[Guide] DC-DC Charger (for leisure battery) -- How I Done It --

DC-DC Charger (for Leisure battery) -- How I Done It -- ************************************************** Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread ************************************************** Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --...

www.t6forum.com

and more here:

**************************************************
Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread
**************************************************
Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --
**************************************************

 

[Ems]

HI Dellmassives,

Thank you for your reply. I will try and get some pics to you re the battery. Thank you so much for your help and I will definitely check out the events page. Its alot to digest and electrics confuse and scare me all at once so knowing someone out there has some knowledge is really helpful.

Many thnaks
Ems

 

[Dellmassive]

awesome , . . . T6F are a friendly bunch.

get to one of the meets to see other peoples vans etc.

in the mean time post some-more pics of your van . . .

back to your specific van, . . . what made you think the battery wasn't charging?

again . . . more pics will help the reply you get.

 

[Ems]

HI, we charged the leisure battery from a mains hook up it looks fully charged now from the control panel. We had a look and there is a battery to battery relay sterling power bb12 series and all looks fine with that. we are hoping to get away this weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Dellmassive]

Great. Can you get a few pics of the relay and sterling etc?

 

[Teesix]

Just to add, the red charging switch only charges the battery when on EHU.

A heck of a lot of converters don't understand VW's smart charging system and make the mistake of fitting a bog standard relay (as mine did). As Dell says, that's not enough to fully charge your leisure battery whilst travelling. The battery only gets fully charged when on EHU. You can fix this issue by fitting a DC-DC charger. My charger (Redarc) also handles a solar panel so worth looking into if you want to go off-grid for several days at a time.

 

[Nigel W]

Here is a link to the instructions for the Sargent 155

https://sargentltd.co.uk/shop/product/139/tech-spec/45

you only ever turn the red switch on when you are connected to mains hookup, it will light up when on to show mains power is connected and this will charge your leisure battery via the inbuilt charger. When not on hookup turn this switch off. (If you forget to turn off it doesn’t really matter as it only works when on mains)
if you also have a separate Stirling charger then this will charge your leisure battery when driving - it is fully automatic and you don’t need to do anything.

hope this helps

 

[Ems]

Great. Can you get a few pics of the relay and sterling etc?

 

[Ems]

It looks like charging from the mains hook up looks fine but it will not charge from the relay?

 

[Ems]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments

 

[Dellmassive]

That Stirling is a dc-dc charger and should be charging the leisure bTtery when the engine is running...

So ther is a problem here if thy is not happening.

Can you take a few more pics of the stirling led lights... when the engine is running.

We might be able to see whats going on from the status leds.

 

[Nigel W]

It looks like charging from the mains hook up looks fine but it will not charge from the relay?

I don’t know where your Sterling is mounted (mine is under the drivers seat) but it should be charging when the engine is running.
To test it disconnect the mains hook up and start the engine, the Stirling will not start up immediately as it has an inbuilt delay timer but it should be working after a few minutes.
if it is working then you will have green leds lit on both the output and input voltage columns, you will have another led lit at the top showing the status of the leisure battery (absorption/conditioning etc) and lastly a blue light where the cables all go in.
Another way to check is to do absolutely nothing, wait until it’s dark and then sit in the van watching the box. At regular intervals the blue light where the cables go in will briefly flash to show it is in sleep mode.

 

[Ems]

First picture is when engine is running, second is when engine is off. Hope this helps to get to the bottom of this problem.