What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (wiser). That said it’s always safer to learn from the mistakes of others
One thing we havent considered is that if your fridge has been off it will be at ambient temperature. So compressor will have to run non stop for ages to get temperature down. This could be enough to drain a battery that isnt fully charged.
If your battery is at 10.5 volts unless you have a lot of solar input ie 300 watts on a full sunny day, I doubt if you could fully charge a flat battery.
To charge a flat battery by solar ALL loads would have to be turned off or current draw would rob a lot of charging power
So
1- Can you put battery on a decent charger or use a fully charged good deep cycle battery
2- Turn fridge to warmest setting
3- Put some frozen water bottles in fridge to help get temperature down quickly when testing
4- Monitor fridge over a few hours to see if compressor is running after desired temperature is reached , could take a while to get to this temp. Compressor may just keep running even after temp is reached so this is what we are trying to find out.
This is our first step to get to the bottom of this,
If your battery is at 10.5 volts unless you have a lot of solar input ie 300 watts on a full sunny day, I doubt if you could fully charge a flat battery.
To charge a flat battery by solar ALL loads would have to be turned off or current draw would rob a lot of charging power
So
1- Can you put battery on a decent charger or use a fully charged good deep cycle battery
2- Turn fridge to warmest setting
3- Put some frozen water bottles in fridge to help get temperature down quickly when testing
4- Monitor fridge over a few hours to see if compressor is running after desired temperature is reached , could take a while to get to this temp. Compressor may just keep running even after temp is reached so this is what we are trying to find out.
This is our first step to get to the bottom of this,
Thanks aussie mick. I'm guna hopefully measure the load on fridge tommorrow. Yea I only have a 100 watt solar panel but van doesnt use much load at the moment. Apart from me playing around with fridge. Although I turned fridge off wedneday morning when I went to work and ended up at work until 5 this morning and it was my eldest birthday today so I didn't play with the van today. I really want to get to the bottom of it. I might measure load in the morning then swap the battery for the other one and put mine on charge for 24 hours. That way I'm giving my battery a good charge and also seeing what happens to the other battery.
So have u always lived in the land down under mick? We came to australia for 5 weeks in 2015. That's when we decided to get a camper so ended up getting a t25 when we came home but I couldn't deal with the amount of problems with it. Every trip we ended up taking all the stuff out the back to get to engine. So we ended up getting our t6 after that.
You could try charging the leisure battery and leaving it disconnected from any load, it could have an internal short which is pulling it down alongside the fridge load.
It might show good current under load testing but you have been continuously charging it up to the point it was load tested.
It might show good current under load testing but you have been continuously charging it up to the point it was load tested.
So maybe charge for 24 hours and then leave for another 24 hours or a few days and see what battery does. How long do leisure batteries normally last? I said to my dad about the 700 amps thing the places were saying about and he said they were talking about cranking power which is totally irrelevant really. That got me back to wondering whether the battery is just not capable of what it is meant for now after 3 years and the tests they are running on it are more for a standard engine starter battery.
Yes I have , grew up in Melbourne and then moved to Adelaide when in my early 20s, We had a VW T3 air cooled 20 years ago , I had to tinker all the time just to keep it running , we bought a t6 and converted it to a campervan and love getting away whenever we can also. Its funny I was in the UK in 2015 , walking the coast to coast walk and cycling around Cornwall , love touring around the UK. Always enjoy getting out of the city into the country for a while.
If the fridge is doing your head in , have a rest from it for a few days then tackle it again
If the fridge is doing your head in , have a rest from it for a few days then tackle it again
Leisure battery life is dependant on a few different things.
How often you deeply discharge them
They like to be kept fully charged ie On a smart battery charger that has a float charge function
The quality of the battery to begin with and probably a few other things that I cant think of
Usually 3-10 years depending on these factors
Others on here may have more to add
How often you deeply discharge them
They like to be kept fully charged ie On a smart battery charger that has a float charge function
The quality of the battery to begin with and probably a few other things that I cant think of
Usually 3-10 years depending on these factors
Others on here may have more to add
I would much rather tour australia. I loved the roads. We barely sat in any traffic jams apart from a bank holiday when we were near australia zoo.
And everyone is so friendly and chatty. We ended up in Melbourne. Next time I want to head upto cairns which were hoping to do in the summer holidays in couple of years time. Then one day we want to do great ocean road trip. But not sure when yet as we would rather do it not in our summer holidays as I think it would be a bit chilly down south Australia then.
It is frustrating me but I just want it working. And I've got alot of time off at the moment so we will be using the van alot. We were going to be heading towards Scotland for 3weeks this summer but all our plans have gone out the window this year now.
Best time for Cairns is your summer (june july august)
Great ocean road is our summer (Dec Jan Feb March)
Great ocean road is our summer (Dec Jan Feb March)
You can never have too much solar if your controller can handle it but I think members in the UK could advise you better as they know your conditions better than me. They may advise what they are using.
Yea we would be doing cairns july/ August time. We wanted to go out into varrier reef again. Our kids at the time were just turned 1 the day before our flight over to Sydney and eldest was 4. So were both really young. We stated in lady elliot island which we flew out to from Harvey bay and we had a awesome time but it was hard with the boys. Were hoping if we do it in a couple of years with a 8 year old and 11 year old it will be bit easier for us.
Ha ha. You mean our lack of sunshine. Luckily I'm on south coast so weather is bit better than up north.
Yes that’s what I was suggesting, best take the diagnostics in stages. Once you prove the battery is holding charge while disconnected you can work from there by measuring the current drawn from the fridge with the jumper cables.
Regarding solar input, 150W is a more suitable capacity especially in the UK winter. It really depends on your personal preference to camp off grid or EHU.
Ok cheers mate. We do spend alot of time off grid and if we go to a festival or anything then there is never ehu. Were hoping to go camping more in the winter this year as everyone seems to be going camping this year so I havent even tried booking anywhere as I've heard its massively busy and booked up. We normally just get home Friday from work and think where shall we go this weekend and go from there.
I have a 150w redarc panel on my roof and a 150w solar blanket I can connect as well if I want , I run my 80crx fridge and led lights plus now have a planar heater.
Usually the 150w fixed panel is enough (providing its sunny for at least 4-5 hours in the day). I use about 25ah per day and 150w will put most of that back into battery so I have been off the grid for 10 days with no problems.
I can only use the blanket when I am about the van or it may get nicked. If the weather is sunny /cloudy I connect the blanket as well (now adds to 300w) trying to collect as much power as possible. If the weather is heavy cloud and rainy you put very little power back into the battery always hoping tomorrow will be sunnier.
Funnily my fridge gets colder the hotter the ambient temperature, but it runs more often. I have had it at 40+c with the fridge at 2c but when air temp is 0-2c fridge is 4c or so.
Usually the 150w fixed panel is enough (providing its sunny for at least 4-5 hours in the day). I use about 25ah per day and 150w will put most of that back into battery so I have been off the grid for 10 days with no problems.
I can only use the blanket when I am about the van or it may get nicked. If the weather is sunny /cloudy I connect the blanket as well (now adds to 300w) trying to collect as much power as possible. If the weather is heavy cloud and rainy you put very little power back into the battery always hoping tomorrow will be sunnier.
Funnily my fridge gets colder the hotter the ambient temperature, but it runs more often. I have had it at 40+c with the fridge at 2c but when air temp is 0-2c fridge is 4c or so.
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