Free standing battery charger
We have a caravan in storage.Battery has gone flat.No access to electric hook up.Has anyone got any experience of the free standing chargers? How do they work.Would like to have one as in future could go occasionally and give battery a decent charge.Thanks.
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Do you mean this sort of thing.
I bought one of these for my son. However, its primary use is for jump starting a car, power when camping and charging mobiles etc. It would not be able to charge a flat 100 ah battery.
Would not a solar panel to keep it topped up be a better idea. Or like us go and swap it over every six weeks or so with a second battery. Ours powers an alarm and tracker, so we don't want it going flat.
If you don't have anything that requires powering, why not try disconnecting it, that would avoid trying to work out what is draining it. Or you could remove, bring home and connect to a smart charger, which would keep it in peak condition through the winter months.
If like me you find them a bit heavy to lift, a solar panel is probably the best idea. I am certainly considering that option, my back isn't getting any younger.☹️
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all good suggestions from steve....
just to add, leaving a discharged battery for any length of time is likely to shorten its useful life dramatically....
we keep our van on the drive and a roof mounted SP keeps two leisure batteries and a cab battery fully charged despite the ongoing drain of alarms, immobilisers etc...
SPs have come down in price and are now seriously viable solution to your isuue....the bonus is that it can keep you in 'juice' should ypu gancy a break on a non-ehu site.
good luck.
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in short, if the discharge form the battery (alarm, tracker etc) is greater than the input from the solar panel, then the battery will (eventually) run flat.
the thing is, there may be hidden (faulty) systems that are drawing a larger than anticipated charge from the battery and the SP cant keep up.
similarly, the SP might not be delivering the correct/full charge for whatever reason.....loose connection, lack of sunlight.....
agree you get someone to check this over, should be pretty straightforward to pinpoint and remedy.
good luck.
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I think that one significant thing often overlooked is leaving the 12v master-switch on. Just powering the relay on my 'van uses 15mA. This doesn't sound much, but equates to 10Ah/month.
Even worse is the fact that the Sony radio insists on switching itself on to standby whenever the 12v is turned on, and this equates to a massive 40Ah/month. Yes, it can be turned off once it is on, but easy to forget. (Fitting a simple inline switch is on the 'to-do' list).
I find on the boat that even a 15W rigid PV panel keeps 180Ah of battery in perfect condition.
The 'van is at home, so I simply turn the charger on occasionally. The main PV panels are deployed on site.
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