battery charging over winter on hook up
Am I doing the right thing by keeping the van hooked up with the charger on or will it be better if I charge the battery once a month over winter bearing in mind the van has a cover on it the van is stored at home
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Am I doing the right thing by keeping the van hooked up with the charger on or will it be better if I charge the battery once a month over winter bearing in mind the van has a cover on it the van is stored at home
The answer depends on the sophistication of your van's charger. The safest is not to leave it on then it can't over charge but could well not properly charge either, but it is safer.
If it is one of the better chargers like for example a Schaudt then it is designed to be left on EHU continuously and optimised to look after the battery that way. So what is the van , others here might know of the quality of the charger fitted to it?
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Our Bailey Pegasus 534 we cooked the battery nearly causing a fire. Spoke to the company that supplies the supposed charger to bailey and they said it puts out a constant current and voltage ,does not look at the battery at all . It's a power supply and
not an intelligent charger do not leave on all the time I was told by them.When storing now we disconnect the internal power supply and fit an intelligent charger to look after the battery.
Hope this helps
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Our Bailey Pegasus 534 we cooked the battery nearly causing a fire. Spoke to the company that supplies the supposed charger to bailey and they said it puts out a constant current and voltage ,does not look at the battery at all . It's a power supply and
not an intelligent charger do not leave on all the time I was told by them.When storing now we disconnect the internal power supply and fit an intelligent charger to look after the battery.
Hope this helps
I find this difficult to believe, fair enough it might not be a smart charger, but I would have thought it unlikely that it would be designed to keep pumping in the current resulting in overheating the battery. If this was the case, given the number of vans
that always hook up, surely there would be van fires galore.0 -
Just forwarding what I was told perhaps it's incorrect ? But the battery in our van was so hot you could not touch it and the workshop was full of battery acid fumes hence contacting the company before fitting a new battery.
Not a statement just what we were told perhaps incorrectly
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We have just had a similar incident with the battery on our Bailey Pageant Champagne. The caravan was stored at home with the battery on charge. We were aware of a nasty smell as we walked up the drive for a number of days. When we isolated the problem to
the battery overcharging, the battery was too hot to touch and fizzing excessively. we immediately disconnected the mains. The battery took over 12 hours to cool down. When we were able to remove it, it had bulged and must have been close to exploding. Beware.
The interesting question is: Is the battery being overcharged all the time we are hooked up on site?0 -
Am I doing the right thing by keeping the van hooked up with the charger on or will it be better if I charge the battery once a month over winter bearing in mind the van has a cover on it the van is stored at home
Write your comments here...My battery is only charged once a month or whenever i'm using the shed where i feed it from. Last battery was 9 years old before i destroyed it by leaving my rear view camera on.
As an electrician retired i don't believe in leaving anything unnecessarily powered.
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Just forwarding what I was told perhaps it's incorrect ? But the battery in our van was so hot you could not touch it and the workshop was full of battery acid fumes hence contacting the company before fitting a new battery.
Not a statement just what we were told perhaps incorrectly
Write your comments here...Its incorrect.
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Possibly the best bet is to check the handbook and the makers information if it was included in the pack supplied at purchase to see if there is anything there. I have not heard of the problem but a failed battery can certainly overheat.
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Just checked my Bailey handbook for my 2010 Olympus and it specifically states that the charger 'will not overcharge' !
I usually switch the charger off periodically over the winter but not to any specific schedule.The handbook also states that the chaertger shouldn't be switched on without the battery in the circuit.
I also have a smart charger permanently connected to a classic car and that is excellent. Any doubts I would go the clever charger route tbh.
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Just checked my Bailey handbook for my 2010 Olympus and it specifically states that the charger 'will not overcharge' !
I usually switch the charger off periodically over the winter but not to any specific schedule.The handbook also states that the chaertger shouldn't be switched on without the battery in the circuit.
I also have a smart charger permanently connected to a classic car and that is excellent. Any doubts I would go the clever charger route tbh.
Write your comments here...No it wount because when its working correctly with a healthy battery the voltage output is only around 13.8 volts.
At that voltage a battery will fully charge but takes time, more importantly it will not boil the battery.
However its an electrical device which can become faulty. Remember the swifts with the multi stage chargers that failed. They put out over 14 volts and when they failed to drop the output and destroyed the battery.
If a battery develops a shorted cell even a Bailey charger will continue to output 13.8 volts and boil the battery.
Which is why i always turn any charger off when not required.
I believe you will also read that the manual says don't leave the charger on continuously.
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I check the leisure and MH vehicle battery every 2, 3 or 4 weeks (with a volt meter) and charge for a day or so with a good quality CTek charger if readings go down to about 12.3 volts.
In my motorhome the leisure battery never goes down more than two or three tenths as it carries no load.
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I leave my van connected through a timeswitch, the one I use to control the house lights when we're away. It's set to turn on for around 4 hours a day and this seems to keep the batteries topped up. Been doing that for several years and it seems to be fine. However, we don't usually wild camp and tend to use hookups on sites, so the leisure battery isn't used very often - unless she who must be obeyed trips the hookup by switching on too many appliances at a time!
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We have just had a similar incident with the battery on our Bailey Pageant Champagne. The caravan was stored at home with the battery on charge. We were aware of a nasty smell as we walked up the drive for a number of days. When we isolated the problem to
the battery overcharging, the battery was too hot to touch and fizzing excessively. we immediately disconnected the mains. The battery took over 12 hours to cool down. When we were able to remove it, it had bulged and must have been close to exploding. Beware.
The interesting question is: Is the battery being overcharged all the time we are hooked up on site?We had the same happen on our Elddis van last winter whilst we were camping. Frightening experience. We now have a solar panel to try and help with battery life and I definitely wouldn't leave on mains hook-up long term in storage.
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I must admit, my caravan which I keep on my drive, is hooked up to the mains over winter, so that I can run my Alde heating system on 'frost control', i.e. I set it to 5 deg.
I do check the battery at least once a week though for overheating.
If the battery, and caravan charging system is in good condition, it shouldn't overheat, but best to be safe than sorry.
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If the batterys good then theres no issue. Its when you try to charge a duff battery hoping for the best, ghen you may get issues i.e hot battery, deformation of housing and that beautiful smelling fumes!
I totally agree but when do you know when the battery is dud? Mine was on a motorhome that was 4 months old from new. We'd used the van a few times since purchase so when I plugged in and went out only to return a few hours later to a steaming van side and
a bubbling battery I was surprised to say the least. You'd have thought after spending nearly £50k on a new van 4 months earlier the battery would be in a fit state. How wrong I was!0 -
Last winter I was charging my leisure battery, that was fairly flat, in my utility room, but with the doors wide open for ventilation. I needed the ventilation because these batteries give off hydrogen when charging - which is highly explosive.
Everything was fine for many hours then suddenly I heard an alarm going off in the utility room. I rushed there but found that everything seemed ok. However, as it had started raining someone had closed the doors. The alarm turned out to be my carbon monoxide alarm which was in a closed cupboard on the other side of the room from the battery. After a bit of research online it seems a CO alarm will also detect hydrogen, albeit not very accurately. It had not reached anywhere near explosive concentrations but it was still higher than I'd like (especially as the alarm was in a closed cupboard).
The battery was fine and I now only charge the battery in the garage and I keep the door open if I'm charging it for a long period or at a fast charge rate.
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