Possible faulty lesuire battery on new Elddis van
Last Sept we bought a new Elddis motorhome. Since then we've used it a few weekends. On Friday I brought it out of storage as normal and connected it up to hook up at home. We packed up and moved on for a weekend break. Once we had parked up I hooked up
to the mains again, got changed and went out. About 6 hours later we returned to the van to see steam coming out from the lesuire battery locker door. The door was VERY hot and the smell was awful. My battery was cooking. I quickly disconnected the mains,
turned off the electrics, opened a few windows (as an extra precaution) and left the battery locker door down. Even after 30 minutes the battery was still very warm and fizzing away. As it was now after 1am Sat morning we went to bed with no heating and only
torchlight.
Sat morning I phoned Marquis in Durham where we bought the van and they asked me to bring the battery in for an immediate exchange. After speaking to the service chap there he seems to think that Elddis has had a faulty batch of these Yuasa Lesuire batteries
L36-100 as he says i was the fifth person this has happened to recently, all with the same battery on new vans from Elddis. He has booked my van in for an electric check on Thurs just to check the intelligent charger that is fitted to my van is OK, but he
says all the other vans that they have checked have been OK, it was the battery that was at fault.
I've been really pleased with how Marquis have handled this problem but if the battery is at fault, and Elddis have have a number of claims for this, shouldn't they do a re-call? I'm not been dramatic when I say that had we not come in around that time to
notice a problem we could have easily lost our van, or died overnight when the thing caught fire.
Has anyone else had a similar problem with these batteries on a new Elddis?
Comments
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Sorry about the spelling of 'leisure' in the title but I don't know how to edit it once I noticed it
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If the problem really is the battery it suggests that a whole batch has been manufactured with one or more shorted cells. Or a batch of 6v batteries have been mislabelled. Both sound highly improbable, especially from such a well known manufacturer.
The obvious first step would be to disconnect the battery and measure its voltage.
A batch of faulty, or wrongly installed, chargers (power supplies) does seem a more likely explanation. I would investigate if the (intelligent?) charger is in fact continuing to charge at a high voltage (say 14.8v) when it should have reduced the charge voltage to a float level (say 13.8v). Such a fault would not become obvious (by gassing and overheating) for a good few hours after the battery became fully charged, so might not have been immediately apparent to the dealer when he replaced batteries and assumed all was now well.
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Thanks for that extra information from you both. The dealer didn't change the battery, I did. They only exchanged the battery for me. We spent the next night on 12V only, I haven't hooked up since. Home now but taking van in for full checks on Thursday.
It just seemed strange when they said they have had a few batteries like this and all the other vans checked out OK with no further problems after a new battery was fitted.
Just a thought but it would have nothing to do with me having to jump start the van this time would it?
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I have my van back after being fully checked over by Marquis. They maintain that everything checks out fine, they even had it plugged in for a couple of days to check the charger was working as it should. They say it must be a faulty battery like the others
they've had recently.Back to my original comment, if Elddis have a number of claims for this issue should they not be recalling the batteries on vans made around the same time as ours?
We'll be using our van next in a few weeks time so hopefully everything will be fine. Can't wait to be camping again!!
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The same make and model. They said that this make is normally really good - one of he better batteries available. I'll see
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DD the make and battery specification is in my first paragraph, the motorhome is in storage so I can't get more details easily.
An update on this situation happened today, Marquis phoned to say Elddis have sent a new part for my van for them to fit. They are suggesting that my battery was damaged because it kept getting run down too much before being charged again. It ran down so
quick in the winter because the heater that they fit (as part of the original spec) in the fresh water tank was switching on in cold temps even if the master switch was off thus draining the battery completely. Marquis have to fit a relay or something to stop
this happening in future. Fingers crossed!0 -
Halls, just reading this thread and noticed the almost 'throwaway line' re: jump starting the van....
i have a strong feeling that the ehu charging regime in Elddis vans does not charge the vehicle battery....only the leisure battery.
could it be that an immobiliser, van radio etc had pulled the leusure battery down....it really doesnt take long, especially if the battery is not fully in tip top condition.
how long were you on site (after driving there) before ypu needed to start the vehicle?
either way, i would look closely at a BatteryMaster (or similar) which moves charge from your leisure battery to ypur cab battery, if needed.
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well, of course they should....
however, in answer to your question, heres the title of one of my favourite Frank Zappa tracks....
"Cheepnis"
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Thanks BB, you are correct, the hook up doesn't charge the engine battery!! The van was just parked up in storage when I had to jump start it. Anyway, I can't be coping with half a job on issues like this so a solar panel has been ordered and is going on
next week. This will hopefully keep both batteries topped up so hopefully things will be sorted.0
