Battery Trouble
Hi there, I have had my current unit for the last 5 years it's a Bailey avalon discovery 4 berth 1992. Over the last 3 seasons I've had consistant electrical faults so I've had a guy out each time to sort the problems. He said everything has been checked
and is working so I went away in Oct and lo and behold my electrics were tripping again. We turned everything off and back on again as a process of elimination and managed to establish it is either the battery charger or the fridge as they both are on the
same fuse switch. We turned it off as it was Oct we were able to manage without the fridge but now we are wanting to get the unit out again so therefore will need the fridge. The battery has now gone flat as the unit has been in storage since Oct so can anyone
please advise me how I can check whether it is fridge or battery charger that is at fault and if my battery charger is broken is it possible to completely bypass internal battery charger and run a manual one from mains on site. I don't want to get the guy
out again as he charges £50 each time he comes and in the 3 times he has been he hasn't resolved the problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Comments
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I did reply but this fantastic forum timed me out and threw away everything I'd written!
Sorry, no time to repeat now. (Post will probably be moved to a different discussion anyway).
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Irrespective of any other problems, if your van has been idle since October, and you don't have mains or solar panel connections, you need to replace your battery first, before you turn anything on. There is every possibility that the battery is utterly tatered to use a colloquialism !! You could try reviving the battery with a "Smart" charger, but dont hold your breath.
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This may sound harsh but I would consider a second opinion. 50 quid a time without a result is going to cost you big time. No disrespect to your present electrician but we are all human and something might have been overlooked.
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DD, When the mains supply is absent the fridge normally needs 12 volt d.c. for the igniter to function. Agree with you about the battery, but if it is as bad as we both reckon, then the charger may try too hard at
the moment of "Switch On" and trip the mains on principle !0 -
Getting back to what I tried to post last night.............
My interpretation of the OP is that the RCD (either the main RCD in the 'van or the one on the bollard) is tripping. He has determined that this is being caused by the circuit which supplies the fridge and the battery charger. This suggests that one or the
other has a leakage to earth.Assuming my interpretation is correct, the next step is to determine which. Even if the fridge or charger have individual sockets or switches, these may well be single-pole so the result would not be conclusive. It may be necessary to physically disconnect
each to determine the fault..From experience my first guess at the culprit would be the charger - often related to the input filter capacitors.
If this was a recent fault I would be suspecting dampness somewhere, but OP says the problem has existed for 3 years.
Please tell us when you solve the problem!
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Chargers tend to be more prone to failure than other things but this is only speculation. Have you tried disconnecting the battery then switching on the mains? You should not run continuously like that but it is OK for a test. If the battery has an internal fault then this would cause the charger to trip out as it is trying to supply too much current into the "short". Also, it would be good if you could isolate the fridge supply and see what happens. It probably means delving into the wiring which might be difficult.
If it is tripping out every time you switch on then it is an easy fault to trace.
With that model caravan it will not have a sophisticated charger so do not rely on EHU to recharge your battery. If it has been discharged you should always charge it off-line using a leisure battery charger, preferably an "intelligent" charger like a CTek.
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Hitch, I think we can eliminate overcurrent because the CB for that circuit only should have tripped which doesn't appear to be the case?
I am more concerned about how the '£50 guy' thinks he is testing the installation!
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If its an intermittent fault it could be difficult to diagnose. I believe the OP said that fridge and charger were on the same circuit so the difficulty is to isolate one from the other. After posting the above it occurred to me that often the fridge is
plugged into a mains socket somewhere inside a cupboard so you can unplug and see if the system still trips, in which case it is the charger. The fridge will run on gas but unfortunately the charger won't!0
