Charging Batteries - Help needed please
Hi,
I've never really given this much thought before as my MH had "a battery" and "it just got charged" by the van alternator and/or the hookup.
But the new (to us) caravan didn't come with a battery, and I've just taken delivery of a nice new Banner Energy 100/110AH battery, and I want to make sure I'm using it properly (as it may be used to power a motor mover if we decide to go that way)
I understand charging via the car engine is more of a "top up" and isn't going to provide a full charge. That's ok.
But on hookup, will the charging circuitry in the caravan perform a "full" charge of the battery - I've heard something about them only providing an 80% charge, which causes damage to the battery over time.
I cannot get the caravan anywhere near my house, so if I need to charge it manually, it means fully disconnecting it and taking it home - and needing to buy a charger.
Some advise would be great please.
Oh, its a 2005 Adria Adiva 532LT & there's nothing in the manual about the charging system.
Comments
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Assuming it has a charger it is most likely to be a fairly standard one that provides about 13.8 volts to the 12 volt system when connected to the EHU. The problem is that this is insufficient to fully charge a discharged battery, for which you require 14.4 volts. If you are always on EHU and dont use the standalone battery then this is not a problem but if you frequently run on battery only, then not giving it a proper charge will end in reduced lifetime.
Unfortunately the only remedy is to ensure that after the battery has been partly discharged you remove it from the van and give it a full charge using a proper leisure battery charger. Best, but expensive, is CTek.
I got through two batteries prematurely before I worked out what was happening so since then I have always followed the regime above, despite the inconvenience.
Many caravans are now being fitted with so called "smart chargers" like Sargent. They can provide the required battery boost without the need to take the battery out of service but I don't think this would be fitted to your van otherwise the manual would say so.
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Good choice on make of caravan
I leave my caravan hooked up to house mains so battery charger keeps mine fully charged(I know someone
will be along to tell me not to do this lol)If a leasure battery loses a certain percentage of charge it's hard to recover it but I reckon in summer months ie warmer it will hold charge longer and if you don't drain too much power storing it and it's not left
too long your car and EHU at site will do trick,I'd take it out and charge through winter though0 -
I can confirm that, yes, you should not leave your caravan on permanent hook-up or the battery will be affected. This is often stated in the manual but is also in the Club guidance. Many charger manufacturers (including some trickle chargers) will also
tell you the same. How much difference does it actually make? - haven't a clue!0 -
Need my motor mover to park up our drive a frame first,if I reverse onto drive can't put Alko lock on wheel,I need to be precise parking to allow me to remove motorcycles from garage so can't take battery out to charge in garage so easiest option is to leave
battery in,guess I could connect to EHU every couple weeks to extend battery life but it's 3 years old now0 -
You could buy a cheap car battery and get away with it if you weren't planning to go off grid. Some top quality leisure batteries are getting on for £150 so I think I would be more concerned to apply a correct charging regime if I had one of those and wanted
to go off grid frequently.0 -
Still have an 85ah leisure battery in the garage could sacrifice that maybe only use it to jump start bikes I store some distance from home
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