Charger Faulty?
I would appreciate confirmation of a problem I appear to be having with the battery charger in my ELDDIS Avante 524 (2007). I recently had a mover fitted and at the suggestion of the supplier I bought a 110aH battery (Lucas). This appeared to be working well. But inpreparation for some trips - one of which will be four days without EHU - I charged the battery. Left in on charge for 24 hours and checked th voltage at the battery - it was 12.8 volts. a couple of days later it was down to 12.1 V. A problem I thought. Looking at a circuit diagram off the Elddis site the only item that is always on is the alarm system. I opened up the unit and removed the 12V sealed battery - it was reading 9V - date code on battery would suggest that it was the original - we bought the 'van s/h a year ago.
Problem solved I thought - but no.. Left battery on charge - without the alarm battery - in fact I have removed the fuse for the alarm. Same issue - battery voltage gets to about 12.8V and still discharges - down to 12.4 volts after 24Hrs.
I suspect the in-built charger unit has been damaged, Before getting a new one I would welcome thoughts. At present the battery is on charge and I intend to unplug after 24 hours then disconnect the battery charger output connector and see what happens.
I guess buying a good 3-stage unit would be the best idea/ here
Comments
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If you need a new charger here is the Mfg. of the one Sargents supply at a fraction of the cost.
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Hi A new battery can have a problem I would have it checked first .
A good way to check the charger is to discharge the battery say below 12v and put charger on and it should show about 13v on the caravan volt gage if not charger is faulty.
Hope this helps.
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Check all your connections are clean & tight first, few things more likely to ruin your trips out than buying new and then, as you are fitting the shiny new bits, one of the connections to fall apart in your hands ! { Been there, done that & got the tear-stained tee-shirt to show for it
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Our sister organisation, The Camping and Caravanning Club, have created some excellent guides to technical matters such as construction, use and voltages which can be expected on leisure batteries. It's some 8 pages long and voltage information can be found at http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpandadvice/technicalhelp/datasheets/guide-leisure-batteries/page6/
We have printed a full copy, which we carry in our van in case we need to faultfind.
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Yes - very good information.
Outcome here is that following a few days away, on hook-up, battery still only 12.5V on charge. When hooked to car and car started - 14.4V at battery. After trip home (2 hrs) - battery at 12.7V when stand alone - connect to EHU at home - overnight - battery at 12.5 V again next day!
New charger ordered
Thanks everyone
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Just to close this off...
Bought a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger and have fitted it as a replacement. It works very well. Guess we will see soon as we will be off to a couple of three night no-hookup festivals this month - at least I will be able to see if it recharges a well discharged 110AHr battery
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That's a useful fact sheet. One point that is often not covered is that an ordinary caravan charger will not properly recharge a discharged battery and that if you have been off grid you need to take the battery out and give it a proper multi-stage charge. This doesn't apply to so called "intelligent" chargers such as Sargent as fitted to some makes of van and many Motorhomes.
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