Battery charging - is this a good idea?
my van is stored at home and whilst there has a EHU cable permanently in place to allow for, amongst oath things, periodic charging of the battery which I do about every three to four weeks. The idea that I have had is to plug the cable into a plug in timer and set it to come on for one hour each day. This should keep the battery well charged without me having to remember to either put it on charge or, equally, take it off charge again. I know I could buy a smart charger of £80+ but this method is utilising what I already have to hand. Has the idea got any pros or cons?
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As the battery charges the current (amps) should drop so then just trickle charge even with a normal charger, just buy one of those timers with the days of the week on and charge it up a few hours once a week. We have a 40 watt solar panel on our caravan roof so we don't have to worry
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Firstly, do not leave your caravan or motorhome permanently plugged in as this will reduce the life of your battery even if you have a smart charger on trickle charge.
Whatever charger you have built in to your system if you are just maintaining top-up then you should plug into EHU for a day every month.
If the battery has become significantly discharged from using off grid then you will need a smart charger like a Sargent system to properly recharge. A conventional charger cannot do this as it doesn’t push out a high enough voltage nor does it provide a proper charging cycle with control of both voltage and current. In this case you need to take the battery out and recharge with a smart charger like a CTek.
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I would also go for one charge per month. If you do not use an alarm, or tracker which would make a constant discharge, then I would just charge for a few hours which should be more than enough. Make a note on your calendar when done, and try to use the same day each month. This is my system during the winter.
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Firstly, do not leave your caravan or motorhome permanently plugged in as this will reduce the life of your battery even if you have a smart charger on trickle charge.
Probably correct but I am not personally concerned by battery life. Both my last two batteries have been replaced at 6 years old. A friend had them both to put on a small truck to power an old, but very effective, long handled 12 volt hedgetrimmer. Sadly he is no longer mobile when I next replace
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The advice I posted above is best practice as recommended by battery manufacturers, charger manufacturers, technology specialists and in previous articles in the Club magazine. Many years ago I suffered two premature battery failures due to not following the advice, albeit on an old caravan with very basic charger. Bear in mind that most caravan systems are not as sophisticated as motorhomes.
Every time I repeat the advice somebody pops up to say that they do their own thing and their batteries last for a long time. That may be so; battery life is very unpredictable but if you follow the best practice you are more likely to get the maximum life.
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And some claim that to extend the life one must continually discharge a battery down to almost flat and then recharge again.
I claim my solution to be the most elegant - I use my caravan for two weeks every month!
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Whatever method you use i would certainly advise the hook up cable is connected to the mains with an appropriate residual current circuit breaker (a plug in one as used on an electric mower would suffice) just to ensure that should you/anyone cut or pull out the cable they will not get an electric shock
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