Low charge on leisure battery (10 V) replace?
hello,
I have left my leisure battery too long between charges (14 weeks) and have just found it to be down to 10 V . Will I need to buy another ?
I have put it on charge today and will check it again tomorrow but I'm a bit concerned as it is 4 years old and might be better to just get a new one now instead of risking it failing while touring?
It is a 110 Ah NUMAX CV battery, if this helps. Thank you.
Comments
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Hopefully you have taken the battery out and used a decent, multistage, charger. Many caravan built-in chargers will not properly recharge a flat battery. Numax are cheap and cheerful but fitted by many caravan dealers. Four years is not that old and you would expect it to keep a better charge over that period unless it has a current drain from an alarm etc.?
10 volts may be beyond the point of return. Try it and see. If it doesn’t retain charge then you can keep it as a spare so that you can swap batteries whilst recharging the new one (assuming you need a battery for an alarm).
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Thanks for your replies,
I have checked the battery this morning and it is showing a 13 V reading. I'll take your advice and continue charging for another 24 hours.
The real test will come tomorrow when I try using it with the motor mover to get it off the drive. If it fails this test (voltage drop of more than 2 V then I'll get another battery. It's not worth the hassle of being stuck somewhere for the sake of buying a new battery. I just don't like waste!
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What are you recharging it with?
Note the emphasis here, rightly, from others is to do so with a decent "smart" charger, rather than what might be fitted into the van.
If your use of the van is solely on EHUs and the only real call on the battery is to power a mover, then even quite a degenerated battery will suffice; movers despite what some think ask very little from a battery unless moving large distances over quite significant inclines.
The industry deems batteries in general as past their useful life when only able to hold 80% of their original capacity [Ahs].
In reality for the EHU user only needing it to stabilise the 12 volt system and power the mover, a battery able to hold just 50% of its original charge would still be performing, and its degeneration go unnoticed.
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hello ocsid, I have only ever used the caravan to charge the battery, it's kept in the back garden and it is easy to just plug in every now and then. I'm relatively new to caravanning (2015) so maybe I should look into a smart charger, maybe this would add to the life of the battery?
thanks again for your reply.
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I do exactly the same as you, except if weather is particularly cold, i connect van to 240v supply, stops battery from getting too cold, current battery has been on van for at least 6 years, thats how long i have had caravan, it was 4 years old when i bought it, battery is a numax cxv, no maintenance, charger is an Amperor 3 stage as below, works for me, only time battery is removed is by service engineer. Dont think you need a smart charger. Unfortunately Amperor are no longer trading but product has not been a problem, probably why company went out of business, product too reliable.
The main charging stages for the MV3 chargers are as follows:
1. Bulk Charge - The full output current is provided to the battery and the voltage is allowed to increase until it reaches a pre-set level. This stage restores the majority of the batteries charge.
2. Absorption Stage - The voltage is held at constant voltage between 14.0 & 14.6 volts (depending on battery type) until the current flow into the battery falls below 2 amps.
3. Float Stage - The voltage is held at a constant level between 13.2 & 13.6 volts depending on battery type) to help keep the battery topped up.0 -
Not that many caravan manufacturers fit smart chargers - Coachman originally on their VIP range and more recently, Swift.The problem is that if the battery is flat it needs to be taken off line by the charge controller (when you are on EHU) whilst still providing 12 volts to the caravan users so that a proper charging regime can be applied of up to 14.4 volts.
This is not a problem if you are mainly on EHU and don’t run the battery down much but if you are off grid and deplete the battery it needs proper recharging.
I guess manufacturers take the view that Numax batteries are cheap but good smart chargers are anything but!
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It seems that many top of the range caravans that you would think would have a proper charging system installed ... regretfully DONT and dont even offer one as an option.
As others have mentioned, its certainly worth buying an 'intelligent' charger, even if you just use it for the occasional full-charge top-up
( The CTEK one I have has a setting for recovering badly discharged batteries )0
