Leisure battery discharging
Hi
On our first trip away wild camping last week we noticed that we did'nt have as much battery power as expected.Couldn't understand why we didn't have a full battery when we parked up for the night,to the point that we only turned on one light the second night and no heating,blooming freezing!!!..
Solar panel seemed to be charging OK .
It wasn't until we drove home(120 miles) that we noticed that the battery voltage went from 12.2 to 11.2.I put it on charge as soon as we got home.I also put a multimeter on it with engine running and it didn't seem to be putting in any charge.
I've worked out that vehicle battery is discharging rather than charging leisure battery but have no idea why?
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards
Comments
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you are going about your problem solving in the right way....checking and eliminating fault areas....
here are a few checks you can do....
1) check the battery is still viable.....charge the battery with a separate charger (disconnecting from anything else) and it should reach 12.7v....remove the charger and wait 24h and rem easier the voltage....it should be steady at 12.7v....if lower then battery losing charge on its own....
2) check the vehicle charging sources.....mains, solar and alternator. plug in the mains and check if there is a raised charge (around 14.4v) at the leisure battery...(remove fuse from solar panel so as not to be measuring that...) if not, the mains is only charging the vehicle battery.
repeat for solar panel, this time with mains off...
repeat for alternator.....engine running, solar fuse removed, mains disconnected.
the above should isolate the problem, is the battery duff or is there a source not supplying charge when it should.
good luck.
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Hi
Thanks for replies.
Sorry haven't replied sooner but have been away for a day or two closer to home to see how much battery was used and have been back to garage!!..
Van is a majestic 105,bought new in December.
Haven't really tried to much as don't want to negate warranty but have measured with multimeter etc in most situations hence noticing the drop when we went away.However,does seem to hold its charge when away closer to home. Hook up at home puts 14.4v into it.Solar panel puts up to the same depending on sun/light.
As for garage they tested the battery with a gadget that printed a read out and said that there was nothing wrong with it.They apparently tested everything and could'nt find anything?...Answer was to go away again and use it!!.. if battery goes dead..they'll replace it!!!..Which to me doesn't solve the problem if there is one??..
Regards
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so, even if the battery is fine, it will go flat if its used and not being properly replenished by EHU/alternator/solar panel.
I do have a suggestion based in your observation about the difference when being closer to home...
perhaos the issue is with the alternator and it's not charging the battery. when your going a long way away, the battery is without charge for a good while yet it's probably being asked to charge the fridge?.. and therefor draining.
perhaps on a short trip, the draining process is much shorter and the battery arrives in better health?
you can check this easily...
pull the fuse in the solar panel...to remove it from any readings...and then start the engine...now measure across the leisure battery terminals as before...you should be seeing around 14.4v of the a.ternator is working.
if it's only 12.3 - 12.7v this is the battery level.
good luck.
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both those readings are higher than the battery level alone, so sounds like all is working...
difficult to offer any more advice remotely....
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There could be any number of reasons for the problem. Just to give you an example, shortly after we bought our new motorhome I found that the battery had suddenly gone flat with the van on our our driveway but the EHU disconnected. Turned out that I had a tank heater on and didn’t realise that it ran on battery not mains. No way could the solar panel cope with that level of discharge. Somehow it also managed to blow a main fuse so when I took it into the dealer for the free initial inspection the whole electrical system failed.
Probably nothing to do with your problem but it just demonstrates that is unwise to jump to conclusions.
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Your alternator output varies because modern vehicles are fitted with so called smart alternators which have a variable output depending on load and cab battery capacity switching off when the cab battery has approx 80% charge. This causes a problem charging leisure batteries from the vehicle alternator which can be overcome by fitting a battery to battery charger allowing the alternator to charge the leisure battery despite the smart feature. If your m/h is fitted with such a B2B system then it may be faulty and allowing reverse current flow. Whatever, it’s a problem for your dealer to sort.
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Hi
Thanks both for your replies.
Hitchglitch,I had turned off tank heaters as was wondering whether that was part of problem,but was waiting for a trip away to see if it helped..
Dave29,that sounds more like what I think is the problem but you have explained what might be causing it so thanks again for that.I will go away again and if it does the same I will have a better understanding of it when I go back to dealer.I take it that the leisure battery is not charged directly from the alternator but through the vehicle battery?Therefore the B2B charger that you mention is between the 2 batteries to stop the overcharging of the leisure battery much like the charger from the solar panel?
Not overly impressed with dealer,never seem to fix problems straight away!!!!...It took them 2 visits to sort a fault that was on the van when I took delivery and 3 visits to sort a faulty control panel that hopefully works now!!!...
Regards
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It’s quite likely that the tank heater set-up differs on different makes of motorhome but I was surprised that Autosleepers allowed the heaters to stay on when not connected to EHU. They are such a big drain on the battery that it’s difficult to see how they could practically be used for any length of time when not hooked up to mains.
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It maybe worth raising this problem on my he MMM Motorhome forum.
There are a couple of members, one has good knowledge of the specialised charging units using mhomes. Complete with horror stories because the innards have fried, due to cheap design. Other has good knowledge of Fiat / Peugeot electrics and canbus systems.
The units prioritise the battery / fridge requirements and alter charging according, There is a possibility there is a fault in the charger unit misreading the battery's requirements.
Gone are the days when a split charger just pushed some volts when the alternator had finished duties with windscreen wipers, heater fans , radio etc.
Or something simple like leaving the sat nav in sleep mode, but connected, likewise a dash cam if you have one.
Rgds
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Hi
Thanks TonyIshUK.
We have just come back from week in Wales using the van as requested by dealer, we did manage a couple of nights off EHU but mainly stayed on sites.
The leisure battery still discharged when on the road,doesn't matter whether its 20 miles or 200,whether the voltage starts at 12.4 or 14.4 seems to lose about 1.5v.
Regards
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