Flat Leisure Battery
Started caravanning with a new van last May. Leisure battery installed 1/5/19 when we collected the new Eldis Supreme 860.
The van is in storage and the battery is flat, reading 9v when I disconnected it today and put it on charge this afternoon. It is nearly at 12v five hours later so I hope I have saved it.
Before I disconnected I put a tester in series between the battery and the disconnected negative cable and found something is drawing 7.5 ma.
I have checked everything in the van and as everything is off with the exception of a power switch to which the microwave is plugged in, but not on. Fuse box main switch off and all light switches.
The smoke alarm is battery powered but I didn't pull off the carbon monoxide alarm though it does beep if the test button is pressed.
The battery is too flat to allow the van alarm system to be turned on.
It has a tracker but I am informed by tracker the device is only battery powered and not running off van power.
I am wondering if the carbon monoxide alarm is hard wired in and continuously drawing power.
Anyone got some suggestions.
My solution, until the problem is solved is to put a battery back in but with the negative disconnected so at least I can connect up and have a ready battery when we want to hook up and go.
Comments
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We haven't used a TV in the van yet but did attempt once or twice to use the radio and mover the Ariel thingy around. I did have a look carefully at the radio gubbins and could see no led glowing so assumed everything was off.
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Do you have an alarm system as we do on our Elddis 554 which uses battery power all the time. Also originally the power for the tracker was supplied from the main whale power panel which used a small amount all the time, even when other items off. We have a 80w solar panel and during the winter the battery went flat. Now I have run a new supply in direct from the battery with fuse this has solved the problem.
I must admit I do not like the fancy electronic control panel that isolates/operates all in the entrance. I much prefer old simple school of a bank of fuses and switches.
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It’s very likely the tracker.
Are you sure it runs off its own battery, HD, rather than the 12v leisure battery? If it has its own battery, you’ll need to change it at some point and it’s unusual to even know where it’s situated.
The other oft overlooked item is the fridge. It needs to be turned off completely or its control panel and/or interior light will drain the battery. They are on permanent live feed from the battery unless turned off.
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7.5mA is equivalent to roughly 1 amp in just over 5 days, an acceptable leakage I would have thought and a good 80/110 amp battery pulling that small current should still have 12v showing after months of inactivity.
My alarm would pull down my battery in a matter of a few weeks without charging. With everything off in my caravan and with the alarm isolated I can visually see and hear a small spark when rubbing the battery clamp to the post, I also don't know of anything that is 'on' that would cause that so put it down to leakage.
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Thanks to everyone for their responses.
I renewed the first year Tracker contract last month and knowing of the battery problem asked the Tracker sales person about the power. He assured me the Tracker had its own battery supply, was good for five years at which time they send a man out (cost skirted over) to replace it. He said most of the time the tracker is dormant and is only woken up routinely by Tracker sending a 'hello' signal. I am not 100% convinced he was fully knowledgeable, he was a sales person, not an engineer.
The fuse box main switch is off but the individual circuit switches are on. I intend to turn those all off and switch each on in turn to see if that shows up anything.
Battery was put on charge yesterday showing 9v and at close of play was up to 11.9v, hopefully today we are into the 12v. I will put it back anyway for testing purposes.
I will investigate the carbon monoxide alarm a bit more, that may be hard wired.
It's all a bit of a pain but at least it is keeping the old grey cells churning.
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If it was 9 volts it’s probably had it. 4 hours after a full charge it should be 12.7 volts roughly.
The current drain you measured is minuscule and wouldn’t flatten the battery. I suspect it is actually charging the Tracker despite the advice you received.
Leisure batteries should be topped up once a month or so and never left permanently on EHU unless you have a smart charger in the van.
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I don't think the OP had fully charged their battery yet, it can take a bit of patience
When my Leisure battery died, I left the rear-view camera's on by mistake, it took over a week to charge back up, this is because I used a Motorcycle Optimate charger, the idea being the slower the charge the better the battery will respond.
Batteries are nominally charged at a 10hour rate ie 100a/hr battery could be charged at 10 amps for 10 hours, however this creates a lot of internal heat and can potentially damage the battery, buckling plates and excessive gassing (which can burst the battery sides if the gas cannot escape) especially with sealed lead acid and other modern type batteries. The slower the charge the cooler the battery stays and so the more energy is absorbed.
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A 5 amp CTek would do the job nicely and could resurrect the battery if it was down to 9 volts. 24 hours should suffice.
Apparently modern Trackers only take 1 mA so it could be something else. Maybe the alarm drained it before becoming inoperable. The carbon monoxide alarm will have an internal battery not connected to the 12 volt system.
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A 5 amp CTek would do the job nicely and could resurrect the battery if it was down to 9 volts. 24 hours should suffice.
Modern intelligent chargers do not provide a constant current or voltage, they use a pulse and ramp rate charge so a ctek 5 amp charger (basically the same as an Optimate) will not provide 5 amps for long periods, if at all,
it will sit at 13.8v and slowly ramp from 0.1 amps upwards then plateau, Charging voltage drops to 0 for a set period, if the battery voltage is not sustained the process starts over again. once battery voltage is sustained the charger switches to maintenance mode where it just monitors voltage drop.
This is why, from a discharged battery especially the capacity of the types in our rigs it will take an extended period to charge fully.
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The fuse box main switch is off but the individual circuit switches are on. I intend to turn those all off and switch each on in turn to see if that shows up anything.
The main fuse box & its associated circuit breakers are 240v AC. Your 12v DC battery seems to have a drain ...... 2 separate circuits. You need to pull the car type fuses from the caravan's power supply unit until you find the draw or check at the fuse for current flow across it. This kind of thing might help.
Our carbon monoxide alarm is battery powered.
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Well it could be more than 24 hours in a severely discharged battery. Assuming the OP had a CTek (probably not) then he should select Recond mode. It gives 5 amps at 12.6 volts for 8 hours then 5 amps at increasing voltage up to 14.7 volts for up to 20 hours. After that the current declines for a further 8 hours max. There is a possible 2 - 6 hours after that at lower current for the recondition mode but not in the normal mode. Unfortunately, a 9 volt terminal voltage is often a death sentence and it wouldn’t probably need a CTek or similar to stand a chance of recovery.
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Factory fitted trackers are usually powered by their own, internal battery, which has a five year life. Which is why the alarm contract expires after five years. A while back, the battery was often found to have deteriorated before then, so an engineer was sent out to fit replacements, under warranty. It was a 20 minute job, so it could be on offer at the five year point, but doing so would expose the top secret location of the alarm power, so there’s no cover after five years. That secret location is known only to thieves, manufacturer’s factory workers, alarm service engineers, and of course any of us who watched the above repair. I’d post it here, except I’d be criticised, but there’s no point, because the alarm service dies after five years, whether you’ve fitted a new battery or not.
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"That secret location is known only to thieves, manufacturer’s factory workers, alarm service engineers, and of course any of us who watched the above repair."
Love that and it is so true, us mere mortals are not allowed so much information in this world. We all know the crooks know it, so why do manufactures not let us.
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