Charging leisure battery at home

ClubMemberE2F314F695
ClubMemberE2F314F695 Forum Participant Posts: 10
edited September 16 in New to Caravanning & Touring #1

Hello

Are there likely to be any problems if I disconnect my leisure battery from the power supply unit and associated bits and pieces (see below) in order to charge it up with a smart charger?

Many thanks

 

Comments

  • eribaMotters
    eribaMotters Club Member Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 16 #2

    Should be fine. I did this with one van where to gain more payload I replaced the battery with a 7.2amp battery just to smooth out the 12v. The battery I removed was wired up to a CTEK smart charger for a few years and when I returned it to the van it was fine.

     

    Colin

     

     

     

  • ClubMemberE2F314F695
    ClubMemberE2F314F695 Forum Participant Posts: 10
    edited September 16 #3

    Thanks for your reply, Colin. Do I need to switch the units off or anything before disconnecting the battery? Apologies for my novice status re van electrics!

     

    Simon

  • Vulcan
    Vulcan Forum Participant Posts: 670
    edited September 16 #4

    There is no need to disconnect the battery when using a smart charger or do you mean you wish to remove the battery to charge it elsewhere.

  • ClubMemberE2F314F695
    ClubMemberE2F314F695 Forum Participant Posts: 10
    edited September 16 #5

    Thanks for your response, Vulcan. Yes, the plan was to remove the battery so that I could charge it in my house. 

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,299 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 17 #6

    Is it stored under cover? Otherwise I would have thought the solar would keep it topped up. One of the reasons we had solar panels fitted to our MH was to avoid the need to remove the battery for charging, which we did with our caravan.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 17 #7

    You don't say where you you store your van? I assume because you want to remove the battery its kept in storage? If it were at home could you not just connect up to the house mains? I think also I would be as concerned about the cab battery as I would the leisure battery. 

    David

  • ClubMemberE2F314F695
    ClubMemberE2F314F695 Forum Participant Posts: 10
    edited September 17 #8

    The van is kept outside and so the solar panel should keep the battery charged but as I'm fairly new to this I don't know how efficient the solar panel is at doing this. The Sargent control panel seems to be showing that the leisure battery is getting fairly low, as can be seen in the attached photo. It's not easy to use the van's own hook up to charge it as we don't have a drive and so the van has to be parked wherever I can find a suitable parking space nearby. We are planning to try taking the van to an off-grid location at the weekend and so this is why I was thinking that I should use a smart charger to top the battery up. Is this a sensible approach?

  • MoHoSinger
    MoHoSinger Forum Participant Posts: 59
    edited September 17 #9

    I presume getting at your battery is easier than mine is. I have to remove six bolts and a very heavy driver's seat to get at mine. 

     

    How far are you travelling? There is a fair chance that the alternator will charge up the leisure battery if you are going far.

     

    P.s. if you are going to have this problem regularly I think I would put some well insulated tails on the battery in situ and run a cable to a charger attached to them when the opportunity arises.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 17 #10

    You might need to check your solar panel controller to check what percentage of charge is being put into each battery. Usually it's 10/20% for the cab battery and the rest for the leisure battery. If somehow that is the other way round it might explain why the leisure battery is low. It may also depend on the leisure battery and how old it is, they don't last forever!

    David

    PS I can't see your photos, they seem to be in .jp2 format. I think jpeg would be better (I know .jp2 is a variant of jpeg) Pictures also have to be under 500kb in size.

  • ClubMemberE2F314F695
    ClubMemberE2F314F695 Forum Participant Posts: 10
    edited September 17 #11

    Thanks, David. It was a new battery I think I'm going to have to do some research. The people that did our van conversion said that we wouldn't need to touch the Power Supply and the two associated units shown in the picture. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be responding to any communications for advice or assistance which is a bit of a pain as, apart from this issue there are also other problems with a folding handbrake that they fitted and one or two other more minor things. I think we could certainly do with more knowledge about a few van associated things too!

    I've re-posted those pictures in basic JPEG format. Hope they are viewable by one and all now.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 18 #12

    Pictures are fine now. I noticed there is only one feed off the solar panel controller, so does that go to the leisure battery or the cab battery? Is the controller accessed via an App? Might be worth going onto the Victron website to see if there is more information that might help. Shame you are not getting the co-operation from the converter. Are you able to visit them as they might be able to run a few tests?

    David

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