This might sound daft, can you use any battery charger on a leisure battery, just seen chargers in the caravan shop just for leisure batteries(very expensive)not sure now if a normal charger i have will do the job. Please advise as were going away in two weeks.
shouldnt make a diffrence on the type of charger, a charger will do pretty much the job for any 12v batt , essentially, it just keeps on charging the batt until it is fully charged, some may take batt's longer than other's,you will always get bits of kit that do the same job i use a normal charger and it does the job, but then i use 12v car batt's x2 as all my stays have been until now ELH sites
The battery in rogerj`s post would be just the ticket.
I have checked the Caravan Club Technical Leaflet on charging leisure batteries and they are to be treat differently from car batteries if you are to get the best from them.
Many of the battery chargers mentioned above should not be used when on hook up, they are BENCH chargers meaning they should be used away from vehicle, they are definately not designed to use on hookup while you are using the battery, using while on hook up could potentially be dangerous too.
When we are on hook up we can have it so that the battery is charging while on hook up up just use hook up and all 12v items are run through the transformer. (this is charge in van not a seperate one) Never had any problems with battery on hook up. Just make sure its charge before going away if we not using electric.
But our home charge is 12v and 6v and has lights that come on to tell you when charging is complete
I use the same charger as in Roger's post. I have it permanently conected to the battery and plugged in, so when I have electric hookup it automatically charges the battery. At other times it powers my 12v electrics. Just wire it up, put it in the front with the battery and forget about it.