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 Topic: Charging leisure battery via 12v socket
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02/9/2018 at 8:27am
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Yep Colin, all depends on the make model of car, the 2017 VW Golf that I was driving back in July, had the two auxiliary 12v sockets running on a single 20amp fuse, although I think each of the two sockets were rated to 10amp (120w).
The 2016 Mazda 3 that I was driving in August had just the one auxiliary 12v socket not sure what was in the fuse box, but I am guessing 15amp fuse as the socket was rated at 10amp (120w).
Then comes September, and the 2017 Hyundai i30 that I am currently driving has no less than three auxiliary 12v sockets, each rated at 15amp (180w), in fact the Hyundai i30 has a separate 20amp fuse for each of the three sockets, which is quite impressive.
In fact the Hyundai i30 is well catered for when it comes to external electrics, the fuse box even has dedicated trailer fuses 30amp and two 15amp, ready for if a tow bar is fitted, that's a pretty neat feature.
As for a cars 12v auxiliary sockets being permanently live, this was an easy fix on the VW Golf, just a case of moving the 20amp fuse up one notch in the fuse box, job done.
Post last edited on 02/09/2018 09:06:38
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09/2/2022 at 11:02am
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Welcome Andy TiG.
Two problems with tacking on to end of near decade old posts, are that much of the old info/advice may well have been superseded by technical advances, and many of the contributors are no longer active members so can't/won't respond to questions/comments aimed at them, Jackos still here it seems but his 'technology' may no longer be relevant to more modern vehicles, I'll let him cover that!
Plenty of very good reasons for charging a second/leisure battery 'properly' rather than simply lashing it to a vehicle battery/system with a cigarette lighter plug and a couple of croc clips, one being risk of high currents drawn and both damage to vehicle (cigarette lighter sockets are often not capable of supplying long term high currents and plastic melts without blowing the fuse, and sometimes even the wiring struggles and overheats especially if it is near any other heat source!) and actual fire risk, there's a hell of a lot of energy stored in a couple of 12v lead acid batteries! Not to mention risk of depleting vehicle battery to point it won't start vehicle!
Life has also got more complicated with modern vehicles, which often use 'smart alternators', these don't just bang out a constant charge when running, but monitor the vehicle engine state and battery voltage, only giving a charge when vehicle battery voltage drops to a threshold and/or engine is on overun. Far less useful for charging a second/leisure battery, and under many circumstances seemingly effectively fail to do so. Much debate on whether or not fitted caravan and MH leisure batteries (via inbuilt split charge devices) do actually get charged by 'smart' alternators, consensus seems to be not, or only minimally!
Much useful info on charging second/leisure batteries on this web site: https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/split-charging.html (Not any kind of endorsement or recommendation, just source of useful info)
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09/2/2022 at 11:44am
Location: London
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Quote: Originally posted by Jacko Manchester on 09/2/2022
...... Whilst I’m on, how long does anybody expect to get out of a leisure battery? I’ve heard they don’t like to get cold and ours is in the shed outside. Had it a few years now. Hopefully will be ok for Easter.
How long is a piece of string! Likewise on battery life, almost as many answers as you care to look for!
10 or even 12 years is not out of the question, but it all depends on an element of luck as to how good a quality the battery was in the first place and how well it's looked after. A poorly looked after battery can be stone dead in under a year! 7-8 years is probably a good life.
Never overly deeply discharged (never below 50% for a proper leisure battery), never left in a discharged state, and 'maintained' on maintenance trickle charge seems to extract the maximum life. The one on my caravan (small solar panel maintenance charger) is OK after 4 years and I've another one left over from my tenting days which is 7 years old and still OK. I've got a battery condition meter that does a discharge test and analyses the 'health' of the battery to monitor when they have reached end of useful life.
As to winter storage, biggest risk is freezing and splitting case, but not a huge risk in UK, a fully charged battery should be safe down to minus 60C or so, a discharged battery could freeze at minus 28C, but you'd likely have more worries about long term storage of a flat battery suffering sulphation of the plates and being ruined. Cold affects performance and charging, but is not inherently damaging apart from freezing risk. Batteries do self discharge at up to 9%/month, so wise to give them a top up charge every few months to keep them in tip-top condition.
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