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I keep reading about how important it is to keep a leisure battery fully charged over the winter, and how some folks leave their battery on charge all the time, or it is essential to charge it up at least once a month.

I took my 110ah battery out yesterday,  it has been sat in the van for exactly 12 weeks, and has not been charged up since we last used the caravan in September. Then it charged using the on-board charger, which does not fully charge the battery supposedly. The battery is 5 years old and I generally do little to it, indeed I do not normally charge it over the winter.

I put it on a special multistage charger which not only monitors the charge but provides an accurate readout of how much charge it put in. First it had to replace any lost charge in the battery and then full charge it.

In all 21ah of electricity went into it, about 20%. From this it is clear that just one charge, possibly over Christmas period is all that is needed to keep a leisure battery in good condition. For me this is the most economic.

I have a spare 110Ah Elecsol Battery that I keep at the garage. It is a left over from back in the days when we had motorhomes and we had two in tandem. (weight no object!).

I wanted to test out some 12v stuff that I was experimenting witth in the garage and I dug this old battery out and charged it. It had not seen the light of day for 5 or 6 years and I really did not expect it to take a charge, but it did. No problem and what is more, it held its charge as if it was new.

Now perhaps Elecsol Batteries are different from others batteries, but I am well pleased with the performance of this one and I will now keep it as a back up to my present 110Ah Elecsol.

Yes that is all we do too.  Got two batteries here right now so guess we had better make sure we take care of them.  One will go with the old van when we sell it.

Ali

Quote: Originally posted by rustyfrog on 04/12/2009

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Read all the above but I will still be charging/maintaining mine with my super, teribly expensive electronic, smart charger from Lidl during the winter!

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And indeed, why not?

If you've got it, flaunt it!!

I still have the original battery in my 2002 charisma .It gets charged on the ehu when we are away buts gets nothing over winter and is still almost fully charged when we use it in spring ,even the srevice fitter was surprised that the battery was doing so well

                                               doug

Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 04/12/2009

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The 6v battery in my 1946 Morris 8 will not hold a charge. Do you think I should take it back and demand a refund?

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Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 04/12/2009

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The 6v battery in my 1946 Morris 8 will not hold a charge. Do you think I should take it back and demand a refund?

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Quote: Originally posted by freeatlast on 04/12/2009

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In all 21ah of electricity went into it, about 20%. From this it is clear that just one charge, possibly over Christmas period is all that is needed to keep a leisure battery in good condition. For me this is the most economic.

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Just read your post with interest freeatlast, (we've had difficulties in the past) my OH. says though that with regard to what you said above,  this would not always be so - it would depend on the condition of the battery at the time.

Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 04/12/2009

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The 6v battery in my 1946 Morris 8 will not hold a charge. Do you think I should take it back and demand a refund?

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A leisure battery is best kept charged at periodic intervals, or kept on charge via the onboard caravan charger.  These batteries are a bit of a lottery regarding reliability, so claims of exceptional performance in the face of neglecting them will always arise.  There is still the possibility that an infrequently charged battery that gave good service may have done even better with a regular, or "continuous float", charge.

I have had long service from leisure batteries but, at the opposite end of the scale, this year I had a battery "die" (replaced under warranty) at less than 3 months old, and with no difference in the way the batteries have been used/treated.

Bertie.

We bought a brand new battery (leisure) from a caravan/camping dealer a few years ago (for the caravan we'd bought 2nd hand for spill-over accomodation at home) We asked advice about charging it up/maintaining it, but they didn't seem to really know.

The battery came with no charge in it (they did know & say we needed to charge it up before use) but we couldn't seem to get it to take a charge properly at all. What a waste of money ! It was about 3 months (in quite warm weather too) until we 1st tried, duet to family illness etc so we fist thought we hadn't done it right, then later didn't think we had any come back. We feel like we were stiffed.  Wish I'd had a pc & knew about UKCS then !

THANKS to The 2 Tops for that info, very informative, cheers