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Topic: Dead or flat battery? D`oh

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Marcus12

25/10/2014 at 11:57am
Location: Grantham
Outfit: Lunar Quasar 534

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Hi all

Note We are very new to caravans. We came back from a really pleasant CL trip in September. Fully intending to go on a last trip of the year next week.

But..

Just got into it and found the pump switch on and a completely flat battery. It just did not come onto my radar to check the switches and I believe the master switch was still on as well. We also have a solar panel.

Looking at the other posts it would seem I have ruined my brand new £100 Exide 115ah battery.

Not a happy bunny!!

It is on charge in the drive as I type. But what is the routine that others do for this. Should I have just disconnected the battery. Or is it safe to just ensure that all switches are off, and allow the solar panel to keep it topped up.

I have resigned myself to a very expensive mistake!

But I don't want it to happen again.

Any Advice?

Jax365

25/10/2014 at 12:09pm
Location: south cheshire
Outfit: VW Caddy Maxi

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Oh dear! It's easily done when you're new to things. I disconnect mine for the winter and take it out completely, recharging in the garden shed. Over the summer, I just disconnect the battery altogether unless I'm charging it in situ. And throw the main power switches to Off!

It might just take a charge, but it will take a while from flat, all is not lost just yet. Put it on a proper car/12v smart charger and just give it some time. With it being new, you might just get away with it!

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JTQU

25/10/2014 at 3:49pm
Location: Hampshire
Outfit: Hymer Nova S

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Exide is a quality brand so you have a chance its not wrecked. Flattening it will have done damage but the extent of that damage tends to be less with leisure batteries of better build spec.
A good charger like a 5 or better still a 7 amp CTEK will help pull it through. You might not recover 100% storage capacity but 80% of a 115Ah is still a useful tool.

If you don't need an alarm or tracker supply then it is best to simply disconnect the battery in storage, this often is easiest by removing the fuse.

janus

25/10/2014 at 4:49pm
Location: Rochdale
Outfit: Hymer Nova 470 Mondeo titanium 140tdc

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Flatten that sort of battery once it should recover with few problems. I have never removed my battery for the winter, I have always left it in situ plugged it in at Christmas to use the fridge and simply made sure that everything is turned off. I have never had a problem my batteries have always lasted many many years one of my current batteries is 12 years old.

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Bill

For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013

Mondeo Titanium 140 tdci

Marcus12

25/10/2014 at 5:16pm
Location: Grantham
Outfit: Lunar Quasar 534

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Hi thanks for your encouragement. The only charger I have is an old Halfrauds one, but it is basically U/S.

I have just checked Amazon and they have one they can deliver tomorrow!! But the CTEK 5.amp is £57 Gone are the cheapie Halfords days! So I have bitten the bullet and ordered it. I looked at the manual online and it has a desulphurisation program. So maybe, just maybe, I can recover and get away with it.

Here's hoping.

I really am grateful for your advice.

I found this site: https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/ctekbatterychargers which seemed to think the 5amp would be OK. The cheapest I could find the 7 amp was just short of £100.
Definitely not Pocket money. So hence the 5amp one.

allan-d

25/10/2014 at 6:54pm
Location: elland west yorks
Outfit: crown regent

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i got smart charger from aldi for £14 good bit of kit i think lidl do one too just like ctek i think the only difference is if power goes off you have reset it your self .

good luck allan-d

trog100

25/10/2014 at 8:47pm
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if it takes a charge it will be okay.. problems only occur if left dead flat for too long.. if this is the care the battery will refuse to take a normal charge..

too long is variable but leavings a battery dead flat for too long will ruin it.. a hard sulphation layer builds up on the plates and it wont come off..

trog

iank01

26/10/2014 at 10:57am
Location: Worcestershire
Outfit: Buccaneer Cruiser

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We do not remove our battery as it powers the alarm and tracker and this is part of the insurance requirements. the Exide battery should recover, but maybe consider fitting a solar panel. If so go for the largest you can afford so that you can use it on rallies and non EHU sites.

VangoMan02

26/10/2014 at 11:51am
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If its really flat it may need a small charge from standard battery charger before connection to your Ctek charger to be recognised and aid recovery.

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trog100

26/10/2014 at 2:49pm
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some "clever"chargers need to read a voltage before they will commence a charge.. i dont think van ones are like this but some are

i have an old Mercedes car i never use.. it sits there going nowhere.. over time its alarm system totally flattens the battery.. it takes about three months to do this.

there have been at three occasions i have left it too long.. even a 10/20 amp old fashioned battery charger failed to put anything in it..

i also have a large booster starting charger oodles of amps.. connecting this up to the "dead" battery coaxed a little charge into it.. not much but some.. several short blasts of this this built up over say one hour.. when it got to about 20 amps going into the battery i switched of the booster part and left it on normal charge..

the Mercedes battery is now okay.. until the next time i neglect.. he he

by neglect i mean forget about it for six months..

trog

Marcus12

26/10/2014 at 3:33pm
Location: Grantham
Outfit: Lunar Quasar 534

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Well the CTEK MXS arrived today on a Sunday!! I have removed battery from caravan and connected up. Set it to normal and recond. (Apparently recond has a extra step)

It is in the shed at the mo on the desulperisation program. So I will let you know progress.

Many Thanks

Marcus12

26/10/2014 at 3:45pm
Location: Grantham
Outfit: Lunar Quasar 534

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I am a little surprised that it is so Flat. There was nothing left on in the van except alarm and all lights are LED, etc. Also I DO have a solar panel -Quasar's factory fitted as part of the deal-.

So a bit puzzled as to how it got so Utterly Flat. Although the pump was left switched on the Pump was disconnected. Unless there is another one lurking, elsewhere.

I may have a problem elsewhere, but priority is to recover the battery.

It is an EXIDE DUAL ER550 bought from Tanya. That has a deep cycle capability as well as leisure. Maybe the deep cycle was a bit too deep but we shall see. If this works I will recommend the battery and if it doesn't.... Well

JTQU

26/10/2014 at 4:16pm
Location: Hampshire
Outfit: Hymer Nova S

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It is possible some paste has fallen from a plate and "shorting" one cell? It can happen and is arguably a bit more of a risk with mail ordered batteries. If the CTEK starts to gas the battery it would point me to suspecting that. Measuring the rested off charger voltage gives a better answer. If only 10.5 Volts after an attempted charging, then it is a failed cell.

clbewi

26/10/2014 at 4:41pm
Location: Essex
Outfit: Lunar Delta TS 2017

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We bought the Aldi charger too

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Claire and Colin

trog100

26/10/2014 at 5:18pm
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it helps if the charger has an ampmeter on it.. you can tell if anything is going into the battery simply by looking.. but as i said earlier if it takes a charge it will be okay..

contrary to poplar belief running a battery flat wont do it much harm.. its leaving it for weeks dead flat that destroys them..

what caused it to go flat is another story.. many things could have done that..

trog

Marcus12

27/10/2014 at 12:11pm
Location: Grantham
Outfit: Lunar Quasar 534

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Well

I had a go last night with the smart charger. But...

First try it skipped through all of the program and settled on 5 and gave an red light alarm to say 'battery is no Good' as it will not retain a charge. Couldn't understand how it could 'smartly' say this as it obviously hadn't tried to charge it.

Tried it a few more times but seemed to take longer and longer to get to the bit where it gave a red light. Eventually it finaly stuck on point 3 which is the recharge bit. The CTEK got quite hot. So i am presuming it is finally charging. I left it charging over night and it is still at stage 3 with NO red light this morning.

I am really hoping it is doing something as The CTEK still quite Hot. I saw somewhere that it will take 26 hours to charge a 115Ah battery so i will see where it got to tonight.

There is no ammeter on it, but hopefully it is the current 'flow' that causes the CTEK to get hot.

I have set it to 'recond', where there is a extra step: ' During the Recond step voltage increases to create controlled gassing in the battery. Gasing mixes the battery acid and gives back energy to the battery. '

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