Message Forums

Quote: Originally posted by GAYNOR68 on 08/7/2011

---

hi thx for that,is it not ok to use ordinary charger we use for car battery, ??

---

I have a charger bought from Lidl 4 years ago and it keeps my leisure battery fully charged no problems.cost about £12 .

Saxo1

Jeff is quite right and the reason is because a leisure battery is a deep cycle battery whereas a car battery is a shallow cycle battery. In technical terms, both batteries are designed different in the fact that the deep cycle battery has more but thinner plates and the shallow cycle battery has less plates but thicker. Therefore, the performance of each battery is different in the fact that a deep cycle battery will hold more power of a longer period (which is what is required for caravanning) and a shallow cycle battery will boost instantly (which is what you need to start an engine in the car). Therefore a car battery requires more amps to charge it so if you use a car battery charger to charge a leisure battery, the power is too fierce so the acid gets hot which leads to the thinner plates being eventually buckled. When they buckle and the plates eventually touch, you have a short circuit and this is when the battery fails to hold a charge. The conclusion is, you can't use a car battery charger to charge a leisure battery so you need one that slowly trickle charges with less amps. The link below shows what charger I use and it charges in 3 stages which is designed specially for leisure batteries.

http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/0-647-13-durite-12v-automatic-battery-charger-3a-5128-p.asp

I don't think that charger will be any good because it states the following below. Leisure batteries usually start around 85 ah (ampere hours).