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Topic: Which Battery?

Dave11

25/4/2014 at 11:23am
Location: Sussex
Outfit: Swift 645 Elegance - Range Rover Sport

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I went to replace my caravan battery today , I normally buy 110amp hour as I have a twin axle van fitted with a 4x4 Powr Touch mover fitted which is essential to get the van on and off our driveway.
The batteries were labelled up at110 L but the shop sign said 100 amp hour?
When I questioned it they said that the batteries from their supplier are normally 100 amp hour and that I wouldn't notice the difference.
Does anyone know if they are only outputting 100amp hour, would it noticeably run down using the movers much quicker and is there a reason that I should avoid fitting a 100ah when I am dependant on the movers to negotiate the sloping twist and turns of our driveway?
Thanks

michell8

25/4/2014 at 12:46pm
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Think about it. 110ah means you can draw 1amp from battery for 110hrs & 100ah, 1amp for 100hrs so in the greater scheme of things, little different seeing as neither figure is going to be dead accurate anyway.

So the supplier is right. It won't make any difference.

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dad1uk

25/4/2014 at 2:18pm
Location: Birmingham
Outfit: Pennine Pullman Folding Camper

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I would think it should be ok.....
I assume it has a guarantee, so explain exactly what the battery is for and if the supplier is happy then they will stand by the guarantee if you have any problems.

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Jan and Simon and Jet and Amber

JTQU

25/4/2014 at 2:46pm
Location: Hampshire
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The difference you are seeing is because the Ah rating depends very much how it is measured; if you test the battery draining it slowly over 100 hours it will perform much better than if tested over 20hours. The 20 hour drain is the "accepted" rate for testing "leisure" batteries.
So to fool punters, many batteries carry this optimum rating to kid you it is a higher capacity than it really is in our use.
Your retailer knows he is pushing his luck claiming 110, where he knows it is in fact a 100Ah unit. Hoping somebody will not tip off trading standards, or his "wording" makes it clear to an informed buyer, it is not what the uninformed buyer will "assume" they are buying.

John Wikersham wrote an excellent article on this for the CC's magazine [Power Players,Oct 2010]. It can be downloaded here if you want an insight this questionable practice:

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media/6552072/technical.pdf

It discusses the EN standard EN 50342, where for our usage the all important test is C20 [ 20 hour drain].
Sadly he was not allowed to name the worst perpertrators, but buying a product to EN50342 C20 should look after your best interest.

Post last edited on 25/04/2014 14:52:21

Jax365

25/4/2014 at 8:07pm
Location: south cheshire
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I know why you are worrying - I couldn't get my caravan back on the drive without enough power left in my battery for the mover either. No way can I push and shove, even though I only have a very small caravan, as I have back problems. And I don't have a grey socket with a charger for on the move like most modern vans.

The way I overcame this was to have a separate leisure battery as a standby, which I keep charged and stored at my house. On the very slim chance that the connected l. battery doesn't have enough power, I then have a charged up spare as a back up. Glad to say that I've never had to use the back up, and I alternate the two batteries so they both get used - but it gives me peace of mind!

One of mine is 75, the other is 85, but there seems very little difference in those either.

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Colin21

25/4/2014 at 10:22pm
Location: East Herts
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I doubt whether you would notice a great deal of difference between a 100ah battery, and a 110ah battery. This is from the CCC website;

"The life of the battery depends on its use. The more appliances you use in a given period the more current you will use and the quicker the battery will discharge. Determine the rating of each appliance and the period of time, you are likely to use them each day. For example if you have two eight watt lamps being used over five hours and a 40 watt water pump used for one hour, this equates to 120 watt hours (2x8x5+1x40). Dividing this by twelve results in ten ampere hours per day. For a 75AH battery a fully charged battery will last seven and a half days (75/10) and then will be fully discharged. Never totally discharge a battery. It is unlikely that you will be able to recharge it again. In practice it is better to never let your battery discharge to less than 80 per cent of its capacity. If you allow the battery to discharge beyond half its capacity it is unlikely that you will fully recharge it again."

So from that it would seem that you can only effectively use 20% of the battery's total capacity anyway.

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Best Regards,
Colin

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