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Subject Topic: Dead leisure battery revival Post Reply Post New Topic
PersonChalkie0456
25/5/2022 at 12:14pm
 Location: Staffs
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Hi all
Got my caravan out of storage to prepare for our holiday. The battery was dead showing about 5volts (left a light on), from past experience this meant a trip to the battery shop for a new battery. I tried my charger (Aldi Special) and wouldn't charge. A friend suggested I borrow his Ctek charger. So after reading the instructions I connected it up and after 48hours the charger went through an 8 point charging cycle and now seems to hold its charge of 13.4v
Brilliant.
I thought i would share that with you all.
Regards

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if your car could travel at the speed of light and you turned on your lights what would happen?


PersonSamP
25/5/2022 at 11:48pm
 Location: S Wales The Badland
 Outfit: Swift Challenger 530 View SamP's Profile View Profile   Reply to SamP Reply   Quote SamP Quote  
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I use an 'Intelligent' charger most of the time. but I still keep an old-school dumb charger for exactly that sort of situation.

When the fancy charger rejects a battery as dead, I put it on the old charger (at a low charge rate) for a few hours. After that the new charger can and will take over.
The battery won't be as good as new, but it's still of some use.

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SamP


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PersonMonty15
26/5/2022 at 9:41am
 Location: London
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Depends on how long it sat at the extreme discharge voltage, but every chance even though you've revived the voltage/charge level it's severely damaged and has very little capacity left! It may be a chocolate teapot, all the outward appearance, but no practical use.

Failing a proper battery condition tester, try turning on as many 12v devices as possible (lights, heater fan, water pump etc.) and watch the voltage, if you can see it reducing significantly before your very eyes it's buggered, if it holds fairly steady for half an hour, you've still got some useful life in it. But don't expect it to be as good as it was before.


PersonCrypto
26/5/2022 at 4:57pm
 Location: Sussex
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Absolutely right Monty15.

charging and holding at 13.7V or whatever does not tell you how much capacity you have. I have experience of that by recovering a battery with a dumb charger first and then a smart. Thought I had cracked it. 2 days in to off grid the battery was flat again, normally lasts 7 days.


PersonJTQU
27/5/2022 at 4:56pm
 Location: Hampshire
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Using the mover or quite probably not able to for very long, is another pretty effective and searching test of the battery's state of health. ie not holding the volts up under a decent load.

As said, simply statically holding 13 odd volts is no indicator of energy storage capacity, just it is holding all the energy it, now, can, which could be precious little compared to what the label might imply.


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PersonChalkie0456
11/7/2022 at 4:01pm
 Location: Staffs
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Well I used a smart charger and was really chuffed it was holding 13.5v.
I took the van to Dover and by the time I got there the battery was as flat as a witches boob. I was going to use it on a couple of Aires on my way down to Aveyron, but this did not happen and we stopped at a couple of sites with hook up's. It was inconvenient but didn't let it worry us.
I just thought I would clear up from my initial message.
Chris

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if your car could travel at the speed of light and you turned on your lights what would happen?


PersonCrypto
15/7/2022 at 4:25pm
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Sorry that you lost your battery but your update may help others.


Personbilly
via mobile 15/7/2022 at 5:06pm
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If you store caravan unused over winter for a few months then remove battery & keep it at home. Charge it once a month. If you leave battery in caravan uncharged for months it will probably be dead.

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Every day should be a holiday!


Personbigtimz
via mobile 24/10/2022 at 1:00pm
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I have a CTEK charger that i bought about 5 years ago, its been used on my car and caravan batteries with great success particularly my car battery.


PersonAndy Higham
25/10/2022 at 9:38am
 Location: Bolton Lancs
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I always fit a 2 way battery isolator switch. Common to the battery, one way to the van and the other to the motor mover.
This gives me choice of power to the van, power to the mover, power to both or completely off.
Van chargers and motor mover controllers have slight parasitic losses that can flatten a battery over time, turn the isolator to OFF and the battery will retain a high charge when left for weeks


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PersonChalkie0456
29/10/2022 at 2:54pm
 Location: Staffs
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Thanks for your updates.
I have now bought a new van and it has a motor mover and a solar panel so hopefully with the panel I won't need to take the battery out and charge.
Or will I.

-------------
if your car could travel at the speed of light and you turned on your lights what would happen?


Personnavver
29/10/2022 at 8:15pm
 Location: West country
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If it's a properly installed system, you should be able to rely on the solar keeping the battery in good condition. I've got a Truma controller plus 100watt panel and this is all I need. Can use mover a fair bit in winter and a couple of days later its fully charged. The controller works like a smart charger and the battery is now over 6 years old and still going strong.


PersonPaul_B
30/10/2022 at 8:32am
 Location: Yorkshire
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I would still check the battery even with solar, some find its ok, however when the sun is low my caravan is in the shadow from houses add to that cloudy days and I find that the battery needs charging even with my 100w panel.

It'll not be long before I plug the caravan in so it takes care of itself and the controller will be able to do its thing.


Personnavver
30/10/2022 at 7:31pm
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Ahh, mine faces south so your shadow is probably the difference.



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