Symbol leisure battery discharging!

My first post to this group. Having owned a 2014 symbol now for all of 4 weeks we are trying to get to understand its foibles!! Our big concern at the moment is that with nothing turned on the leisure battery is showing a discharge rate of -0.5a. This seems to equate to a 10% reduction in charge each day as shown on the console in the van. This seems extreme to us and as we hope to be off mains power some of the time makes us wonder how long the leisure battery would keep us running. Between readings I even turn off the console display. If I use the shutdown button on the control unit, which I understand ensures nothing is connected to the leisure battery, the console shows the battery maintaining a constant unchanging %. So why am I losing 10% battery charge each day....... Is this normal and what other people see? Has anyone else experienced similar? We owned a caravan many years ago and certainly didn't see this with that leisure battery. We are keen to find an answer. Thanks for any help you can provide.

I don't know exactly what power control system you have fitted, but it's probably a Sargent control panel, and the current monitor on these is notorious for drifting out of calibration, resulting in a false reading.

If you search this forum you should find the procedure for recalibration of your particular Sargent model and, once done, all should be back to normal - until it drifts out of calibration again. Note that the recalibration only (in my experience) affects the current monitor. The voltage monitor doesn't ever drift (in my experience).

Ignoring the panel and doing independent monitoring I've learned that when the van is parked it's important to switch off the master switch on the trip panel, otherwise the batteries get quite low within two weeks.

Thanks for the rapid responses! I will investigate the recalibration to see if that helps as well as experiment with turning off the master switch and see how that goes. Thanks again.

Small updates with intermittent testing over Christmas. I have now re calibrated the control panel and the ammeter reading is now around -0.1 with the control panel lit but not turned on. Battery charge shows as 100% and doesn't change over a few days but I notice the voltage reading still goes down, looking up the percentage charge equivalent this appears to still be losing around 10% each day. Using the shutdown button to isolate all the electrics it looks like the battery is holding charge when isolated so I guess it is some device draining the owner when the system is on. Further investigate require......... Start pulling fuses might be a good plan to try and narrow down which piece of fitted kit is responsible for the drain.

Sounds like a plan. Good luck and keep us updated when you find the culprit.

Have you got a solar panel?

Presumably not or you wouldn't have the problem.

Well worth considering as you want to spend time off hook-up, even though it would obviously treat the symptoms of your current concerns (ghastly pun intended! ) rather than the cause. When summer camping without a solar panel, your battery would last around 4 days with care, but with just an 80 watt panel you could carry on almost indefinitely.

You may not have a problem as such, though it's obviously worth investigating to be sure. Many people report that their batteries need charging every three or four weeks to keep them topped up - often shorter times than that. The vehicle battery is the one to worry about - if that goes flat you are going nowhere!!

With a solar panel fitted, plus a Battery Master (or similar gadget) you could forget about both batteries while the van is not in use, as they would both be fully maintained automatically.

Hope this helps.

Tomorrow, will order replacement engine battery. Obviously still concerned as to why it failed despite 80w solar panel. Also how failure has interrupted EC300 control panel that seems dormant. When the RAC man jump started the engine the panel did display 'habitation battery LOW' but confirmed solar panel was charging 2.6amps even on a cloudy day. His computer showed one of the cells was dead and output of just 1v. Out of curiosity, will examine old battery to see if the dead cell is lacking electrolyte but what are the chances of that? Hoping that to be the cause rather than some other cataclysmic failure to the mystifying electronics system.

I must confess we like the idea of using the smaller CL sites once the weather warms up, with or without electric hook up so we have been considering getting a solar panel fitted! Until then we will stay on electric hook up and use that to power the heating   Hopefully fitting a solar panel is a fairly straight forward process, I wonder if people have recommended suppliers / fitters for these? 

As to my original idea of pulling fuses, so far it seems fairly inconclusive! It may well be just one of those things......! Off to Devizes this weekend for our second trip away (with electric hook up!!) 

As a follow up to a question mojo asked ages ago and I completely missed, the control panel is a Sargent EC480. Interestingly during this process as well as calibrating the system I discovered the set up menu when you press the up and down arrows simultaneously on the Logo screen. This lets you tell the system what power your leisure battery is and how much charge i.e. 100% is in the leisure battery at that moment in time (as well as many other things)! Also, as my step button became stuck (another common problem it would appear?) I discovered on this site how to free that, then reset the Step time setting using this set up menu. Happy to say that now works OK!

Dworboys wrote:I discovered the set up menu when you press the up and down arrows simultaneously on the Logo screen.

Just a (probably unnecessary) warning there: Don't let curiosity get the better of you. I know from personal experience that it's possible to lock up the system by going for the "what does this option do?" trial and error approach! I happened to be wild camping miles from anywhere and it was after dark, and the result was a continuous over-temperature alarm from the panel, which was very inconvenient as I had to pull all the stuff out of the back to disconnect the leisure battery (the van was almost new so I hadn't at that stage marked where the main battery fuses were). I should know better - but I had a bad combination of boredom and curiosity at the time... Anyway - if you don't know what any of the setup options do, I can recommend not trying them!

Sargent technical support are available on the phone or internet.
I expect they have heard all the panel problems over the years.
These panels are widely used.

regards

Micky

Haha! I don't think any warnings are unnecessary! I can always choose to ignore them at my peril but at least I go into it with my eyes a little wider open!

Where's your sense of adventure?

A man should always fiddle with all the options resolutely NOT referring to the instruction manual, until he has satisfied himself that it must have been put together by total idiots as it's impossible to fathom out!!

However it can lead to a chronic earache...