Charging question

Bought a 5 year old Symphony a couple of weeks ago and it has been sat on the drive as I have worked my way through the various user manuals. I am still unclear about the way the leisure battery and car battery charge. When I had it on hook up last week the control panel showed both batteries levels, the car was around 70 percent and the leisure battery higher. I went to drive it today and the car battery was completely dead. I presumed by connecting it up to hook up that would charge both batteries but this has not happened, it seems hook up only charges the leisure battery as the car battery remained dead. I have now had the car battery on my battery charger direct to the battery and it seems to be coming back to life. My questions are
Should hook up charge both batteries and I am correct in thinking that the car battery should not have run flat in the two weeks the vehicle has been on the drive given nothing that I am aware of was left on.
Apologies for my ignorance re-electrics it tends to baffle me!
Am I looking at a new car battery?
Many thanks:smile!:

Hi Dave
Don't know your model however, the on board charger can only charge one battery at a time, your control panel will scroll up or down to select the van battery.
A forum member with knowledge of your van will be on soon to help.
Boaby

The Symphony went out of production around the year 2000 so can't be 5 years old. Could you clarify what model you have so we can help you better.

[Following Paul's post, I'm guessing it must be a 5 year old Symbol rather than a Symphony...]

The unfortunate thing that makes it difficult to answer is that A/S changed what power control systems they used frequently, and the answer depends on which you have - but if you don't tell us we can only guess! It should tell you in your user manual which PSU and display panel you have.

However, it's likely that have either one of the simpler panels (EC155/50 or EC325 or EC328) or a more "high spec" one (EC400 or EC500). The clear difference between the two types is that when on EHU, the charger only charges the battery which is "selected". When you understand that, the user manual tells you everything you need to know - it's just a bit annoying that the manual leaves that one fact unstated!

If you have a higher spec model, the situation will be different (but I suspect you don't, as the user manual  usually explains charging in much better detail on those models).

What a lemon I am! -its a Symbol and the unit is the EC 480. I have found the user manual confusing as it also mentions an EC500 and shows a diagram which I'm guessing is an alternative model. Sorry about the confusion folks I had just been in the sea surfing for a couple of hours and still had brain freeze. Thank you for your tolerance and replies.

EC480 is the control panel, I think. The PSU is the EC500. If you have that and the control panel is set to "smart" both batteries are monitored and the PSU switches if a battery is low, when on EHU or solar panel charging. See

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

davecook wrote:My questions are
Should hook up charge both batteries and I am correct in thinking that the car battery should not have run flat in the two weeks the vehicle has been on the drive given nothing that I am aware of was left on.

I have the same EC480 (control panel) and EC500 (PSU) on my van. They are still the current models. I too needed some time to aclimatise to it.
My vehicle battery will last more than 2 weeks without EHU so you are correct, yours maybe in poor health and will now be damaged if completely discharged. You can recover it but it will never be the same once fully discharged.
Or maybe you had some other discharge.

as an aside, try to not let either of the batteries fully discharge.

I would push the button (indicated in image below) until I see "Vehicle selected" and that should charge the vehicle battery to get your engine started. Leave the EC480 panel switched on.
EHU should charge both batteries so long as smart charging is setup (as has been said already I think) and the EC480/EC500 is left switched on.

Would be interesting to see an image of what your panel is showing.

This is the EC480 (not on EHU)


I recommend becoming aware of which battery you have selected to avoid inadvertently discharging the vehicle battery when wild camping.

Thank you so much Don will get on it today and will keep you updated on progress!!

Hi folks have followed your advice and have had the vehicle on EHU for a few hours with EC480 on vehicle selected and we have a result! Battery is charging and seems to be holding the charge. My follow up question is how do I know if smart charging is on? Sorry if this seems a bit basic.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

top of page 2, right hand side

remember to keep EC480 switched on, once its off then leisure battery only

Many thanks really helpful.

Note to Mods. It might be useful to add the link to the Smart Charging Fact sheet?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Okay more questions if you don't mind. I have had the van on EHU for 24 hours now with the vehicle battery selected. My levels are showing green for both batteries vehicle at 13.6v and leisure at 13.5v but the AH column on the leisure battery display is red showing 0 percent. reading the manual that means even though the leisure battery is reading high its actual capacity to run for any period of time is poor which is not good. Am I making the correct assumption or am I interpreting the manual incorrectly? I would like to know as I can contact Marquis tomorrow as we've only had the van a few weeks and would like to follow it up if we have a poor battery. Many thanks again.

Should also add it was still on EHU when I took those readings.

If still on hook up the readings you are getting are the voltage being put out by the charger. You need to switch off hook up, let batteries stand for couple of hours, then take readings.

Thank you Paul will do it now.

davecook wrote:My levels are showing green for both batteries vehicle at 13.6v and leisure at 13.5v but the AH column on the leisure battery display is red showing 0 percent.

It is getting a little complicated now, the AH reading is not a reading or measurement from the battery. It is purely a calculation based on battery size, the charging current and the current drawn from the battery and as such is reliant upon a correctly calibrated ammeter and the correct sized battery being programmed into the control panel.  
see here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is how mine looks
on leisure



on vehicle

Thanks Dom I took the van off the EHU 3 hours ago and the levels are now Vehicle yellow at 12V and Leisure green at 12.5V but AH is still red at 0 percent! So doesn't seem great!

I will try and recalibrate next.Thanks again

Fully charged should read 12.6v . At 12 it is totally flat and not accepting/holding charge. Check again in the morning to see if leisure is holding.

Having read the instructions it does seem complicated. Am I correct in assuming that when I reset on the control panel I am setting the start point against my existing battery? which is 12.5 percent but not 13v as on the panel ? . Sounds like a call to Marquis tomorrow might be a good idea.

Can you read the vehicle battery voltage direct? if so what is it. Put the headlights on and how does the voltage react?

This morning the Vehicle battery was reading 11.8V which means its not holding a charge I believe. When I put the headlights on nothing happens to the Voltage the ampage just reads minus 3.8. Will phone Marquis I think.

AutoSleepyDon wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

top of page 2, right hand side

remember to keep EC480 switched on, once its off then leisure battery only

Hello Don. Do you mean from your post that if Dave does not have his 480 control panel switched on his batteries will not charge up??

From the link.

For Smart Charging to operate the PSU must be turned on (Shutdown Button in the “IN” position) and the
relevant options programmed (Smart is “ON” as default)
The smart feature can be overridden by selecting manually from the control panel at any time the battery to
which you would like the charge to be diverted to.