Leisure battery

Hi all, our Kingham AS is plugged in and should be charging. Yesterday the leisure battery was showing 14.1. I bought a 12V 130AH LEOCH ADVENTURER LEISURE BATTERY and fitted it 2 weeks ago. Surely it should remain around 14.1 when plugged in? Also the AH display is now showing 49 % in the yellow.

Trevharvey1966 wrote:Hi all, our Kingham AS is plugged in and should be charging. Yesterday the leisure battery was showing 14.1. I bought a 12V 130AH LEOCH ADVENTURER LEISURE BATTERY and fitted it 2 weeks ago. Surely it should remain around 14.1 when plugged in? Also the AH display is now showing 49 % in the yellow.

I don't understand the question. Do you mean "surely it should NOT remain around 14.1V"?

I'd agree that after 2 weeks of charging it should be showing around 13.6V, because by then it should be on maintenance (float) charge. But if you have just plugged it in, it's quite possible that it will sit at 14.something volts for a while as the charger does initial tests on it. It should then - assuming it is actually fully charged -  drop into "float" mode, holding it at around 13.6 volts.

The Ah display will probably show an incorrect reading unless you have updated the battery capacity setting to show the capacity of the new battery - but that of course will depend on whether the new battery has a different capacity than the one it replaced.

Once charged and still connected to smart charger the voltage will drop to a float value of around 13.5v.
I am not familiar with your AH display but suspect it requires some kind of re calibration routine having replaced battery.Hopefully someone will be along to guide you.

Is it an EC700 Sargent system? Did you replace the original leisure battery or install a second, if the later how did you wire it in and what is the original battery?

Hi no EC500.

Trevharvey1966 wrote:Hi no EC500.

Can I ask the answer to Peters other question.... ”did you replace the original leisure battery or install a second”.


I ask as I’m looking to replace/upgrade my relatively new leisure battery which doesn’t hold charge as well as expected, I have a feeling it wasn’t properly maintained while in the dealers showroom.

Same scenario, not holding charge and original battery which was only 90 AH. Upgraded to single 130AH. Seems to be sorted now I have changed settings.

I have two 100 ah under the drivers seat. Alpha batteries supplied

1

Trevharvey1966 wrote:Same scenario, not holding charge and original battery which was only 90 AH. Upgraded to single 130AH. Seems to be sorted now I have changed settings.

Hi Trevharvey1966 may I ask was the 90ah battery fitted as standard from new on the Kingham

Dbvwt wrote:

Trevharvey1966 wrote:Hi no EC500.

Can I ask the answer to Peters other question.... ”did you replace the original leisure battery or install a second”.


I ask as I’m looking to replace/upgrade my relatively new leisure battery which doesn’t hold charge as well as expected, I have a feeling it wasn’t properly maintained while in the dealers showroom.

Before replacing your leisure battery get one of these......

I have one and its amazing. I had two car batteries, one was down to 1.2 v (not 12!), had little hope for it, left it on pulse repair mode for a couple of days, then, also, charged it (not really necessary as the pulse repair also charges it). That was months ago, I checked its voltage then re-fitted to my Volvo, been in there ever since!
A neighbour has a Peugeot Boxer van, quite newish, but partner had been ill and it was neglected. I offered to help and measured the battery voltage first, it was 10.8. A day on the pulse repair then another 2 charging its as good as new. Their other vehicle a Nissan Navaro, was similar, but down to 9v, same as above, now sitting at 12.7v.

Is this the Dandelionsky charger on Amazon at £31.99
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I am currently looking for a new charger and there seem to be lots around that look similar.

Hi Ron

That one in your link is identical to mine, except I paid circa £19 incl p&p.
Sadly I can't recall where from, however, as you say, they're all over the place now.
Either way it is a superb device, this morning a neighbours lawn mower wouldn't start so I removed the battery and measured its voltage, it was 2.9v.
Trying it as a pure and simple charger it wouldn't even start charging, so I gave it an hour on pulse repair, then re checked the voltage, it was 12.1v. It is now charging on the normal charging regime and taking 7.5A, once its full it'll switch off.

It's called FOXSUR

Raked around Paypal and found it was supplied by....

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Cost £15:99


Hope this helps

Thanks for that. I have checked out the Foxsur but cannot find any that don't have to be shipped from China. Prices are much higher than when you got yours. Cheapest I can find from UK is £32.
Being able to get a totally flat battery back is vital. Ii have a Lidl smart charger but it won't touch a dead battery so your response is really valuable Thank again

As others have said here before (and which you may already know) you can "jump start" a dead starter battery with another engine battery, as long as you're careful.

Ideally you want to arrange for the connection to be away from the batteries, so connecting positives first and then taking common connections to the chassis last is best, using decent heavy duty jump start cables.

If the battery is in any state to be recovered, you should really only need a minute or so of connection - that would probably get the battery up to the 10 volt level, from where the LIDL charger should be able to take over.

I suspect that part of the reason for the price increase is that the top-name brands such as CTEK have ramped their prices a lot recently - the last CTEK I bought was under £30, but they are now double that!

inspiredron wrote:Thanks for that. I have checked out the Foxsur but cannot find any that don't have to be shipped from China. Prices are much higher than when you got yours. Cheapest I can find from UK is £32.
Being able to get a totally flat battery back is vital. Ii have a Lidl smart charger but it won't touch a dead battery so your response is really valuable Thank again

Ron, I have one of the Lidl chargers too and it does recover a flat battery eventually down to around 8v  But amongst others I have a 45 year old Halfords charger with a good old step down transformer ie no fancy smart charging! Connect it for 5 minutes and this puts an initial kick into the battery and the Lidl charger then takes over quite happily  as it sees the minimum voltage required for it to be happy.

inspiredron wrote:Thanks for that. I have checked out the Foxsur but cannot find any that don't have to be shipped from China. Prices are much higher than when you got yours. Cheapest I can find from UK is £32.
Being able to get a totally flat battery back is vital. Ii have a Lidl smart charger but it won't touch a dead battery so your response is really valuable Thank again

No Probs Ron

To recap and update......
The lawn tractor battery I charged yesterday, before any connection to the charger was showing 2.95v. I connected my charger (as above) to it and it refused to even start, as would be the case with most "normal" chargers.
I set it to pulse repair and left it for an hour. Disconnected it then waited 20 mins. Battery voltage was then 12.0v. Re-connected and set as a normal charger. Immediately started charging at 7.5A (its max I have seen so far, the 8A must be nominal) with an increasing charge voltage, eventually reaching 14.4v, normal IMHO.
It then took 6 hours to get to the point where the charger switched itself off, indicating a full battery. Disconnected then waited 20 mins, battery voltage then was 13.8 (not sustainable on a nominal 12v battery). This morning it now reads 12.9v, so am happy it has now fully recovered. I shall start the tractor with it soon to see if the capacity is still there, voltage is one thing, capacity is quite another!

Try the guys email I sent you, it is UK based and that's where mine came from (although undoubtedly made in China!)

Bw
IanH

My personal view with respect to vehicle starter and leisure batteries is that I want them to perform reliably 'on demand' so after the warranty period has expired, at the first sign of reduction in performance or failure, I replace and wouldn't think of trying to refresh until they fail again.

I do have a basic 6A 12v charger as the second car is mainly used for local trips (a couple of miles) and therefore does need an occasional maintenance charge.

IMHO the best option for any MH is 80+w of solar on the roof connected to a dual battery solar controller to both batteries.
Lead acid batteries are at their happiest when full to the brim!