Battery HELP!!!

Rooper
I have not said to jump start his vehicle .I said to connect as I did to control a lower amp to help not cook the battery and blow it up  .a correct leisure  battery has different plates and lower cranking amps than a vehicle and I have not said to start the vehicle .when so called leisure batteries have been test are no different to a vehicle battery in side just lower cranking amps.
 when you send a battery back for warranty they put charge back in the battery how I have said and bring completely flat batteries back to life before you get any warranty claim
the battery will only charge to the lower amp battery and will notfully charge in this case the vehicle back to full so would need to be charge by it self to get full amps back in this battery

Hi Glyne,

If I can get back to the simplest of recommendations:

1. Don't worry about a good-quality modern intelligent battery charger "cooking" a flat but recoverable battery while charging. It won't. You don't need to connect other batteries in parallel to help out.

2. Don't connect a fully charged leisure battery to a flat engine battery, because if you do, high currents will flow that may damage it.

Hopefully that makes sense to you?

There is of course another potential problem with a flat battery and an intelligent charger: if it is very flat, the charger may refuse to charge it. But perhaps best to cross that bridge if we come to it?

Roopert
I have been charging batteries back to full power as I have said for the last 40 years in the motor trade and not blown any batteries up or damaged any ecu and is how I was trained by experts .
if intelligent chargers did not put out   high amps would not be blowing the fuse as people keep doing and is going to happen a lot more with all the campers parked up

I can give a couple of examples:

1. The alternator on a van is rated at maybe 180 Amps, and it's common for the alternator to put at least 40 Amps into a battery for a sustained length of time after an engine start in cold weather. People don't generally worry about the alternator "cooking" their engine battery.

2. A typical midrange intelligent battery charger - such as the CTEK MXS 5.0 - is current-limited to a maximum of 5 Amps at any stage of battery charging. Why would anyone worry that it is going to "cook" their engine battery unless they put another battery in parallel with it?

I'm not sure that debating this further is going to help the OP at all. I just didn't want there to be any misunderstanding: You should never connect a full leisure battery across a flat engine battery.

Hi,

Thank you for the warm welcome to this useful forum!

Unfortunately, I left our 2016 Warwick XL for 4 weeks without charging it - big mistake!

A few days ago, I went outside on to the drive to hear a loud ticking noise coming from the front of the van.

The vehicle battery was unable to start the engine. Having read the manual thoroughly, I realised that I could charge the vehicle battery only by switching it on the Sargent control panel.

So far, so good and the vehicle battery was charged enough to start the engine. I then switched back the charging to the default leisure and vehicle battery setting.

Now, when there is no mains electricity, the Sargent panel is indicating that the vehicle battery is well charged but the leisure battery is completely flat. Also, the step will not come out.

When I put the mains electricity on, the leisure battery shows it to be fully charged as is the vehicle battery and the step works....

I am assuming that the leisure battery may be flat?

Could there be a problem with the control panel?

Any suggestions are very welcome and thanks in anticipation,
Tim

When you connect the mains it will always show the leisure battery as fully charged. You only get a corre t reading when the EHU is disconnected and the engine isn't running. Your leisure battery may be flat but connecting the EHU will charge it. However if it has been flat for a long time, especially in freezing weather it may not hold a charge for very long.

Tint
Have you got any volts for the leisure battery if not sounds like the fuse that is fitted close to the battery normally 20 amp
Can you test the leisure battery it’s self with a volt meter

If the voltage meter reads low when EHU is disconnected, then the battery is low. If it reads high when the EHU is connected that's normal. If the fuse has blown it wouldn't read anything in either state.

steamdrivenandy wrote:If the fuse has blown it wouldn't read anything in either state.

Unfortunately that's not always true. On my (non A/S) conversion, if the fuse next to leisure battery has blown and the EC328 is turned on with the charger on its default setting (to charge the leisure battery) then the battery will show as "Good" - because the charger holds the unconnected battery terminal at 13.8 Volts.

You may also find that the situation can be made very very confusing if it's daylight and there is a solar panel in the equation, because that can make the battery voltage appear to be good even with the fuse blown, depending on where the panel is connected. I know from personal experience, as I was the one being confused by it!

Tim
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This shows the controller still working with no battery fuse
Even when the solar is going to the vehicle battery as you can see in the yellow sun to show which battery it is powering a v or a l

I don't think TT mentioned anything about a solar panel being involved.

Streamdrivenandy
if the leisure battery is that flat will more than likely blow the fuse as the charger is 25 amp and the fuse only 20 amp in the ec500 control only has 20 amp fuse fitted for leisure and vehicle battery as well .
I was showing in my picture the control panel works with a blow fuse at the leisure battery feed wire

Apologies - that was my fault! I only mentioned solar as an example of a case where it can get more complicated. The OP (as far as I can recall) has not mentioned solar as part of the issue.

No, there’s no solar involved. Still waiting for my battery charger too

It’s now staring to drain my leisure battery, even being on hook up 6 hours a day. 

I think it’s going to be two new battery’s.

Update Time. 

I want to thank everyone for there help and advice

Sorry if I caused any arguments. 

After the purchase of the smart charger, it has successfully repaired the battery and maintained it. Best £20 I ever spent and with the help of the post about the solar charger, it’s maintaining it further. 

The leisure battery since being disconnected has maintained a full charge and I’ve also boosted this with the smart charger too. 

Solar charger was a bargain thank you as was the smart charger. 

Thank you guys so much, I’m sure more will suffer with this * Inappropriate Word * going on around us. 

Everyone take care folks.

One reliable way to charge a totally dead battery is to connect another 12v battery to it in parallel. Leave them both for an hour or so and the good battery will have fed sufficient charge into the previously flat one, for you to be able to begin charging that one with a modern battery charger. See this you tube video. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Cheers, but this little £20 smart charger off eBay seems to have save the day. And I may even mount it in the van so I haven’t gotta disconnect the battery’s.

justlooking
well done for the for the you tube clip this shows you can do as I had said and been trained to do in the trade