Auto Sleeper Duetto leisure battery

Have just discovered that the previous owner of my van had replaced the leisure battery with a normal car battery!!!! I wondered why the battery had drained so quickly! My question is; would this have harmed the system in anyway as I have a problem with the green charger light on the Zig unit staying on all the time. It makes no difference if I plug into the mains and the battery will not not charge up. Could this be because it is the wrong type of battery? Any advice on a replacement battery. I have found one here in France for 109€. Guaranteed for 4 years. 100ah. Plus free delivery!! BTW, the Zig unit is a X-3. Thanks in advance for your welcome comments. (It's still sunny here!!!)

Starter batteries are designed for very heavy discharges for short bursts, leisure batteries for relative low discharges over longer periods, &

therefore require different charging characteristics, HOWEVER, it WILL work, but will run flat sooner & have a shorter life, I imagine the on-board charger

will charge it, but not correctly.

My Landrover huge 1000 cca battery failed this week & I'm using my old leisure battery on it until the new replacement arrives next week, totally the wrong

battery, but its an emergency & a big lump to crank as well!!

iceman wrote:Have just discovered that the previous owner of my van had replaced the leisure battery with a normal car battery!!!!

When I got our first van, it didn't have a leisure battery. I fitted a normal car battery and it did the job until we sold the van 5 years later.

I wondered why the battery had drained so quickly! My question is; would this have harmed the system in anyway as I have a problem with the green charger light on the Zig unit staying on all the time.

I think the Duetto has a similar setup to the Symphony. I have a button I can push which activates the water level gauge and the battery condition meter (red or green LED) there is also a square green light which indicates the the battery charger is on when on EHU.
Is your Zig panel like this? If so, the green light is just to show that the charger is on, it's not an indication of the battery condition. The green or red LEDs are for battery condition and if it lights up green then it's OK. Only if it lights up red should you worry.

Frank

My Transit-based van conversion was fitted by AS (or more likely by Ford) with 2 vehicle batteries from new, because it had only one previous owner, who said that the batteries were the originals. They were marked as Ford make, and were identical.

It's fine for me, as I seldom stay anywhere without EHU and don't use much power (no telly). As long as you only partially discharge it, a vehicle battery is fine, and it has the advantage that you can jump start the vehicle with the second battery without worrying about damaging it - though as others have stated, it's not optimised for leisure use.

Whoa there!

Before everyone goes away and starts spending mega-bucks on "deep cycle" and/or "leisure" batteries let's look at the ordinary lead-acid battery.

"Yes." it will be damaged by dropping the voltage too low (I understand that below 10.4 volts the plates start to buckle) but it will operate in accordance with its design from "fully charged" (usually up to 14 volts) all the way down to the 10.4 volt level.

Most batteries carry two bits of information.

1. The "maximum discharge rate"; which is the rate at which power may be taken without damaging the battery. This is for when you are using the battery for starting an engine. A starter motor, under load, can pull hundreds of amps for the very short period that it takes to start an engine. It is an irrelevant figure when using the battery as a "leisure battery".

2. The available "amp hours" (Ah); which indicates how long the battery will supply power under constant drain conditions. I use a Bosch 70 amp hour battery on "Petal". This means that if I switch on a 12 watt light bulb pulling one ampere per hour (amps = watts divided by volts) the battery will be down to the minimum voltage after 70 hours. (i.e. nearly three days!)

For 12 volts my "main user" is always the digital satellite receiver and the TV. The receiver has a "low voltage alarm" that kicks in before the dreaded 10.4 volts so my battery is protected.

I have only been using MH's for a year but we lived on a boat with a similar system for eight years. The "leisure battery" (a 110Ah Bosch) lasted seven years before it gave up the ghost. Even then I blame myself because I left a gas detector with a 0.25 amp hour drain switched on for three months whilst we were away!

So, in synopsis, look after an ordinary lead-acid battery and it will give sterling service for many years.

Best regards,

So it seems I am okay using the existing battery until I get a new leisure battery so thanks for all your help and comments. I still have a problem with the green light on the Zig unit staying on even though I have isolated the 12v system and I am not on an EHU! It is the same unit as you describe Frank so maybe you have a suggestion. Is the Zig unit --ackered or maybe it just a wiring fault. If so, any suggestions on how to test the unit? We normally stay on sites with EHU so not too serious at the moment but I would like the facility to recharge the battery without having to run the engine if possible. Thanks again. (Just 32 degrees today!!!)

The panel over the back doors is really only a glorified switch panel. Without looking at the wiring diagram, as far as I know, the green light is just an indicator to show that the charger is getting power.

I'll dig out the wiring diagram tomorrow.

Frank

I've been looking at the wiring diagram (for Symphony) and the square green light is, as I thought, just an indicator to say that the battery charger is on. It's fed by a red wire from terminal 5 on the Zig battery charger to terminal 1 on the switch panel.

All wires from the battery charger carry 12v and a twin core cable carries mains voltage from the RCDs to the charger.

If the green light is on when you are not connected to an EHU then obviously this light is picking up 12v from somewhere, it could be acting as a path to earth for something else or there could be a fault in the charger.
You need to systematically check everything.

HTH
Frank

Frank, Have disconnected the charger light red wire from terminal 5 on the X-3 so will see if that stops the battery draining and an electrician friend is going to check out all the wiring and attachments on Thursday so will let you know how I get on. Thanks again.

VERDICT; Battery charger ** !!!! Do I need to replace it with a Zig X-3 or is there an alternative? Thanks in anticipation.

I think that the X3 is obsolete and the replacement is the X70. Couldn't say for certain though.

Frank

Hi Frank is correct the replacement for the x3 is the x70 had to fit one in my Trophy
vwt4

Replacement X70 VERY expensive!!!!! Can I bypass the charger in the meantime by joining the positives and negatives together where they went into the charger as I seem to have some leakage there due to the faulty charger? I can always carry a battery charger with me if I need to charge the 2nd battery when on EHU for the time being. Am going to try and find a replacement from a caravan breakers. Thanks again for your help.

Hi
not sure about joining wires etc, cheapest x70 I have seen is £114 from O,Leary motorhomes, I paid £149 for mine, maybe someone else on the forum can help re joining wiring
vwt4
mike

Another member (brizy) has found someone to repair his heater unit.
He may be able to repair your charger?

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PB

iceman wrote:Can I bypass the charger in the meantime by joining the positives and negatives together where they went into the charger as I seem to have some leakage there due to the faulty charger?

If it were my van I might try it, but there's no way I'm going to advise you to do this.

Frank

Has anyone fitted an alternative to a Zig or is it necessary to fit the same? There are plenty of motorhome battery chargers on the market a lot cheaper than Zig which I presume will do the same job.

I have an Autosleeper Trident, 54 plate, and recently my leisure battery packed up. That too was a normal car battery. Discussing it with a friend who drives a Murvi, he said he had found the same thing with his. He had approached Murvi who had told him that, depending on what the leisure battery was needed to power, in some cases, a normal battery would be the better choice.