Dead or Flat Batteries

Hi this is our first winter with Etty our Duetto. We hadn't used her for a few weeks and then found our main battery was flat as a pancake !! Is this what would normally happen if laid up for a month or is it a sign of an old battery? Would be grateful for any advice about keeping batteries in good condition.
June

It can happen. All depends what items you have that cause a constant drain on the battery. If you have an alarm/immobiliser that will drain it and so will a radio (the station memory features cause a drain as they need power to maintain the memory. Several of us use a dashboard solar charger which can be plugged into cigar lighter socket if this is permanently live or by crocodile clips direct to the battery, but get one of at least 2.4w output or you won't be replacing as much power as you take out. If you can get mains hook-up to the van you can connect a normal battery charger perhaps once a week for an overnight charge. Better still is to use the van, saves everything else seizing up at the same time.

Could be either / or.

Certainly worth a full charge up and then monitor.
Do you know how old the battery is? Sometimes there are date stamps on the battery itself.

Personally I always start up every week if it's not being used.

PB

My battery will not start the van after more than a two week rest without charging. Mainly because of the current draw from the alarm.

Brod.

Thanks you for replys.
I can't see how old the battery is but know it was laid up a long time before we bought it so maybe oldish.
When on electric hook up does that charge both batteries up? Also if you start the engine does it charge battery while stationary or do you need to be actually driving for it to charge?
Thanks for any help
June

Joony wrote:
When on electric hook up does that charge both batteries up? Also if you start the engine does it charge battery while stationary or do you need to be actually driving for it to charge?

The hook up only charges the leisure battery but when the engine is running both batteries are charged (and the leisure battery is disconnected from the living area). You'll find the wiring diagram in the handbook if you have one. Driving it will be better than leaving it ticking over because the charge rate will be higher but it will charge to some extent on tickover.
If you want to charge the vehicle battery at home you'll need to use an extra battery charger of some form.

Brod.

Joony wrote: Hi this is our first winter with Etty our Duetto. We hadn't used her for a few weeks and then found our main battery was flat as a pancake !! Is this what would normally happen if laid up for a month or is it a sign of an old battery? Would be grateful for any advice about keeping batteries in good condition.
June

Hi Its a sign of an old battery,or you have a discharge.Have you an alarm?
I leave all my vehicles ,some with batteries connected,some disconnected for many months without ill effect.
Always have your battery fully charged before leaving the van for any considerable time.
A small cheap meter will be useful for checking.
Using the vehicle to get the oil hot is worth while, but short runs are not recommended.
regards
Mike

We can fit a niffty little box that diverts a charge from the leisure battery to the vehicle battery when the leisure battery is on charge. This means your vehicle battery is being topped up. Most engineers will fit you one and if your a good electrical DIYer then you can do it yourself.

ubuntu1 wrote:We can fit a niffty little box that diverts a charge from the leisure battery to the vehicle battery when the leisure battery is on charge. This means your vehicle battery is being topped up. Most engineers will fit you one and if your a good electrical DIYer then you can do it yourself.

Hi ubuntu1

Could you share the details of the nifty wee box with us?

Thanks

Possibly a reference to this:

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However, the cheapest I could find is not far short of £50. If you're running a feed from leisure to vehicle battery anyway, a simple changeover switch to swap the charger output from one battery to the other would be a lot cheaper (though of course not automatic)!

As someone pointed out on another thread, you can buy the device on Ebay for £47.50.

I'll bet Ubuntu is referring to this one, it seems to be the one the trade likes..

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I fit the one highlighted by mojo as a preference. UK company, well built product, water proof and just works.

Thanks for the info

Hi
Thank you for all your replies, we ended up getting the AA out they confirmed the the battery was naff they managed to get it started so we went straight off to get a new one and all was ok until today. As it was such a lovely day decided to go out in Etty as soon as we finished work bout 2pm, rushed around getting a few things together in and out, our dog Fina running in and out with us getting excited about going out, all seated ready to go and it wouldn't start. As we are not at all mechanically Minded we just didn't Know what was wrong so called the AA again. It turned out it was a bad battery connection nothing to do with the lad that fitted it but it showed up a problem. The AA man was brilliant and sorted it out for us so we did get out for a while and watched the sun go down. What a lovely day lets hope we get a lot more like it this year.

June

Glad you got sorted out and on the road again, was a lovely day today

Joony

Even though you bought a new battery and it starts ok, I would still consider putting it on charge so you will know that it's 'fully' charged.
Sometimes 'new' batteries sit around for a while!

PB