Caravan battery. what should you do with your leisure battery?

Caravan battery. What should you do with your leisure battery to keep it in the best condition? your caravan battery should be a leisure battery, there are different types of caravan battery from Lead acid leisure battery to Gel leisure battery.
All leisure batteries should be maintained and we give some tips on how to get the best out of your caravan battery and how to make sure it lasts
you should use a charger similar to this: www.amazon.co....
The NCC Verified leisure battery scheme in more detail: www.thencc.org...
#leisurebattery #caravanbattery

[@weekendcaravaner7072]

I use a DollaTek 12V Car Battery Monitor Tester bluetooth 4.0 Device for 6V-20V Vehicle £22 on Amazon. Works great 👍🏻

[@hackettdavid]

Hi have you got a link please

[@CaravanningwiththeCoxs]

Great video Mark👍 I hope it will help others.

[@Coffeevaners]

Great video. Thanks for information. 👍👍👍 Ally and Alan

[@jowder22]

Hi good morning thanks for explaining, could you please advice or telling us the size of the battery how many battery ammber? Ex 100 -80- 70-or 50 amp thanks again

[@markwebber1189]

So what's the use of having an indicator showing green on battery 2. The battery is showing less than 11v and is on green! The battery on my van was showing green but after just one day on site with electric hook up and a factory fitted solar panel on the roof, a warning message came up on the control panel saying the battery was in a critical condition and no 12v would work! I went out and bought a new battery and everything was back working again. I then put the old battery on charge and it is now showing over 13v on my digital tester and the light is now brighter green. Hopefully I've caught it just in time, but still can't understand why it suddenly went so low. Batteries and the charging system are a minefield.

[@thecaravanplace]

Sounds like a digital meter would be better and more accurate reading

[@marraaman]

Can you tell me should the battery be on charge all the time while using the caravan?

[@thecaravanplace]

Yes while using it you can have it on chargd all the time. When not using it its then just best to keep it charged up once a month roughly.

[@davewallace5008]

I'm stuck; I fitted a leisure battery to my Avante 2006 model and now the 12V system is dead! It had not had a battery on it for several years from all accounts as I bought it second-hand. The 240V lights and sockets work but the 12V system is dead now. When I fitted the 110ah leisure battery, I was hoping to get all the 12V systems working, just in case the 240V packed up. However, when I looked at the fuseboard under the seat, I found the car/batt 15amp fuse blown, so I replaced it, but this had no effect, the 12V is dead. Is there a habitation relay on this caravan and if so where is it located? Someone said that it might have cut off the 12V system and is stuck or broken.

[@thecaravanplace]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2e0e6yljNqAiKs Try this, it may help with testing, there is normally a fuse at the back of the battery box. The relay is from the car side of electrics so plugging the grey or 13 pin plug in and trying the power from the car then disconnect will work the relay.

[@davewallace5008]

@@thecaravanplace That's the weird thing, there is no fuse at the back or under the seat, apart from the 12V fuse box that is. Someone mentioned the fridge, in that it does not work on 240 unless the 12V is also working, and it might have caused the problem when I hooked up the leisure battery. I have just had to send back a dead power supply that I purchased, well I assume it is dead. If I plug it into the mains socket using a standard plug with a 5amp fuse, should the 12V give off the voltage of 13.5/7 volts? This one gives zero, nothing at all and it does not make any sound whatsoever, my old one buzzed a little, only slight but it was definitely audible. One would think that hooking up a 12V appliance to the output would work, like my 12v kettle, but it did nothing, so I assume it was dead from the outset, plus the guy that sent it did not wrap it properly; it was in a thin cardboard box (think breakfast cereal) and a grey plastic wrapping, no polystyrene, nothing, so I assumed it had been thrown around and broke in transit.

[@thecaravanplace]

Sometimes they don't have a fuse at the back, I would trace the 12v wires from the battery into the caravan and check all the connections. Check every fuse in the panel. After that it would be stripping the main electrics box to check for wires, checking the charger and trace the 12v power to see where it gets to and where it stops. Might be a service centre job. Always remember to disconnect the mains power when testing the 12v system, battery can be left attached for the 12v power supply.

[@davewallace5008]

@@thecaravanplace So far I have determined that the new power supply I bought was dead, so it is going back and have purchased a BCA 20A, so will see what that does. The wires in the back of the fuse box are all sound and so are the fuses, apart from the alarm fuse it is not connected to anything at the back, but the fuse gives zero resistance reading. It is rather a bizarre problem in that everything was working perfectly until I hooked up the 110ah battery, this is when the car/batt fuse blew (15a) and took out the 12V. I will begin checking the wiring loom under the caravan going through every wire (12V) to see if there is a fusible link hidden under all that plastic tape. The consumer unit is fine and the 240V is working, I just hope that the power supply works when I get it and then I can trace something if need be. I was thinking of doing it the idle way - rigging the 12V plug up to my welder and cranking the amps to see if anything burns out but being on my own makes it a little too dodgy ;) I always isolate first as I once got bitten with a 3 phase supply and am lucky to be alive, since then I have always made sure I work safely.

[@stephenlewin135]

Hi just wondered if its ok to use a power bank i have a 800 watt aferiy and have been using a battery charger to try and top the battery whilst its in storage. I do this whilst the battery is still attached to the caravan. Is this ok or should i remove the battery to charge it up? Cheers steve

[@thecaravanplace]

Hi Stephen, I think it depends on the charger, in theory if it's a newish charger that is safe to use on vehicles without disconnecting the battery from the car then it should be OK. But It would be safer to disconnect from the caravan. It's possibly better to take it home if in a storage yard as it can be dangerous to leave unattended and may be against the storage terms and conditions. Worth just checking. 👍

[@maureenmcgrath4664]

TFS

[@hackettdavid]

Hi have you got any links for leisure battery chargers

[@thecaravanplace]

Most car battery chargers will do the job, Halford is pretty good if you tell them what it's for. Otherwise a bit of google search. I have no specific ones sorry.

[@robertcullen4595]

Hi when charging battery off electric hook up do you leave the battery on?

[@thecaravanplace]

Yes it can stay connected, the caravan charger will charge then when needed and once full charge it cuts out, so it can stay connected all the time.

[@robertcullen4595]

@@thecaravanplace I’m new to this!! I’ve the caravan connected too the house electric hook up and battery isn’t reading more than 10v on the panel. Is the battery completely dead if so what can I do? Thank you

[@robertcullen4595]

@@thecaravanplace I’ve left the battery on. While connected to the ehu. Do I leave the control panel switch on the battery or leave it off in the middle option. Thank you!

[@thecaravanplace]

If using the caravan then leave on, if not using it can be switched off, then after a week or 2 back on. But always on when using.

[@robertcullen4595]

@@thecaravanplace how long will it take for battery to charge through ehu? And when I switch on it’s at 10v will it rise the more I leave on the charge. Thanks for your help! I’m a newbie to all this 😭😂

[@matterhorn1975]

Mark, are leisure battery chargers different from a starter battery charger?

[@thecaravanplace]

They will normally have a boost and normal, if they have normal charge then its fine to use, the boost can be used to recover the battery if it's not holding charge, but if left too long, they can cook the battery too.