Advice please Flat engine battery (1 Viewer)

[kaybee]

Hi Folks
Had the motorhome on charge all day yesterday only to go out to it today and discover I have a flat engine battery. I mistakenly thought that the engine battery automatically charged up when I had it plugged in but it only charged the leisure batteries. I have now got it charging the engine battery only but I assume it will take a full day to charge. Question is can I start the engine whilst pluged into the mains or am I likely to blow the house electrics? Thank you

 

[tonka]

On some vans you cant start the engine while connected to mains..
In any case I would disconnect the EHU first...!!! But if the battery is that flat you might be best giving it a good charge anyway.

This might be a good investment.

 

[DanielFord]

As above, our van will not start when hooked up, alarm sounds and engine will not turn over.

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[Geo]

Mine will and it will let you drive off still plugged in

 

[TheCaller]

Question is can I start the engine whilst pluged into the mains or am I likely to blow the house electrics?

As a generality, I'd say it is always better not to try & start the engine while you have a mains charger in the process of charging that battery. At the very least, it's going to make the charger run at it's maximum output. Other than that, a decent charger shouldn't be damaged by doing so. I suppose an intelligent charger might be confused into thinking the battery was duff, but that would be fixed by turning the charger off & on again.

There is a possibility of blowing a fuse or tripping a cut-out if you are unlucky. If it does blow the house electrics then it has shown up a more serious problem altogether!

I'm assuming that you have a built in charger in the motorhome that you have to switch between charging the leisure batteries only or the starter battery only?

 

[Zepp]

Mine will and it will let you drive off still plugged in

And mine

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[Peter & Elaine]

And mine

and me

 

[DBK]

It shouldn't take all day to charge up enough to turn the engine over. A few hours should be enough but the battery works t be anywhere near fully charged so don't switch the engine off until you have driven for a few more hours.

However, worth investigating why the engine battery is flat. It may be faulty.

 

[golly]

Get one of these excellent bit of kit

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