Another charging question (1 Viewer)

[Spade]

Hi all
I'm back again after all the help that you gave on my last question on the electroblock charger
My question is do I leave the van plugged in to the mains all the time to keep the batteries topped up or will a certain amount of time plugged in before each trip do.
I'm not looking at it from the electricity usage point but from the best way to do it
I have two batteries,a 70 ah and a 110 ah. And the ebl 99 electroblock.

 

[Stealaway]

I have been told to not leave it on mains permanently but to monitor the battery voltages - I'm not convinced.
But now I have solar panels and they do all the charging, although I do turn them off for a few days when I think the batteries are fully loaded. I do check the voltages every few days.
I don't leave the alarm on as the van is quite secure where I park it.

 

[wizzer59]

You can leave it plugged in no problem I assume you don't have solar?

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[wizzer59]

Snap

 

[Spade]

I have a solar panel but the van is parked in a shed with no natural light.
The van is right next to the house so plugging and unplugging is not a problem.
I am just looking for an idea of time as such.
I don't want to go down the route of disconnecting batteries to be sure.

 

[TheCaller]

The mains charger in an EBL99 is designed to turn itself down to float charge level once the batteries are fully charged. So the batteries should be fine if you leave it plugged in.

There is a school of thought that suggests that the lifetime of the charger will be reduced if it's left on permanently. I've no idea as to whether there is any truth in that.

If you decide not leave it plugged in, I would suggest that you plug it in for at least 24 hours before each trip & another 24 hours on your return. If there is more than a month between trips, plug it in for another 24 hours.

While this will be fine for your habitation batteries, depending on your base vehicle you may need to plug it in every couple of weeks to keep the engine battery in good condition.

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[Spade]

Thanks for the replies.
I see from a similar thread that the engine charging efficiency is not as good as i thought it might be in recharging batteries unless you have something like a b2b charger.
What i was doing was plugging in the night before to cool the fridge and then heading off every second weekend and expecting the alternator to replace my usage when wildcamping.