Last year I posted about my thought process around choosing to buy Gel leisure batteries instead of normal wets or AGMs. Overall I was fairly pleased with their performance as they do let you discharge all the way down to about 10v (or even a bit less) and don't complain. But i suspect if I had made a habit of it they wouldn't last long.
I sold my Hymer recently, and with it the batteries. Now I'm currently in the midst of fitting out it's replacement which is an insane 6x6 off roader. And because I'm not planning on spending much time on campsites the only practical solution is to go the lithium route. When I'm done I will post about it but in the mean time, the following is a remarkably simple solution to a common problem.
A totally dead battery which will not take a charge.
My "new" vehicle came with a leisure battery which read 0v when tested so I thought I would try out a method of reviving it that I read about recently ( on Sterling Power's website). I'm not an expert so I will just share my experience in case you haven't heard about it and it's something you would like to try. Apart from saving money you are also doing the environment a favour.
You don't keen any skill or knowledge. All you need is a decent battery charger that can kick out more amps than the standard basic ones. I bought a 40a charger off ebay for £80 which has a knob allowing you to control the amps. I intend to use is as a back up but it will pay for itself if it revives your dead battery.
Here is how I brought my 65ah sealed no maintenance battery back to life (although it will never be as good as new).
I hooked it up to the charger and cranked the amps up to 40. It's important that you stay with it for a few minutes initially in case it's damaged in some way. Nothing should happen at first and it wont appear to be charging. Thats fine. If you can, it's best to stay in the room with it as it needs watching. You need not worry about it exploding so long as it never gets so hot, that it's noticeably hot. Warm is safe and just fine.
However for the first hour or so nothing will appear to be happening, It will remain cold and not charging. I didn't stay with it but set the timer on my phone to go off every 30mins to prompt me to check it.
What happens initially is the charge is "burning" the sulphate off the battery plates which developed when it became discharged and prevented it from taking a charge. With any luck within an hour or two enough will be removed to allow it to finally start charging. At this point the charger will indicate its charging and you need to dial down the amps to whatever the recommended rate is. Probably between 10a and 20a (mine is 15a).
After that I continued to monitor it every hour or two. The easiest way to check up on it is to touch the posts and see if they are warm. If they are its probably nearing the 80% charged mark. When that happens turn it right down to less than 5amps. Mine is a smart charger so it does it automatically but I still dialled it down manually too just in case.
That's it
It's no more difficult than a normal charge so long as you don't stray too far away. This won't work for every battery but it will work for the vast majority. I can't comment on how this works for open wets or gel/agm but the majority of batteries out there will be this type.
I think I have a few more "old batteries" hanging around that I had intended to take to the recycling centre. So I will try this out a few more times.......JUST REMEMBER DONT LEAVE IT UNATTENDED.
I sold my Hymer recently, and with it the batteries. Now I'm currently in the midst of fitting out it's replacement which is an insane 6x6 off roader. And because I'm not planning on spending much time on campsites the only practical solution is to go the lithium route. When I'm done I will post about it but in the mean time, the following is a remarkably simple solution to a common problem.
A totally dead battery which will not take a charge.
My "new" vehicle came with a leisure battery which read 0v when tested so I thought I would try out a method of reviving it that I read about recently ( on Sterling Power's website). I'm not an expert so I will just share my experience in case you haven't heard about it and it's something you would like to try. Apart from saving money you are also doing the environment a favour.
You don't keen any skill or knowledge. All you need is a decent battery charger that can kick out more amps than the standard basic ones. I bought a 40a charger off ebay for £80 which has a knob allowing you to control the amps. I intend to use is as a back up but it will pay for itself if it revives your dead battery.
Here is how I brought my 65ah sealed no maintenance battery back to life (although it will never be as good as new).
I hooked it up to the charger and cranked the amps up to 40. It's important that you stay with it for a few minutes initially in case it's damaged in some way. Nothing should happen at first and it wont appear to be charging. Thats fine. If you can, it's best to stay in the room with it as it needs watching. You need not worry about it exploding so long as it never gets so hot, that it's noticeably hot. Warm is safe and just fine.
However for the first hour or so nothing will appear to be happening, It will remain cold and not charging. I didn't stay with it but set the timer on my phone to go off every 30mins to prompt me to check it.
What happens initially is the charge is "burning" the sulphate off the battery plates which developed when it became discharged and prevented it from taking a charge. With any luck within an hour or two enough will be removed to allow it to finally start charging. At this point the charger will indicate its charging and you need to dial down the amps to whatever the recommended rate is. Probably between 10a and 20a (mine is 15a).
After that I continued to monitor it every hour or two. The easiest way to check up on it is to touch the posts and see if they are warm. If they are its probably nearing the 80% charged mark. When that happens turn it right down to less than 5amps. Mine is a smart charger so it does it automatically but I still dialled it down manually too just in case.
That's it
It's no more difficult than a normal charge so long as you don't stray too far away. This won't work for every battery but it will work for the vast majority. I can't comment on how this works for open wets or gel/agm but the majority of batteries out there will be this type. I think I have a few more "old batteries" hanging around that I had intended to take to the recycling centre. So I will try this out a few more times.......JUST REMEMBER DONT LEAVE IT UNATTENDED.
