7 stage 20 amp intelligent charger from Alpha Batteries. and are Leisure batteries wirth it when NOT LiFe

[EdRedBird]

So i have 2 Halfords Leisure Batt-HLB700 - 100Ah
I have a Freeser a few lights and a chinese diesel heater and am 1 or 2 nights off grid 45-72h - and have after a 2h drive
I am noticing my battery life cycle is getting shorter , bnever paid much attention intil now,
Q1: Are the above batteries worth it or would i havce been better with yuasa-hsb110-silver-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee-281464.html
Q2 as I am not below 9V yet ...will the charger "fix" any damage done (at least recoup some)

 

[jollyrodger]

Have 3x110A mixed batts on board.
2 soon to be upgraded with similar. Due to bigger inverter and microwave going in.
320w of solar on the roof.
30A mppt Tracer regulator.

On a recent 6wk trundle around Sp, P, F. Have 14.2v
steady overall, with twin 12v roof fans going almost constant plus travel kettle & TV etc.

Check up today whilst out sun/cloud 4.2v /14.1v

I won't be getting lifepo anytime soon.

 

[Speve]

I would think going down below 10v would be terminal for them

 

[Pausim]

The charger desulphation stage might help recover some of the lost battery capacity if the battery had not been hammered. However I would have thought that any lead acid battery would be very badly damaged well before it got down to 9V. It is usually reckoned that by 11.8V you are in the danger zone.

 

[autorouter]

So i have 2 Halfords Leisure Batt-HLB700 - 100Ah
I have a Freeser a few lights and a chinese diesel heater and am 1 or 2 nights off grid 45-72h - and have after a 2h drive
I am noticing my battery life cycle is getting shorter , bnever paid much attention intil now,

Maybe you are not giving the batteries enough time to charge. The voltage while charging is no good as an indication of the state of charge. Even a flat battery will go up to over 13V very quickly. The voltage is only telling you what the charger is putting out.

You can estimate how long it will take to charge. If the 200Ah battery bank is half full, then it will need 100Ah. Actually, it will need about 130Ah because the process is not very efficient. So a 30A charger will need 130 / 30 = 3.33 hours, ie 3 hours 20 minutes. In practice it's going to be at least 4 hours, because the rate drops as the battery gets near to full.

Battery charging is a chemical reaction inside the battery, that needs time to complete.

There are various possible ways a battery can be damaged by excessively low discharge, and one of these is sulfation. The plate materials turn into lead sulfate as part of the normal discharge process, and lead sulfate is turned back into the plate materials again when the battery is recharged.

If the battery is left in a discharged state for a long time, like more than a couple of weeks, the lead sulfate crystallizes, and can be impossible to turn back into the plate materials again. So the battery capacity is permanently reduced. Some chargers have an antisulfation cycle, but I have never found them to be very effective. The best thing is prevention, so make sure the battery goes up to 100% full every couple of weeks or so.

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[Spriddler]

How old are your batteries?

 

[EdRedBird]

How old are your batteries?

11th of June

 

[PhilandMena]

So i have 2 Halfords Leisure Batt-HLB700 - 100Ah
I have a Freeser a few lights and a chinese diesel heater and am 1 or 2 nights off grid 45-72h - and have after a 2h drive
I am noticing my battery life cycle is getting shorter , bnever paid much attention intil now,
Q1: Are the above batteries worth it or would i havce been better with yuasa-hsb110-silver-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee-281464.html
Q2 as I am not below 9V yet ...will the charger "fix" any damage done (at least recoup some)

Leisure battery selection in the UK is a minefield and unfortunately it has to be said there is too much crap out there and much of it being mis-sold too. Forget about Car batteries, they are designed to perform differently than leisure batteries. Also, consider how you are going to maintain your leisure batteries once installed. Are you going to be on Hook up all the time. If yes, any 12 Volt cheap leisure battery will do. If your planning to do a lot of wilding, the way forward is Solar Panels, get up as much as you can. As for your leisure battery consider doubling up so you have two leisure batteries in your battery bank and then look at the type of Leisure battery you want. There are decent lead acid batteries out there and you may want to look at the ones produced by Excide, Yuasa and Varta as a starting point. The pure lead carbon AGM batteries are reported as being very good with a long life and then there is Gel batteries, more expensive again with an even longer life and finally Lithium, these are top of the range and very expensive.
All in all an absolute minefield and so difficult to make the right choice.
Finally, Do not be mislead by battery guarantees, they are pretty much useless as far as leisure batteries are concerned.