Batteries in lockdown.

[bri]

Hi,can anyone advise please.for obvious reasons I'm concerned about battery life.l have a fitted solar panel,which appears to be keeping my batteries charged up ok,leisure reading 13.5 and vehicle battery 12.6.these seem to be maintaining their levels,but l wondered whether to invest in a trickle charger.any ideas please thank you

 

[bigalw35]

I would advise a trickle charger, the cold/freezing worst time of year for batteries

 

[Richard n Ann]

Got optimates on all my vehicles, oh and a Lidl one on the Scoot

OptiMate 1 Duo

OptiMate 1

www.optimate.co.uk

 

[Lenny HB]

Solar keeps mine topped up but I do have 300 watts with a good MPPT regulator.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Solar keeps mine topped up but I do have 300 watts with a good MPPT regulator.

There aught to be a maintenence mode so the regulator doesn't take them up to 14.4v every day. Mine are kept at 13.4 ish. Don't suppose it bothers the gels much though

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[rod_vw]

I have100W of solar feeding through a Ring RSCDC30 unit to two normal lead acid batteries used in the leisure side of my VW T6. I also have a simple diode/resistor connected bleed circuit from the leisure side to the engine battery. This arrangement seems to keep both battery circuits charged OK. Currently the leisure batteries are at 13.2V and the engine battery 12.4V with the sun shining nicely. Voltages measured with a BM1 Bluetooth monitor. The vehicle was last used on Friday.
Current draw on the engine battery is the normal vehicle electronics and alarm. Leisure drain is minimal.
Admittedly the vehicle gets used occasionally for mostly short journeys but these are so short that they probably take out more by starting than the alternator puts in!

 

[Just smiffy]

If you can get to electricity to plug in a trickle charger then just plug your motorhome in with the EHU lead for a couple of days a week. The van will do the rest...

 

[Ninovan]

Got optimates on all my vehicles, oh and a Lidl one on the Scoot

OptiMate 1 Duo

OptiMate 1

www.optimate.co.uk

The blurb says ideal for batteries from 2 - 30 ah??

 

[Dramfineday]

I use an AA Battery Charger and Maintainer - which you can, if you wish, hard wire into the van.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=113875335621

 

[Lenny HB]

There aught to be a maintenence mode so the regulator doesn't take them up to 14.4v every day. Mine are kept at 13.4 ish. Don't suppose it bothers the gels much though

With a decent multistage regulator when the sun comes up it will start the charging process but if the batteries are virtually fully charge it will go to the absorption phase although this will be at 14.4/14.2v the current will be limited to an amp or less after the absorption phase it will drop to the maintenance charge at 13.8v.

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[Richard n Ann]

The blurb says ideal for batteries from 2 - 30 ah??

If you were using it as a charger it would take a long time, I think it might have a 48hr time out feature too. But maintaining a charged battery is different of course.
The optimate 3 has no time limit for charging (or at least the old version didn't, mine is 19 years old now )

 

[Westbarn1]

I’ve connected a m/c charger/conditioner, only charges at 0.8 amp, direct to my engine battery just to keep up with the discharge from the alarm/tracker. Don’t really want a continuous charge to my lithium habitation batteries, as they don’t need it.

 

[David and Sally]

The blurb says ideal for batteries from 2 - 30 ah??

The Optimate 4 is recommended for 2 - 50Ah. I mostly use my Optis on motorbikes but I have used one on the car and it seemed quite happy. Left in on for a few days and all the lights showed all was well.

 

[Richard n Ann]

I've got the optimate 4 on the engine battery, optimate 2 on the 80ah gel leisure battery and the old Optimate 3 on the Duke bike.

Bought the optimate 3 19 years ago for a motorcycle, since then it's been on a caravan leisure battery, Land Rover starter battery, scooter and now the Duke. I emailed optimate when first using it for the caravan and they said it will be fine but will just take longer to charge it.