Battery life expectancy (1 Viewer)

Jul 24, 2009
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I had to replace the battery off my trailer which powers the Motormover. It's a Varta 110A/h and to be honest I have mistreated it rather badly. It gets intermittent use and even more intermittent charging. It goes months without being charged and is then put on an Optimate type charger which I bought from Lidl because there isn't enough life in it to move the trailer. I have even had to take it back to South Yorkshire Battery Supplies a couple of times (where i get my batteries from) and have it put on a deep cycle charge for a few days for a fiver. Voltage has been as low as 7.5V. Anyway, I took it down to SYBS on monday to see if it could be resuscitated and got a phone call yesterday to tell me it was a battery no more, it had died, ceased to exist, fell off its perch in true Monty Python fashion.
So I went down to purchase a new one and not keeping track of when I bought this one I enquired tongue in cheek if it was still under warranty? Varta batteries have a two year warranty and SYBS date mark all the batteries they sell. With a broad grin on his face the chap behind the counter told me that it didn't meet the criteria as it was nearly a teenager - it was 12 years ago that I bought it :rolleyes:
 

zac

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Nov 19, 2013
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Not sure what mine is on my trailer but i am the same as you, mine doesnt get charged for months but at the moment it seems to come back to life each time and is still working to move the trailer with the car on :) i expect to replace it soon though as i think it is a few years old. Let me know what you replace it with as will probably needing to do the same pretty soon. I am assuming it didnt move it at all once it was knackered.

Wouldnt do without the motormover though as it has become very convenient for me especially when trying to get the trailer up off our drive and hitched onto the back of the motorhome. Makes it effortless :)
 
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TheTwoOfUs
Jul 24, 2009
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I replaced it like for like. A28 Varta Leisure battery 12V 110AH (81310)
£84 + VAT = £100.80

It went through various times when it wouldn't move the trailer but with either me putting it on the Optimate or having SYBS do a deep charge it has been brought back to life - except tbis time :(

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Feb 9, 2008
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Battery warranties are a bit of a minefield and anyone who gets their leisure battery replaced with new ones whilst still under warranty will have done exceptionally well. At best, you may get a partial refund but more likely to be told the test results found no fault or misuse of the battery. The life of a leisure battery is usually stated as the number of cycles at a given DOD. i.e. 200 cycles at 50% depth of discharge. This is the best way to determine how long the battery will last.
 

davejen

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Aug 21, 2008
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Can you not put a solar panel on the trailer to keep the charge up?
Cheers, Dave(y)
 
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TheTwoOfUs
Jul 24, 2009
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As the man at SYBS said, to get 12 years out of a battery, whatever you're doing it's obviously working, just carry on ;)

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zac

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Nov 19, 2013
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Can you not put a solar panel on the trailer to keep the charge up?
Cheers, Dave(y)
I tried this but where we store the trailer in a lockup i dont visit it for months and the solar regulator thingy has a light that comes on when plugged in. This in turn actually flattened the battery as i am assuming that once night falls the light stays on and drains the battery. It would be ok if we were away and i was unplugging the solar every evening.
 

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