Can I swap my dead class C battery for a class A?

[Jammi]

We managed to flatten our leisure battery when on a recent trip in the freezing weather, by keeping the water heater and space heaters going to prevent freezing pipes etcs.

Battery is now not holding a charge so dead.

It’s a Platinum Leisure Plus Class C, 110ah.

Thinking of replacing with the same make but a class A, as we use the van mainly without EHU.

Do we just swap them over or do other adjustments need to be done to go from a class C to class A?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but motorhoming is proving to be a steep learning curve!

 

[Terry]

Without going into detail the simple answer is YES
No adjustments should be meeded

 

[Jammi]

That’s excellent, thank you.
Just wanted to check before I ordered one!

 

[pappajohn]

Class A....class C.

Please elaborate

 

[Jammi]

Class A....class C.

Please elaborate

We want to swap the dead class C for a new class A.

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[tonka]

.

 

[Jammi]

.

View attachment 711399

Yep found that info thank you
Which is why we decided a class A would suit us better.
It was more a question of if any adjustments would be needed to the van to charge and run a different battery.

 

[CazPaul]

Who decided and whose regulations are those, class A class B etc

Is there a list of batteries for each category?

 

[Jammi]

https://www.thencc.org.uk/our_schemes/ncc_verified_leisure_battery_scheme.aspx

This link may explain it.

 

[bigtwin]

Class A....class C.

Please elaborate

Who decided and whose regulations are those, class A class B etc

Is there a list of batteries for each category?

National Caravan Council! Are they credible? Who knows.

Ian

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[Jammi]

All leisure batteries are categorised by the NCC according to their storage capacity and type of use they’re best suited to.

 

[Jammi]

National Caravan Council! Are they credible? Who knows.

Ian

The categories are printed on the batteries so I would’ve thought they were credible….

 

[chaser]

All leisure batteries are categorised by the NCC according to their storage capacity and type of use they’re best suited to.

Been buying batteries for 60 years, never heard of this classification before.

 

[BillyKontiki]

Go lithium mate you won’t regret it.

 

[Jammi]

Go lithium mate you won’t regret it.

I’m confused enough as it is!

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[Hoovie]

Who decided and whose regulations are those, class A class B etc

Is there a list of batteries for each category?

the NCC.
not regulations, but definitions.

Personally, never looked or used them.

 

[Lenny HB]

https://www.thencc.org.uk/our_schemes/ncc_verified_leisure_battery_scheme.aspx

This link may explain it.

It has been proved to be total bollocks, no batteries are independently tested it just goes by what data the manufacturers give them.
Also the spec they give the manufacturers to test to is also a load of bollocks, to claim a battery has a life of 200 cycles they only have to test it for 20 cycles.

You will also notice there are a lot of AGM's on their list which are about the worst type of battery for leisure use.
And a complete lack of Gels which are among the best when it comes to leisure batteries.

 

[Jammi]

Oh…it was an AGM I was looking at. Why are they the worst?

 

[Lenny HB]

Oh…it was an AGM I was looking at. Why are they the worst?

Don't meet their claims tend to only last a couple of years, they tend to fair better if the chargers have the correct profile (need to be charged at a different voltage to standard LA batteries). Having had two that both failed in 18 months I would never go near them again & I'm not the only one some have had them fail in under a year.

 

[Jammi]

Don't meet their claims tend to only last a couple of years, they tend to fair better if the chargers have the correct profile (need to be charged at a different voltage to standard LA batteries). Having had two that both failed in 18 months I would never go near them again & I'm not the only one some have had them fail in under a year.

So to go from a ‘wet’ battery to AGM we WOULD need to get the vans charger adjusted ?

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[Lenny HB]

So to go from a ‘wet’ battery to AGM we WOULD need to get the vans charger adjusted ?

Yes, but why not just buy a decent battery.

 

[Jammi]

That’s what we’re trying to do. But it’s a bit of a minefield when you don’t know what you’re looking at!

I think I’ll just replace it with the same as we have already.

 

[Lenny HB]

That’s what we’re trying to do. But it’s a bit of a minefield when you don’t know what you’re looking at!

I think I’ll just replace it with the same as we have already.

If it's lasted well and done what you require why not.

 

[Jammi]

If it's lasted well and done what you require why not.

Well it only lasted a year.
But we’re newbies and still learning from our mistakes.

We don’t really use EHU very often. And maintain the battery with solar and driving every few days.

 

[Lenny HB]

If you don't use EHU much one battery is not really enough. We don't use EHU much and have 3 batteries 300 Watts of solar its OK in Spain & southern France but not enough for use in the winter in the UK.
Driving unless you have a B2B it will take all day to recharge a battery.

As you only have one battery you may have been discharging to low which shortens their life. You shouldn't discharge astandard Lead Acid battery below 50%.

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[Jammi]

Yes I think a second battery may be the answer.
We were ok all through the summer.
It was October/November time we noticed the battery getting low.

As I said , it’s a steep (expensive) learning curve!

But this site is so helpful! So thank you all.

 

[Lenny HB]

How much solar have you got and have you got a decent MPPT Solar controller?

 

[Jammi]

It’s a 100w solar panel. Came fitted as standard I think. (Van is 2015, we’ve had it a year)
Seems to work well in summer. Or it did in last years long hot summer!

 

[Lenny HB]

I see its an Autosleeper so probably has Sargent electrics so will only have a PWM solar controller.
For your use it would be worth adding another one or two panels replacing the controller with a decent MPPT one like a Votronic or Victron.

 

[Jammi]

I see its an Autosleeper so probably has Sargent electrics so will only have a PWM solar controller.
For your use it would be worth adding another one or two panels replacing the controller with a decent MPPT one like a Votronic or Victron.

Yes it is Sargent.
And yes I think we’ll look into adding more panels etc. As that’s the way we like to use the van.

We’re going to the show at NEC in Feb so will go with an ever increasing shopping list!

If we add more panels and a better controller d’you think that would be enough to keep 1 battery going? Or would we still need 2?

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