Cheap battery? (1 Viewer)

[chaser]

dont know if this is of interest to anyone, had it in an email this morning.
Broken Link Removed

 

[Stealaway]

Who makes it? How do you tell if it's any good? I would always buy from a known maker, they have a reputation to protect.

 

[chaser]

Who makes it? How do you tell if it's any good? I would always buy from a known maker, they have a reputation to protect.

No idea mate , just had a flyer in my mail this morning, as a member

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[Geo]

With a weight of 50 lb its no slouch

 

[Lenny HB]

From the Spec.-

120 cycles at 50% depth of discharge

Not surprising it's cheap.

 

[PhilandMena]

Who makes it? How do you tell if it's any good? I would always buy from a known maker, they have a reputation to protect.

It has a NCC verified test certificate.
http://www.thencc.org.uk/our_schemes/ncc_verified_leisure_battery_scheme.aspx

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[PhilandMena]

From the Spec.-

120 cycles at 50% depth of discharge

Not surprising it's cheap.

Your wrong ! I've just checked the NCC list. It's a Class C battery rated at 70 cycles @50%DOD. Useless as a leisure battery IMO

 

[PhilandMena]

Who makes it? How do you tell if it's any good? I would always buy from a known maker, they have a reputation to protect.

Yes that makes sense but be aware the same manufacturer will often make a number of batteries that are rated and perform differently. From high end Leisure batteries to simple starter batteries and difficult to distinguish one from the other unless you know what your looking for. So do not be fooled by name alone.

 

[stcyr]

I read this, can't remember where: "4 new compact batteries labelled as 'leisure' products and claiming to offer a performance within a 75ah-100Ah range were purchased. 4 new larger batteries labelled as 'leisure' products and claiming to offer a performance within a 90Ah-125Ah range were also bought.

Of these two sets of 4 batteries, a Banner battery in Set One exceeded its stated Ah capacity when tested and a Banner battery in Set Two did the same. Second best in both Set One and Set Two was a "Platinum"-labelled battery, but neither of the Platinum batteries met their claimed Ah capacity (75Ah = 65Ah and 110Ah = 95.3Ah). There was clearly a Banner and a Platinum battery in Set One and Set Two, but manufacturer-details of the other 4 batteries were not given.

All the batteries were cut apart and, except for the Banner ("Energy Bull") ones, were found to have characteristics typical of starter-battery construction (eg, thin, rather than thick, lead plates). So, of the 8 batteries tested, only the Banner products met their Ah claimed capacity and had the constructional characteristics of a purpose-made 'leisure' battery."

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[stcyr]

And this on Platinum's own siteIt's £89.99 on there):

"Traditional 110ah 679 type flooded lead acid battery. Platinum Leisure Batteries are specially designed with the end user in mind. We understand that what one customer demands of a leisure battery can be very different to the requirements of another. In order to fulfil the needs of our customers we have developed a range of Leisure batteries designed to suit the user.

Whether you own a small caravan or a mobile home, we have the right battery for you.

Key Features:

Unique Thick-Grid Technology With Glass Fibre Separators Unique plate construction, increasing electrical capacity, improving deep cycle capability and provides greater resistance to vibration, extends service life.

Labyrinth-Lid Technology And Spark Arrestor Allows emissions to be safely exhausted externally from the caravan or motor-home with added protection against gas combustion within the battery increasing on-board safety and allowing the battery to be stored within the living accommodation.

State-of-charge Indicator Provides an easy to use visual indicator to check the battery's charge and acid levels. Never allow to run flat and be sure to charge once a month when not in use."

 

[Enword]

Thought I'd seen the make before http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/search/go?w=Leisure Battery

 

[PhilandMena]

I read this, can't remember where: "4 new compact batteries labelled as 'leisure' products and claiming to offer a performance within a 75ah-100Ah range were purchased. 4 new larger batteries labelled as 'leisure' products and claiming to offer a performance within a 90Ah-125Ah range were also bought.

Of these two sets of 4 batteries, a Banner battery in Set One exceeded its stated Ah capacity when tested and a Banner battery in Set Two did the same. Second best in both Set One and Set Two was a "Platinum"-labelled battery, but neither of the Platinum batteries met their claimed Ah capacity (75Ah = 65Ah and 110Ah = 95.3Ah). There was clearly a Banner and a Platinum battery in Set One and Set Two, but manufacturer-details of the other 4 batteries were not given.

All the batteries were cut apart and, except for the Banner ("Energy Bull") ones, were found to have characteristics typical of starter-battery construction (eg, thin, rather than thick, lead plates). So, of the 8 batteries tested, only the Banner products met their Ah claimed capacity and had the constructional characteristics of a purpose-made 'leisure' battery."

I saw a caravan club document along these lines. The problem we face is that the term Leisure has never been defined and there is no legal standard for the term. So manufacturers can name batteries as Leisure batteries when in fact they are starter batteries and as a result the leisure battery marketplace has become shoddy at worst and a guessing game when it comes to obtaining a good quality, value for money battery at best. There is however a BS EN standard in use that defines certain criteria for a starter battery, (BS EN 50342-6:2015) one aspect of it, is it must be rated as described in the label, so a 90 Ah rated battery must be 90 Ah. and so this is a good starting point when buying a leisure battery as many manufacturers put misleading and in some cases downright lies on their batteries about performance.
It got so bad that the NCC introduced a verification scheme where so called leisure batteries were bought off the shelf and sent to independent test houses to verify and classify actual performance in order to give the consumer confidence when purchasing a NCC verified battery.
The scheme is attached in this link.
http://www.thencc.org.uk/our_schemes/ncc_verified_leisure_battery_scheme.aspx

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[stcyr]

I've never bothered with so-called leisure batteries. All the more so knowing there's no 100% way of checking it's not just a label exercise. Paying a substantially higher price is in no way a guarantee. Furthermore we've never been disappointed with the performance of our normal 'starter' lead-acid batteries, neither life-wise nor performance-wise