Does This Tell You The Date of my Leisure Battery?

StitchUp

StitchUp

Joined
Mar 12, 2012
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Bridgend, South Wales
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20,125
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Lunar Roadstar 720
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On & off 5 years.
My leisure battery has been on charge since midday and is still drawing about 3 amps, the charger is getting very warm!

2nd Leisure Battery.jpg


Perhaps it's time to call it a day and replace - maybe the more learned among you will know better :)

John
 
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The date of manufacture is normally stamped on the neg/pos poles….

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Depends on the state of charge when you started the charge a fairly flat battery will take around 12 to 24 hours to fully charge, depending on the charger.
 
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Will do that, the arbitrary state of charge scale shows just half charged! I've got a 55w headlight bulb wired ready.to test discharge.

I held off buying replacement leisure batteries today just to be certain I wasn't wasting money.

Thanks for the advice :)
 
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StitchUp said:
Will do that, the arbitrary state of charge scale shows just half charged! I've got a 55w headlight bulb wired ready.to test discharge.

I held off buying replacement leisure batteries today just to be certain I wasn't wasting money.

Thanks for the advice :)
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Was the battery flat this morning?

How many amps is the charger rated at?
 
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Last night the battery was supposedly fully charged so to test it I left the inverter switched on with no 230/240 equipment requiring power even disconnected the TV.

This morning the battery was at 9.1v

I borrowed a charger from my neighbour as my Oxford car battery charger was getting very warm! I'm unsure the current rating of the chargers - 3 chargers I used were getting hot! Disconnected now and will check voltage in an hour or so then discharge with a 55w headlight bulb in the morning - see how long it lasts.

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Sounds like your battery is :swear2:.
An inverter with no load depending on size & make will draw between 0.5 to 2 amps.
At 2 amps over 12 hours it would only discharge a 100ah battery by 25%.
 
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Thanks Lenny, and as I have 2 x 125ah leisure batteries I didn't expect them to be 9 ish volts!!

Just checked the terminal voltage on the battery after standing for 6 hours and it's showing 12.5v - I'll discharge it through a 55w headlight bulb shortly and see how long it lasts then, I think it'll be time to replace them both.

Apologies to the original poster, I feel I've hijacked his thread!!
 
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Okay, with the 55watt headlight discharging the 125ah leisure battery, here are the results:

11:45 Light Off 12.53v
11:45 Light On 12.23v
12:02 Light On 12.21v
12:21 Light On 12.15v
12:47 Light On 12.04v
13:08 Light On 11.96v
13:53 Light On 11.76v
14:17 Light On 11.62v
14:50 Light On 10.68v
15:10 Light On 7.87v
15:31 Light On 5.40v Light just glowing :)

After about 4 hours my guess, the battery is naf?

Just a thought, I have no idea how my2 leisure batteries actually connect into the 12v system! The two batteries are linked together by heavy cables and one feeds the inverter - as far as I can tell, that's the only link beyond the leisure batteries - am I missing something?

The leisure batteries do connect to the main engine battery via a Durite split charging relay.
 
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Should be a pair of heavy cables (pos & neg) connecting the batteries to the distribution/charger unit (box with loads of fuses). If its a Brit built van they may only be small cables as they are notorious for undersized cables.
Unless someone has rewired it taking the cables to the inverter then on to the distribution unit.
 
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This is very weird and a bit beyond my skill level!

The only LT connection from the leisure batteries goes to the inverter and then a standard 13amp domestic plug goes into and out of the distribution box - white cable in the picture! It's one heck of a mess that I have tidied up as best I can.
20210706_100710.jpg

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Probable those two small red cables go to the distribution unit, worth replacing with decent size cables.
 
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Firstly, thanks for your time & comments in replying, much appreciated :)

The two 'light' red cables both go to the POS pole on the inverter - I have changed these & NEG cables to much heavier cables. So it seems the white cable plugged into the inverter is the only cable going to the 230v distribution box. I'm still at a loss how else the leisure batteries provide 12v to the van!

There is a Remote Inverter controller connected via CAT5 cable to the inverter - on the rear of the switch cut-out is a label 12v - not sure what this means!
20210708_164957.jpg


Rear of the EDECOA switch above
20210706_100901.jpg


Think I need someone with motorhome experience to take a look.

John
 
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Have you disconnected the link between the 2 batteries and tested them independently. One may be pulling the other down.
 
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lunarman
Thanks for the suggestion - something else for me to try - thanks for the tip.

Does your screen name suggest you might have a Lunar motorhome? :)
 
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StitchUp said:
lunarman
Thanks for the suggestion - something else for me to try - thanks for the tip.

Does your screen name suggest you might have a Lunar motorhome? :)
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Not any more. Over the years I've had 4. 2 roadstar 780, 1 roadstar 786 and a roadstar 800

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:unsure: Maybe it's common practice but I wouldn't be too happy with the water pump and gas manifold in the middle of all those electrical components and wiring.
 
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I'm unsure what's acceptable practice. Our van dates from 2000 and maybe these arrangements have changed since then on newer builds.
 
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StitchUp said:
I'm unsure what's acceptable practice. Our van dates from 2000 and maybe these arrangements have changed since then on newer builds.
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Indeed.
From an observational aspect as an engineer, although not an electrical one, my concern would be about say, water spraying around if a pipe came off the pump or leaking joints causing a short circuit or damaging nearby electrical items or sparking if an electrical connection came adrift, especially if a leak occurred from the adjacent gas taps/piping.
There seems to have been additions/modifications connected with unnecessarily long lengths of straggling wire which makes later fault-finding tedious. Just for aesthetics I'd have to re-route the two large red positive cables that currently lie awkwardly between the gas taps.
I guess I just have a need for order and tidiness.
 
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Spriddler
My plan is to tidy it all up eventually! I can't believe the excesses of wires and cables difficult to understand why.

strangely, it's a project I'll enjoy.
 
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