Habitation battery charging (1 Viewer)

[Saltings]

Hi

Just thought this may be of value to other "newbies" like us!

When it comes to trying to charge the Hab. battery many builders put the battery under one of the front seats. It is a two man job to remove the seat etc.

My tip is that the next time you have to do this get a Cetek charger before removing the seat. With it you will receive two extra wires and a contact socket that connects to the charger. These wires can be bolted onto the battery terminals and the end of the wire with its protected socket can be tucked under the front seat. It is then just to connect the Cetek charger to this contact when you next need to charge the Hab. battery.

These wires can also be used to check the voltage between the terminals very accurately.

Hope it helps.
Cheers
Saltings

 

[funflair]

Good tip, I believe it is called comfort connect and you can buy the lead to the battery separately so you can add it to more than one battery.

Martin

 

[rosalan]

If I wish to charge my batteries, I fit a hook-up line; job done!

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[Deleted member 29692]

Or fit solar panels and let them look after your batteries.

The only time mine will ever be removed us when they need replacing. Removing them to charge them or buying some other standalone charger sounds like a whole load of unnecessary faff to me

 

[Saltings]

Good tip, I believe it is called comfort connect and you can buy the lead to the battery separately so you can add it to more than one battery.

Martin

Thanks for the tip about buying it as an extra. The problem I have had Nick is that although we have solar cells which were great in 2015 they let us down for some unknown reason last winter (could be the controller?) so we were faced with a motor battery that was fully charged and a Hab. battery that kept running down. Hence I had to find a way of charging this separately - easier said than done with the seat on top of it - and this tip worked a treat. We have now got the electrics almost sorted (except the mechanic wired the Hab. batt to the motor batt. terminals), so we were not getting a 70% charge from the solar cells!

You learn a lot in the first few years!

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Thanks for the tip about buying it as an extra. The problem I have had Nick is that although we have solar cells which were great in 2015 they let us down for some unknown reason last winter (could be the controller?) so we were faced with a motor battery that was fully charged and a Hab. battery that kept running down. Hence I had to find a way of charging this separately - easier said than done with the seat on top of it - and this tip worked a treat. We have now got the electrics almost sorted (except the mechanic wired the Hab. batt to the motor batt. terminals), so we were not getting a 70% charge from the solar cells!

You learn a lot in the first few years!

Why not just plug in your EHU cable? You must have had a power source to plug the Cetek charger into.

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[rosalan]

From what you say.... Battery let us down. Surely the next move would be to remove the battery, have it load tested and replace it.

 

[hilldweller]

When it comes to trying to charge the Hab. battery many builders put the battery under one of the front seats. It is a two man job to remove the seat etc.

Saltings

I don't get it, all MHs have a built in hab battery charger.

 

[Pausim]

I don't get it, all MHs have a built in hab battery charger.

Most will have a mains powered 12v domestic supply, which will in part act as a battery charger, but it is surprising how many of these fall short of being a proper battery charger. My current MH is my fourth and the first to do more than just provide a trickle at a fixed voltage of somewhere around 12 or 13 volts. Not what a battery needs to recover from a discharged state or what is needed to get it fully charged in the first place. Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant but it appears to me that for years many motorhome and caravan manufacturers have been cutting corners on this one, leaving us to replace the shortened life batteries.

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[tonyidle]

Most will have a mains powered 12v domestic supply, which will in part act as a battery charger, but it is surprising how many of these fall short of being a proper battery charger. My current MH is my fourth and the first to do more than just provide a trickle at a fixed voltage of somewhere around 12 or 13 volts. Not what a battery needs to recover from a discharged state or what is needed to get it fully charged in the first place. Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant but it appears to me that for years many motorhome and caravan manufacturers have been cutting corners on this one, leaving us to replace the shortened life batteries.

Absolutely true: however the last 10 years have seen a major change and most, if not all, have a form of 'smart' charger. If a 'really clever' charge is needed plugging a charger into a hab section cigar lighter socket would do the job.

 

[Saltings]

Why not just plug in your EHU cable? You must have had a power source to plug the Cetek charger into.

Hi Nick
Problem was Hab. battery had dropped below 10v. At this point it is no longer possible to charge the Hab. battery from either Solar cells or EHU cable. have therefore learnt we have to have a direct contact to the terminals under the seat and also keep an eye on the voltage.
Whether this is a quirk with the Chasson MH's no idea, as it is our first. Comments welcomed.
Cheers
Saltings

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Hi Nick
Problem was Hab. battery had dropped below 10v. At this point it is no longer possible to charge the Hab. battery from either Solar cells or EHU cable. have therefore learnt we have to have a direct contact to the terminals under the seat and also keep an eye on the voltage.
Whether this is a quirk with the Chasson MH's no idea, as it is our first. Comments welcomed.
Cheers
Saltings

Don't know who you've been listening to but they're feeding you duff info.

At 10v it's banjaxed and time to buy a new one.

You have no more chance of recovering it with a standalone charger than by any other method.

The onboard charger on your motorhome, the one that works when you plug into EHU, is the same basic piece of kit as a standalone one. If the standalone one works the onboard one will work.

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[Saltings]

Don't know who you've been listening to but they're feeding you duff info.

At 10v it's banjaxed and time to buy a new one.

You have no more chance of recovering it with a standalone charger than by any other method.

The onboard charger on your motorhome, the one that works when you plug into EHU, is the same basic piece of kit as a standalone one. If the standalone one works the onboard one will work.

It may be the same but all the time the EHU charge goes through the Solar Controller when the voltage is less than 10v it will not work. take it out of the MH and no probs charging it. We replaced the old with an identical new one, (and kept the original), only to find that that wouldn't hold the charge from the solar cells either. By that time it too was below 10v so back to square one again.
I then charged the original battery with our CETEK and it held the charge at 13.3v for over a month. So when serviced I asked them to check it out and if OK re-install it beneath the front seat. So we have gone the full circle and are back to using our original battery which is now holding its charge. I use the EHU once a week to ensure I don't get caught out. Come the end of the season I intend to totally replace it with a new one.

Have since discovered that the technician that put in the Solar Controller wired it so that 70% of the solar cell output wired it the wrong way round and gave that output to the motor battery instead. Having contacted the manufacturers we now know how it should be wired.
Thanks for the comment.