Leisure Battery Issue

[leeboy]

Hi,
my leisure battery is having problems holding it's charge and soon drops from 100% charge down to around 50% with very little draw on it. I purchased the van (new last Feb) and after a couple off months found the charger set to lead acid when it should have been set to Gel which mine is. I contacted the dealer who said no harm would have been done but now I am wondering if the issue with the charger set to the wrong type of battery has damaged the battery. It is a gel type Sonnen schein battery which I am told are good quality.
Any feed back would be appreciated.
Regards,
Lee.

 

[Sandancers]

What sort of van is it? I found out that on the Chausson flash 10 that the leisure battery does not charge on hook-up unless the main power button on the control panel is set to on.

 

[jonandshell]

The good news is you had a quality battery.
However, gel batteries should be bulk charged at a lower voltage than lead acid to avoid overheating and bubbles forming in the gel electrolyte.
Your battery is probably goosed.

 

[leeboy]

Hi Geordies,
The panel s on and the battery charging, the problem is raising the electric bed in the morning after a night without hook up,it takes several presses of the button to raise the bed fully. when on hook up the bed raises fine.
Thanks,
Lee.

 

[leeboy]

The good news is you had a quality battery.
However, gel batteries should be bulk charged at a lower voltage than lead acid to avoid overheating and bubbles forming in the gel electrolyte.
Your battery is probably goosed.

Hi jonandshell unfortunately my thoughts also, will contact the dealer and state my case for a new battery at their expense.
Thanks,
Lee.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[pappajohn]

Only one good thing with a gel battery.
it doesnt matter if its upside down, it still wont leak.

Its exactly the same as a regular lead acid with the electrolyte held in suspension.

 

[Sandancers]

Have you measured the actual battery voltage at the terminals, before, during and after raising the bed ?

 

[PhilandMena]

Jonandshell have probably identified the cause of failure.
You may find this link useful.
Broken Link Removed

 

[Sandancers]

Been looking at our leisure battery. It is a Numax LV25MF and from reading the Numax website it is a sealed lead acid. I'm going to phone the manufacturers tomorrow to double check. Our charger was set to lead acid and this would be correct.

The manufacturers give a 2 year warranty on each battery.

 

[leeboy]

Been looking at our leisure battery. It is a Numax LV25MF and from reading the Numax website it is a sealed lead acid. I'm going to phone the manufacturers tomorrow to double check. Our charger was set to lead acid and this would be correct.

The manufacturers give a 2 year warranty on each battery.

Hi Geordies,
Tried raising the bed again on battery only and it only raised completely after several presses of the button. I then started the engine and tried it, it worked fine.
Regards,
Lee.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Sandancers]

Numax have confirmed that the LV25MV is a sealed lead acid battery, is this different to the one fitted in yours Lee ?

I am in the process of fitting digital voltmeters into the dash, one for each battery, wired directly (with a fuse adjacent to the positive terminal) onto the battery terminal. Will post post pics of that when it's finished.

But a thought occurs, maybe you have a bad connection on your leisure battery terminal. Then when the bed is taking a large current to raise the bed you'd get a big volts drop on the bad connection, this would really confuse the control circuit.

This would not occur on hook-up or with the engine running as the current would not be coming from the battery.

 

[leeboy]

Hi Geordies, Yes your charger should be set to lead acid and not gell. the difference is if you crack my battery case, nothing should come out where as yours will leak. The charge rate is also different. I will check the terminals and battery soon.
Regards,
Lee.

 

[Sandancers]

With the voltmeters now fitted I can see that on the Flash 10 with the engine running both batteries show about 14.4v applied to the terminals. On hook-up, without the power button pressed "on" on the control panel then only the engine battery receives a charge. With the power button "on" the leisure battery goes up to about 14v and then drops over time. The engine battery receives about 13v then drops over time to about 12.9v.