Leisure battery problem help needed (1 Viewer)

[WOOOODENTOP]

My leisure battery is 3 years old and will only last 24 hours before the warning light flashes to say it is running low. We have a 150w solar panel fitted. In december we got our dealer to check the battery and they said it tested ok. The motorhome is stored with 240v attached so keeps everything charged.
Mrs Woooodentop has used hairdryer and straighteners over the period through a 2000w Silverline inverter
Any ideas???

 

[Deleted member 29692]

You'll need to post a bit more info to get a definitive answer.

Based on what you've posted it could be normal usage or it could be a knackered battery.

If you're in the UK we'll assume the solar panel isn't doing a great deal at this time of year so disregard that for now. We'll also ignore inverter losses to keep it simple.

What size leisure battery is it?

What are the ratings of the hair dryer and straighteners and how long does she use them for?

What else are you using? Lights, TV, chargers, heating?


Just an example: If you only have an 80ah battery and the hair appliances are both 1500W then about 20 minutes usage between them has used up your battery capacity without anything else. Remember you only have 50% of your battery rating available to use.

1500W/12v = 125A. Thats what it would use in an hour so 40A in 20 minutes.

 

[WOOOODENTOP]

Thanks for the info...I think its a 95ah battery
Hairdryer is 1200w ,not sure about straighteners there GHDs but both used for about 5 minutes.
LED lights, diesel blown air heating, no TV. Electric drop down bed
This weekend the warning light started flashing before the hairdryer or straighteners were used

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[Deleted member 29692]

Thanks for the info...I think its a 95ah battery

OK so you have 47.5ah usable.

Look at the power rating (Watts) of the appliances and divide that by 12 to get the current it would draw in an hour. You should be able to get a fair idea of your usage from that point.

The other notorious battery killer is the fan if you have blown air heating.

 

[funflair]

Well a 95ah battery is hardly man enough for an inverter running 1200 watts, I think you need more battery capacity or less inverter use possibly.

Martin

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Or tell Mrs Woodentop to get her hair cut

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[Minxy]

Hi, you're using 2 items that will gobble up the amps - hair dryer and straighteners - basically anything that produces heat will use a LOT of power and to be perfectly honest unless you are on hook-up when using them the battery capacity you have is not going to cope. Therefore it could be that using these has knackered your battery by discharging it below 50% or it isn't getting a chance to get fully recharged before they are used again.

I'd make sure that your battery is fully charged and leave off using the hairdryer and straighteners for a while and see what difference it makes.

 

[Lenny HB]

Sounds like the battery has had it, not surprising with a 2000 watt inverter on one battery you really need 300a/h of batteries.

 

[WOOOODENTOP]

The battery was fully charged leaving home this weekend. No hairdryer , straighteners, or TV just put the bed up and down once and the blown air heating on low overnight and 12w of LED lightingfor 3 hours, one phone charged . The warning light started flashing but the LEDs were showing 5/8th

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[Deleted member 29692]

The battery was fully charged leaving home this weekend. No hairdryer , straighteners, or TV just put the bed up and down once and the blown air heating on low overnight and 12w of LED lightingfor 3 hours, one phone charged . The warning light started flashing but the LEDs were showing 5/8th

That will do it every time.

Blown air heating is really not designed to be used for long periods unless you have EHU.

 

[Lenny HB]

Just

That will do it every time.

Blown air heating is really not designed to be used for long periods unless you have EHU.

Why not?
Once up to temperature a truma combi uses less than an amp.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Just

Why not?
Once up to temperature a truma combi uses less than an amp.

Exactly the same thing happened to some friends of ours in France the other winter. Their leisure battery simply couldn't cope with the blown air fan running almost all the time.

Our Alde on the other hand was fine.

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[Lenny HB]

Exactly the same thing happened to some friends of ours in France the other winter. Their leisure battery simply couldn't cope with the blown air fan running almost all the time.

Our Alde on the other hand was fine.

I don't believe it was anything to do with the Truma like I said they take very low power once up to temp.

 

[suavecarve]

3 years of the leisure battery is getting near its time.
I d bite the bullet and get 2 replacements. From Ebay you can get them for about 60 quid each then wire them up.
outlay is
batteries £120
Wires £5
Haircut £15

Income
Hair driers go for about£10 on ebay
Straighteners as much as £15.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I don't believe it was anything to do with the Truma like I said they take very low power once up to temp.

Not the boiler itself no, it's the fan.

In very cold weather it might not ever get up to temp so the fan runs constantly.

Just to give you an idea of how cold it was when it happened to our friends we were running our Alde pretty much 24 hours a day. We got through a 12kg bottle and a half of gas in 5 days.

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[PeteH]

On the face of it, you are the victim of the "double Whammy" 1) your batteries are 3yr old and have (likely) been subjected to deep discharge too many times. 2) Running 2KW inverter off (90amp/hr ish) single battery will deep discharge every time, and the recovery time is 14 or more Hours on a Good Mains Charger. 3) Your profile only says "A" class. 2 thoughts here, 1) my 2 R-V`s with warm air had extremely high fan consumption, 2) Even many older Euro Motor-homes also have blown air fan systems which are power hungry. The latest designs address this to some extent. but unlike the first generation "Fan Master" units they cannot be switched off and run JUST as Convection Heating the use of the fan is integral to their use.
Previously suggested "solutions" would prevail, ie reduce consumption and increase capacity?.

 

[WOOOODENTOP]

Ive done a multi meter test on the battery.....
Connected a 60w 240v bulb to the inverter which I think is about a 5amp drain
Battery fully charged measured 13.7v off load 12.65 on load
after 30 mins 12.45v
after 60 mins 12.24v
after 90 mins 11.2v
after 120 mins 11.0v
advises requested

 

[Minxy]

Batteries are stuffed and need replacing as they're not holding charge.

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[WOOOODENTOP]

Thanks....that was my opinion
New one on its way