Leisure battery

B

Begley

Joined
Sep 5, 2020
Posts
16
Likes collected
20
Funster No
75,472
MH
Peugeot New Life
Exp
Since 2017
Morning all. We are in our Peugeot New Life, currently on a site with no hook up. We have been on our big trip for 3 months and have used the leisure battery with absolutely no problems. The indicator thingy above the door shows that the battery is full.

This morning the leisure battery is turning off every 2-3 minutes. We can turn it on again - there is a switch above the door - and if I turn it off and on again it stays on for a couple of minutes then turns off. The only thing currently using the leisure battery is the fridge; I have switched that off from using the 12v power, to no avail.

I know that we will need to get it looked at professionally, but I wondered if anyone had any ideas that we could do ourselves. Obviously we will have to wait until it is daylight to have a proper look at connections cos the lights aren't working!!

Thanks, Liz
 
Sounds like your battery has dropped below the critical level and is shutting down. If not on hook up how is the battery being charged ? There is a thread going about how long can you last off hook up with a compressor fridge if that is what you have.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

How to stay longer off grid (compressor fridge).

Our set up is … PVC van 2 x lead acid leisure battery 1 x 120 solar panel We can just about manage (UK summer/France October) 3 days off grid The 4th day depletes the battery too far. Is there anything we could do without swapping fridge to absorber yo run off gas that would give us 5-6...
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A tester always comes in handy 👍

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We were on hook up til yesterday morning; we have been moving from site to site. I may have to invest in one of those testers!
 
So all the time away you were on EHU, and all was ok? You’ve now unplugged the EHU and 12v supply won’t remain on any more. Is that correct?

Does your fridge also run off gas? If so it won’t be running on your leisure batteries.
 
We have been on both hook up pitches and non hook up pitches the entire time, just dependant on where we were and what was available. All has been fine. We had 3 nights with no hook up back in September and everything worked like a dream. It's a brand new problem that seems to have happened overnight - we parked up about 4 yesterday afternoon, the fridge stayed on, we watched the telly til about half 9, had lights on - all good. As I say, we have done this all trip with absolutely no issues. It's a completely new problem.

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Try. Starting the engine and see if everything stays on, if so then the batteries have gone down. Happened to me a few years ago exactly the same.
 
Ianj55 said:
Try. Starting the engine and see if everything stays on, if so then the batteries have gone down. Happened to me a few years ago exactly the same.
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May not work if it is one of those motorhomes that shuts down the domestic electrics when the engine is running. A most unhelpful arrangement that seems to come with some systems.
 
That's exactly what I have just done and everything is on. I feel a bit daft now! I had no idea they could drain sort of out of the blue! We will leave the engine running a while and see how they are. May have to go for a big old drive to get charged up again I guess.
 
Just shows that the indicator above the door which says that the battery is full is not worth looking at!
 
Begley said:
That's exactly what I have just done and everything is on. I feel a bit daft now! I had no idea they could drain sort of out of the blue! We will leave the engine running a while and see how they are. May have to go for a big old drive to get charged up again I guess.
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Better to go for a drive than leave the engine running without a load on it.

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We will. Mrs. Begley isn't up yet, so I am just gonna run the engine long enough to be able to heat a tank of water and have enough light to feed the dogs, and then we will go for a big cruise!
 
Pausim said:
May not work if it is one of those motorhomes that shuts down the domestic electrics when the engine is running. A most unhelpful arrangement that seems to come with some systems.
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I understand this idea of automatically turning off all habitation electrics when the engine is running is to avoid any electrical interference ( High Intensity Radiated Field) causing trouble with the engine ECU etc. It is a result of lazy design, rather than doing things properly with adequate seperation of systems and shielding it is cheaper to just turn it off. Swift used to favour that approach.
 
Begley said:
We will. Mrs. Begley isn't up yet, so I am just gonna run the engine long enough to be able to heat a tank of water and have enough light to feed the dogs, and then we will go for a big cruise!
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Really not advisable to run the engine stationary, can do expensive damage. Modern diesel engine never get up to temperature on tickover and should be driven off immediately after starting.

If the battery is flat it will need around 200 miles or more driving to fully charge it.

If you have a compressor fridge to stay off grid for more than a night or two you need at least two batteries and 300 Watts of solar. Even that wouldn't work this time of year in the UK.
 
Begley said:
Just shows that the indicator above the door which says that the battery is full is not worth looking at!
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It only displays voltage with a good battery it will give you a good idea of the state of charge but if will not be much of a guide if the battery is naff.
 
A picture of your display showing what the hab battery is displaying would be useful.

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OK, engine now off! I don't think we will manage 200 miles. We may just bail and head home. Our big adventure is officially finished, we were just gonna hang out in our favourite sea side town for an extra couple of days.
 
The trouble with lead acid batteries is they can sulphate. This doesn’t stop them from charging up to the normal voltage but the capacity is reduced, so a 100Ah battery may only have 50Ah working. I think of it like calcium silting up a hot water tank, the pressure is ok but the volume of hot water is much reduced. Voltage is a very limited indicator of a healthy battery.
 
Pausim said:
The trouble with lead acid batteries is they can sulphate. This doesn’t stop them from charging up to the normal voltage but the capacity is reduced, so a 100Ah battery may only have 50Ah working. I think of it like calcium silting up a hot water tank, the pressure is ok but the volume of hot water is much reduced. Voltage is a very limited indicator of a healthy battery.
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I understand that this is one advantage of Gel in that they don't suffer the same.
 
Begley said:
OK, engine now off! I don't think we will manage 200 miles. We may just bail and head home. Our big adventure is officially finished, we were just gonna hang out in our favourite sea side town for an extra couple of days.
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If the battery has had it, it wont charge properly anyway

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Yo
Begley said:
OK, engine now off! I don't think we will manage 200 miles. We may just bail and head home. Our big adventure is officially finished, we were just gonna hang out in our favourite sea side town for an extra couple of days.
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u may have damaged your Battety beyond repair. As continued use of dropping battery below 50% charge will bend the plates in battery and subsequently battery will no longer hold a full charge. Better than just going home, go and get a new battery fitted that will be fully charged so you can at least continue with your fun as if battery is knackered you will have to get a new one anyway and at least you will know how to look after new battery in future rather than try and soldier on with a possible knackered battery
 
It sounds very much as if your battery is at the end of its life.
I'm assuming that your controller is switching off your habitation battery because there is insufficient power left in it.
As batteries get older, they lose capacity and don't last as long between charges. That doesn't matter if you are on EHU but you'll soon notice the difference when using the battery in Winter as they perform less well in the cold.
The life of a battery can be affected by many things but letting them go flat will shorten it considerably.
If you're not going to use it much over Winter, or can always be on EHU, I'd replace in the Spring, ready fr next season.
 
I agree with above. I suspect your leisure battery has had it! When you hook up or run your engine your display is showing the voltage coming from the charging source and not what's in the battery. Get a shed load of solar and if you can add another leisure battery if you wwant tp spend a lot of time without hook up. Loads of advice on here on how to acheive that and something you can do yourself.
 
Fit a decent battery monitor, one of my favourite gadgets. You know exactly how the battery is feeling at all times 😍
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Then, in case you missed anything, you can get these cheap Bluetooth monitors that log the voltage over time 😍🙏

Screenshot_20211024-132024_Battery Monitor.jpg

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Begley said:
The only thing currently using the leisure battery is the fridge; I have switched that off from using the 12v power, to no avail.
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There's two kinds of fridge. One type (3-way) works from mains electric, 12V battery and gas. The other type (compressor) works just from electric, no gas. Can be 12V or mains voltage, or both. So is it 3-way or compressor?
 
PhilandMena said:
This looks interesting ? How long does the log record for and are the dates and times correct and adjustable.
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The log started I think when I fitted it nearly a year ago.. This is the optimate 2 doing it's stuff during lay up.
Screenshot_20211025-213813_Battery Monitor.jpg


The dates and times are provided by your phone so aren't adjustable unless you go to the trouble of changing your phone clock.

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