Lesuire battery issues please help!

[Izchaz]

Hi all!
We are having issues with our lesuire battery. It's a sealed lead acid battery (numax LV26MF 100ah). Everything has been working fine in the van for the past 2 months, but now it seems to not be able to take alot of power, without the solar panel being on it can't seem to hold or give out much power. We have had a fiddle and now seems okay with lights/fan/tap but the heater still isn't working with it and the fridge is even worse (but we could never leave that on for very long before it drained the battery). The battery reader will say 100% and 14.3 volts, then if we turn the heater on it lasts a few seconds before switching off and go to 0%. After the heater is off it will then go back to 100%. It was doing this before with even turning a light on but seems to be fine with that now. It's also better in the day when the solar panal is charging at the same time, sometimes the heater will work with this but the day is not when we need it! The invertor also won't turn on at all. Any ideas anyone? Please help we are going to be very cold without the heater!!! Thanks so much

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Using your leisure battery to heat the van and fridge is a no no.
There isn't enough power in a battery to do that .you really need to use had for heating and your fridge. But it would help if you advise what van set up you have and someone may be able to help.

 

[berni109]

U are expecting 100ah battery to provide to much power even with some solar support. If you have been running all that lot and constantly running the battery down below 12v you have probably killed it.
If u subscribe u can search to find how to test your battery properly.
Simply replacing the battery will only result in u killing that one too if you continue with the current usage pattern.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

A 100Ah battery has no chance of providing heating. Not quite clear on what you are trying to do, but if you have say a basic 1kw 240v electric heater running off an inverter, you are trying to draw approaching 90A at 12V. Very few batteries can support that rate of discharge. Worse, your standard lead-acid battery to prolong it's life should be discharged to only 50% capacity, so your 100Ah is in practice 50Ah useable which would last around half an hour of heating.

This may explain why when you try and turn heating on the battery voltage drops to nothing - it's overloaded, and even the inverter doesn't want to operate - again it's trying to draw too much current from your single battery. You don't say the rating of the inverter.

Realistically heating in a campervan / motorhome is from a LPG or Diesel powered heating source (or perhaps mains electric when you are on EHU). These systems will use 12V power for the ignition system, controls, and any fans to move the warm air around, but the heat source is LPG or Diesel.

 

[Izchaz]

Hi sorry I should have said- we are using a diesel heater and a 12v fridge!

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[Tombola]

Hi sorry I should have said- we are using a diesel heater and a 12v fridge!

frdige has possibly knackered your battery.
Dont use the fridge on electric for a while, get your battery fully charged somewhere, do you have a volt meter you can check the batteries voltage with

 

[Kannon Fodda]

OK, so your battery reader at 14. something volts is the voltage whilst it is charging, or very shortly after whilst the chemical reactions are still taking place. You need to look at the voltage, no load, after it's been standing an hour or so. 12.6 / 12.7V would be full capacity for lead-acid, 12.0V is just below 50% capacity.

Problem is batteries are easily damaged and may suggest they are at full charge, but in practice have limited capacity. If you have drawn heavy loads, or used more than 50% regularly (quite possible if you have a compressor type fridge) then the battery may be worn out. This suggests why you can do a bit of lighting, but it can't do the fridge / heater fan systems. Replacement may be needed, and if you are using a compressor fridge you may need more capacity and thus a second battery.

 

[Izchaz]

Yeah the fridge has been unplugged for a few weeks now while now because it was drawing too much power. We've plugged it into a house to charge yesterday, we don't have a volt reader but have a little digital battery reader (it's called a digital capacity meter) and it says its 100% and 14.4v, but when we turn the diesel heater on it just goes to 0%

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

The 14.4 v is the charger reading not the battery. You need to check the battery in isolation for voltage with your meter when it has been fully charged and see if it holds the charge.
It does seem like the battery has failed but leave it in charge and see if it holds the charge..try your heater again for a few mins and then recheck the battery with your meter.If significantly less than 12.5 volts ,you need a new one.