Lion leisure battery 679 - 105 Ah

[rnb100]

I couldn't find a specific section to post this query, so this is as good as I could find. Apologies if there's a better section for this.

My PVC has the above leisure battery installed. The conversion was done in 2016, so I'm going to make a fair assumption that it is the original leisure battery that was installed during the conversion.

After I've had the van on charge for a good amount of time (12 hours+), as soon as I disconnect the EHU, the leisure battery drops to 80% immediately and shows 12.8 volts max. Is this normal, or have I got a tired battery? When it's on charge to my domestic supply, it's showing 13.7 volts. When I'm running the compressor fridge on a medium setting, running the fridge appears to be having a big drain.

I'm no electrician and all these volts and Ah is a bit alien to me. Up until recently, I've always been in campsites on EHU and never noticed any kind of usage.

For information, I only have one leisure battery.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

The 13.7 v is the charging voltage,what's the battery like after say an hour with something reasonably heavy on ,like a TV.?

 

[rnb100]

The 13.7 v is the charging voltage,what's the battery like after say an hour with something reasonably heavy on ,like a TV.?

To try and conserve the leisure battery, I've been running the 12v TV and Firestick off of my Power Oak and the only load has been the fridge. In less than an hour, the battery had gone from 12.7 volts, to 12.2 volts. If that kept up, I'd be out of juice pretty quickly, so I switched the fridge off to stop this happening and I really don't want to wake up with no power, as this would kick the heating off and it would be freezing.

Daft question, but if the Truma heating was on (running on gas), would this have a demand on the leisure battery at all?

Thanks,

Arron.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

The heater needs a fan to blow the hot air around and is usually quite heavy on power. You say you ran your fridge on 12 v,.this will use a lot of power and really should be on gas or ehu. Only 12 v when the engine is running usually.
When the battery showed 12.2 v and you switched off the fridge,did it stay at 12.2 or go back to 12.7…?

 

[funflair]

Hi

12.7 volts is OK off the charger but 12.2 is not good, to do that in an hour is most likely time for a new batter, do you just have one though as it seems a bit minimal with a compressor fridge.

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[funflair]

The heater needs a fan to blow the hot air around and is usually quite heavy on power. You say you ran your fridge on 12 v,.this will use a lot of power and really should be on gas or ehu. Only 12 v when the engine is running usually.
When the battery showed 12.2 v and you switched off the fridge,did it stay at 12.2 or go back to 12.7…?

Compressor fridge

 

[rnb100]

The heater needs a fan to blow the hot air around and is usually quite heavy on power. You say you ran your fridge on 12 v,.this will use a lot of power and really should be on gas or ehu. Only 12 v when the engine is running usually.
When the battery showed 12.2 v and you switched off the fridge,did it stay at 12.2 or go back to 12.7…?

The fridge is a compressor fridge and can only be ran on EHU or battery (to my knowledge).

This has only became apparent recently, as I've been parking up at the beach and relying on the battery and gas.

Yes, the voltage increased when I switched the fridge off, but not to 12.7. I believe it was around 12.5 volts.

 

[rnb100]

Hi

12.7 volts is OK off the charger but 12.2 is not good, to do that in an hour is most likely time for a new batter, do you just have one though as it seems a bit minimal with a compressor fridge.

Yes, I've just got the one battery.

So, if I were to buy a new battery. The logical choice would be to go for something more 'meaty'? Having a browse, I'm seeing 220 Ah. I'm assuming that the bigger the Ah, the bigger the battery size? I appear to have a bit of spare room where my battery is located, so I would think I could upgrade.

 

[donkey]

The compressor fridge will use something like 6amps, so will quickly drain a poor or low capacity battery.
You need to isolate the battery after fully charging and run a capacity test. There is loads of info on the net about this test. You will need a quality multimeter and a suitable load ie a headlamp bulb.
Once complete you will know if your battery needs replacing.
If you are off grid and relying on battery power for the compressor fridge, you will need either: more battery capacity, Lithium or solar.

Geoff

 

[funflair]

Yes, I've just got the one battery.

So, if I were to buy a new battery. The logical choice would be to go for something more 'meaty'? Having a browse, I'm seeing 220 Ah. I'm assuming that the bigger the Ah, the bigger the battery size? I appear to have a bit of spare room where my battery is located, so I would think I could upgrade.

I’m not expert on compressor fridges but I think one battery is expecting too much, yes 220ah will be near enough twice the size, be aware that all batteries are not created equal and my rule of thumb is that the weight is a good indicator of quality, I think the Lion is about 24kg so lightweight compared for example to Exide gel 80ah at 28kg.

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[rnb100]

Thanks for everyones advice.

Arron.

 

[autorouter]

A 220Ah battery is better than a 100Ah battery. However it will be very heavy - about the same as two 110Ah batteries, in fact. For this reason most people go for batteries about 100Ah, connected in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative) which will be the same as the battery capacities added together. Depends on what space you have, how easy it is to lift batteries in and out of it, and what fits in the space..

 

[funflair]

A 220Ah battery is better than a 100Ah battery. However it will be very heavy - about the same as two 110Ah batteries, in fact. For this reason most people go for batteries about 100Ah, connected in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative) which will be the same as the battery capacities added together. Depends on what space you have, how easy it is to lift batteries in and out of it, and what fits in the space..

“Very heavy” indeed as I said earlier a better battery is heavy an Exide 110ah gel will be 39kg so 220ah would be too much to man handle really.

 

[bugcab]

Whilst a great deal more expensive many are switching over to Lithium batteries. The advantages are weight and the fact that you have much more usable power. With wet (AGM or Lead acid) you can only use around 50% of the total Ah before the battery is exhausted, Lithium gives around 80%.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Whilst a great deal more expensive many are switching over to Lithium batteries. The advantages are weight and the fact that you have much more usable power. With wet (AGM or Lead acid) you can only use around 50% of the total Ah before the battery is exhausted, Lithium gives around 80%.

You can discharge Gel batteries by 80%
lithium is more like 95% iirc

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[bugcab]

You can discharge Gel batteries by 80%
lithium is more like 95% iirc

Thank you for that update and the welcome.

Sorry for posting misleading info but noticed the OP has a battery dilemma and nobody had raised the potential of and reasons for a move away from "traditional" lead acid.

Also very pleased to hear this info given I am soon to be the lucky recipient of 2x200ah gel batteries (too heavy for a kind friends self build so he has gone Lithium instead).