safe without a leisure battery?

[fammove]

if not planning on camping off grid, are there any negative consequences of just disconnecting the possibly problematic leisure battery (see below) for a week so can continue trip?

I seem to have an issue with my motherboard or possibly charger/leisure battery and need to get this checked out properly by a pro, but folk are very busy (no quick appointments and understand mother board may need to be sent away) and I need a solution now. lights are not working if connected to mains, but sockets are. lights are working if connected to leisure battery. leisure battery is getting hotter than normal when connected to mains. keen to stay on trip!

with thanks for any advice.

 

[Speve]

Sounds like a faulty charger if your battery is getting hot have you checked to see it’s set to the correct battery type? There should be a switch on the charger with differing types eg. Lead acid, gel ,agm etc

 

[David and Sally]

 

[Tombola]

IM usnure what you mean by "MOtherboard" is this a laptop myou are using ? or bh motherboard do you mean the main input consumer unit (where all your electrics come from)
Lights not working when on electric hookup could just be a fuse in the fuse box or on the 230v circuit somewhere.

BAttery temp higher than normal, how did you work this out? what van/charger/battery do you have do you know.

disconnectng the leisure battery wont harm it for a while, what sort of battery is it do you have a voltneter you can get the voltage of the battery and we can advise further

 

[pappajohn]

If the charger is working your lights should also work.
I don't understand below....

lights are not working if connected to mains

lights are working if connected to leisure battery

Your lights are permenantly connected to the leisure battery. They only work on 12v and on hookup the charger effectively runs the lights via the battery.

When wild camping it shouldn't be a problem as you will have no mains hookup.

Do you mean the battery is physically disconnected at the battery terminals?
Even then the lights will still work on hookup.

And..... If your battery is getting hot it sounds like an internal fault/internal short circuit and could be dangerous. Batteries have been known to explode.
Just renew the battery and see how it goes from there.

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[Phill D]

If you do decide to disconnect the leisure battery and drive make sure the terminals are safe and cannot short out or you will likely cause significant damage to the electric, alternator and maybe a fire.

 

[Lenny HB]

If the battery is getting hot I would disconnect it, exploding batteries make quite a mess.
Some chargers are OK to use without a battery connected but some use the battery as a smoother and give out a very ripply waveform without which can damage equipment.
Also before running without a battery check the voltage it above 14.7 don't do it.

 

[fammove]

thank you all for such rapid replies! apologies for novice or silly asks - borrowed van from elderly father in law and I'm still learning!

so....

leisure battery recently renewed (and first van outing since) . numax cxv (XV24MF 86Ah C20). Not sure where charger is - no easy to see switch to check battery type is correct? battery is hot to touch when on mains (assume leisure battery charges when driving and if so, much much cooler).

confirming that lights do work if switched to leisure batt, but not if switched to mains.

 

[pappajohn]

confirming that lights do work if switched to leisure batt, but not if switched to mains.

This doesn't make sense, you cannot switch between power sources.
Physically plug into an electric hookup you get mains power which also charges the battery. .
Unplug from mains you get battery only.
The lights are connected to the battery regardless of power source.

 

[Speve]

The lights are connected to the battery regardless of power source

As I recall we had an Autotrail that did have a couple of lights that only worked on mains but remainder on 12v so there could be some exceptions?

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[autorouter]

The battery should not be hot to touch. Something is wrong. There are a few possibilities, but basically either the charger is OK but the battery is faulty, or the battery is OK and the charger is faulty. Or both of course. A faulty charger can cause a faulty battery.

Has the battery been recently disconnected? Does the motorhome have any solar panels?

 

[TheBig1]

A nice hot battery full of sulphuric acid, what's not to love? Seriously if the battery is hot it is either over charging a bad battery or discharging fast to a near short circuit. Both are dangerous and a hot battery produced hydrogen sulphide (stinks like bad eggs) and hydrogen (colourless, odourless and highly explosive)

 

[Spriddler]

A pic of your leccy control panel and its switches might give us a clue............
The charger for my Compass is below the false floor inside the wardrobe.

 

[fammove]

does this help? I guess the charger is on the left of the second picture?

 

[GeoffnDee]

autorouter has asked already, but can you confirm if a solar panel is fitted or not ?

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[autorouter]

The charger is the PS127-13.8-BC, the grey box in the third picture. It is a fixed output (13.8V) charger, ie it is not an intelligent 3-stage charger. Ideally I'd like to see a voltage reading from a multimeter on the actual battery terminals. However if you haven't got a multimeter yet, you could read the voltage on the control panel.

Push the AUX/VEH switch at the top, so it makes the meter show the AUX battery voltage. With Mains hookup connected, it should read 13.8V, and no higher. With mains hookup disconnected, the battery should gradually drop to its resting voltage over a few hours The resting voltage will be between 12.0 and 12.8V, depending on how charged the battery is.

If the voltage is 14.0V or more, or is less than 11.0V, then you have a problem.

 

[the1andonly]

The lights are connected to the battery regardless of power source.

As with Speve we had a situation that didnt quite follow this rule, all be it a peninne folding camper. The 12v lights and sockets were feed of the sargent unit if on ehu and swiched on such that 12v would work without a battery connected.