Should my engine battery be slowly discharging ?

[Ian Halford]

Hi,

new van with lithium leisure battery and solar panels, engine is a stop / start

it’s plugged in to a 16amp EHU but engine battery is very slowly discharging when locked up and alarms on

has been back to dealer with this issue who fitted a 1amp charger for engine battery which has slowed it up a bit, this was due to panel software fault it was not allowing any engine battery charging and this was the fix for it, something to do with stop start !!

does this sound right as thought with a plugged EHU there would now not be any discharge on engine battery

it does have an alarm and tracker

disappointed really !

 

[Lenny HB]

Would help if you said what the van is and the charger/control panel is.
On EHU normally you would expect the starter battery to receive a trickle charge keeping it fully topped up. Without any charging the battery should last at least 3 weeks.

 

[Jake Royd]

I wondered about this when I used to drive a Ducato based minibus which would go flat if left for about 3 weeks.
I can only assume that the parasitic drain (keeping all the ECU's etc. Running) on a Ducato is quite high.

 

[robnchris]

Until we fitted one of Eddies Battery Master our Ducato engine battery would be flat in 6 weeks, that's with an alarm fitted.
No worries since fitting that magic little box.