Battery maintenance. No EHU? No problem.

[Corradobrit]

I think most of us know that the onboard batteries need careful maintenance to ensure a long useful life. Key to this is maintaining them at an optimal charge level when not being used. Since my Cali is not a daily driver, that I live in an apartment and the Cali is stored in an offsite garage without electrical hookup, this was a problem. I was running the engine for 30-45 mins but this is less than optimal. So I bought an Ecoflow Delta 2, primarily to use while wild camping but to also charge the leisure batteries when parked up in the garage. Worked a treat when I hooked up the Delta to the EHU socket. The Cali's onscreen display went from 5 grey bars to zero and used 90% of the available charge and turned off the Delta 2 when fully charged. This is definitely a workable solution of others in a similar predicament.

 

[andyinluton]

On the other hand, for the price of the cheapest Ecoflow delta 2, you can replace your leisure batteries at least twice. As my first Calis batteries, despite never bothering to plug into the mains except when on site , were still fine at 7 years old, that gives a minimum pay back time of 14 years.

As long as you park the van with a decent amount of charge & turn everything off they shouldn't need topping up for ages.

 

[Corradobrit]

The Delta 2 was purchased primarily for extended off grid campervaning and running high wattage appliances like an electric kettle. The charging is a nice bonus and makes life a little less complicated during the downtimes.

 

[Corradobrit]

It also offers pure sine wave AC so less risk to higher value components eg a projector and laptop

 

[Calimili]

It also offers pure sine wave AC so less risk to higher value components eg a projector and laptop

I achieve the same with a much smaller Bluetti EB3A. The monthly charge is to top up the last 10-15%

 

[Bellcrew]

I think most of us know that the onboard batteries need careful maintenance to ensure a long useful life. Key to this is maintaining them at an optimal charge level when not being used. Since my Cali is not a daily driver, that I live in an apartment and the Cali is stored in an offsite garage without electrical hookup, this was a problem. I was running the engine for 30-45 mins but this is less than optimal. So I bought an Ecoflow Delta 2, primarily to use while wild camping but to also charge the leisure batteries when parked up in the garage. Worked a treat when I hooked up the Delta to the EHU socket. The Cali's onscreen display went from 5 grey bars to zero and used 90% of the available charge and turned off the Delta 2 when fully charged. This is definitely a workable solution of others in a similar predicament.

We have also bought the same power station, since its effective price dropped to £850 it has many uses in the home and when camping off grid. The inclusion of the MPPT charger makes hooking up to a solar panel extremely convenient. As it only weighs 12 kg it is easily moved for various applications.
We also own as a family, a Merry Fisher motorboat, it is moored on a pontoon without power so the the Ecoflow enables the boats batteries to be fully charged at all times as well as enabling the substitution of the gas hob by a cheap Ikea induction hob.

 

[Roger Boeken]

I think most of us know that the onboard batteries need careful maintenance to ensure a long useful life. Key to this is maintaining them at an optimal charge level when not being used. Since my Cali is not a daily driver, that I live in an apartment and the Cali is stored in an offsite garage without electrical hookup, this was a problem. I was running the engine for 30-45 mins but this is less than optimal. So I bought an Ecoflow Delta 2, primarily to use while wild camping but to also charge the leisure batteries when parked up in the garage. Worked a treat when I hooked up the Delta to the EHU socket. The Cali's onscreen display went from 5 grey bars to zero and used 90% of the available charge and turned off the Delta 2 when fully charged. This is definitely a workable solution of others in a similar predicament.

maybe drive the cali in the weekend, or at least once a month using the maximum charge function will also do the job.

 

[Corradobrit]

maybe drive the cali in the weekend, or at least once a month using the maximum charge function will also do the job.

It won't charge to 100%. From what I have seen it requires EHU hookup to get there.

 

[Wannabecamperman]

I've used an AC200Max Bluetti as an EHU, topped up by the 12V plug when driving and a 200w flexi panel when parked up. As well as the gas-free electric kettle and induction options, I have also run a hairdryer, airfryer and microwave from ours before now! I'll never go back ti using gas again in the summer, even with Gaslow or an underslung LPG tank.

 

[Roger Boeken]

It won't charge to 100%. From what I have seen it requires EHU hookup to get there.

We know but it will help Corradobrit to solve his problem.