Battery questions for first time ocean user

[Sarah hay]

Hi all

We just bought a California Ocean but have a few questions re the battery as worried if we use the fridge or heating will it run down the battery. Does it all use the car battery or did I hear something about a leisure battery? How do you charge the batteries or do they charge when the engine is on? And if the leisure battery is out of charge does it use the car battery?

Thanks a million

Sarah

 

[Sad]

to your 1st message...

Lots of info about all of this if you search...

You have 3 batteries, 2 leisure, 1 engine battery.
The engine will charge but not fully, they need charging once a month...

 

[Sarah hay]

Thanks so much! Do they need charging once a month even if not using the fridge etc do you think?

 

[Sad]

Thanks so much! Do they need charging once a month even if not using the fridge etc do you think?

VW recommend once a month, have a look in the manual...

 

[Skewif]

Hi all

We just bought a California Ocean but have a few questions re the battery as worried if we use the fridge or heating will it run down the battery. Does it all use the car battery or did I hear something about a leisure battery? How do you charge the batteries or do they charge when the engine is on? And if the leisure battery is out of charge does it use the car battery?

Thanks a million

Sarah

Welcome and congratulations on your new Ocean. You have 3 batteries, 2 leisure and 1 that just starts the engine. All 3 will charge when running the engine. Can also charge them by plugging the van into the mains via socket under flap next to water filler by LH rear wheel. You will need to buy the correct cable to do this. It’s a good idea to plug in once a month for a good 12 hours or more as this helps keeps the batteries at their best. It causes no harm leaving it plugged in for much longer. Under normal use of fridge, heating and a few lights your leisure batteries should be good for 2-4 days. The camper controller display above the rear view mirror can be set to display the leisure batteries level and current usage. Repeatedly running the batteries low (<40%) and not adequately charging them for many hours will shorten their life / ability to hold a full charge. Always worth checking everything is off when not using for a while. Hope that is of some help and good luck with your travels.

 

[Alan Andrews]

I also want to emphasise the final comments from Skewif re looking after your batteries condition.

Letting the batteries go to a low capacity then with rapid recharging cycles will dramatically impact on the life from each battery. The leisure batteries especially are not inexpensive, so look after them and they will look after you. When our Ocean is standing on the drive for a few days, I plug in the mains lead plus attach a trickle charger for the engine battery. This ensures that all 3 batteries are always at the optimal condition.
Try to find a pitch that includes an electric hookup, rather than drain the leisure batteries when on-pitch.

 

[calimera]

We have a solar panel to keep leisure batteries topped up .We manage camping using fridge/heating for 4/5 days without being on hook up in good sunny weather.

We still plug into the mains once a month( reminder on our diary).
Also run the heating once a month if not using.

Dont leave the radio on on campsite for long ,it will drain the engine battery.
We use radio/Bluetooth speaker to listen to music.

 

[GrannyJen]

Hi all

We just bought a California Ocean but have a few questions re the battery as worried if we use the fridge or heating will it run down the battery. Does it all use the car battery or did I hear something about a leisure battery? How do you charge the batteries or do they charge when the engine is on? And if the leisure battery is out of charge does it use the car battery?

Thanks a million

Sarah

Hi Sarah, and welcome to the forum.

its of excellent advice above,

but don't go fretting about it. Two leisure batteries, even in a dark winters day, will give you with normal usage around 5 days comfortably. The fridge will switch itself off long before you discharge the batteries to damage point so no need to worry about it on that score.
The heater itself does not use a big lump of electric. The fan runs only when it needs to and it only needs a substantial draw when first firing up, after that it just ticks over.

Mostly a reasonable run will give youvirtually fully charged leisure batteries, good for another few days at least.

to fully charge they need to be connected to the mains, as stated above VW recommend around once a month for 24 hours, what that means in reality is that if you are stopping on a campsite with electrical hook-up for more than a day, job done. Winter months, or when you are not using the van for a long period, pop it on charge for a couple of days, or as I do for days at a time.

Now, all this talk about leisure batteries, far more inconvenient is a flat starter battery. Be very careful when parked up opening and closing doors, leaving courtesy lights on, playing the radio etc. In fact I turn my courtesy lights off when parked up and never use the vehicle sound system when camped. The starter battery only receives a very small trickle charge off the mains hook-up so be careful not to flatten it ! Basically just about everything in the cab area runs of the starter battery, everything rear of there, eg. interior habitation lights etc run off the leisure batteries.

 

[WelshGas]

I also want to emphasise the final comments from Skewif re looking after your batteries condition.

Letting the batteries go to a low capacity then with rapid recharging cycles will dramatically impact on the life from each battery. The leisure batteries especially are not inexpensive, so look after them and they will look after you. When our Ocean is standing on the drive for a few days, I plug in the mains lead plus attach a trickle charger for the engine battery. This ensures that all 3 batteries are always at the optimal condition.
Try to find a pitch that includes an electric hookup, rather than drain the leisure batteries when on-pitch.

You don’t have to charge the engine battery with a separate charger Unless it is totally flat.
The built in Charger will charge the Leisure Batteries and once upto about 90% + will trickle charge the engine battery.

In fact I’m not sure if there is any impact in having 2 chargers connected to 1 battery simultaneously.

 

[Geesvw]

Welcome and congratulations on your new Ocean. You have 3 batteries, 2 leisure and 1 that just starts the engine. All 3 will charge when running the engine. Can also charge them by plugging the van into the mains via socket under flap next to water filler by LH rear wheel. You will need to buy the correct cable to do this. It’s a good idea to plug in once a month for a good 12 hours or more as this helps keeps the batteries at their best. It causes no harm leaving it plugged in for much longer. Under normal use of fridge, heating and a few lights your leisure batteries should be good for 2-4 days. The camper controller display above the rear view mirror can be set to display the leisure batteries level and current usage. Repeatedly running the batteries low (<40%) and not adequately charging them for many hours will shorten their life / ability to hold a full charge. Always worth checking everything is off when not using for a while. Hope that is of some help and good luck with your travels.

I’m on my third set of leisure batteries on a ten year old T5. The important thing to do apart from regularly charging once a month is “condition” them with an intelligent battery charger. But you can’t do this with then linked in parallel as they are, you need to disconnect the one under the wardrobe first, but make sure that the live terminal can’t connect with any chassis parts. I’ve a plug in lead ready connected to the battery under the front passenger seat for ease as you don’t want to have to remove the seat every time you condition
This conditioning really does help, I’ve had this set of batteries on for 2 years now with no deterioration in performance. Condition every six months
Hope that helps

 

[Ksar-el-kebir]

Hi all

We just bought a California Ocean but have a few questions re the battery as worried if we use the fridge or heating will it run down the battery. Does it all use the car battery or did I hear something about a leisure battery? How do you charge the batteries or do they charge when the engine is on? And if the leisure battery is out of charge does it use the car battery?

Thanks a million

Sarah

I never plugged mine in until going for a month round Europe this year. Didn’t even have a cable for the first 18 months.
Did use it for going to work, turning the heater on remotely from my upstairs flat at 02:30 on cold mornings!
Note to self, ”if all else fails, read the handbook”!

 

[BeeBee]

All very illuminating, but still wondered… are the upstairs light, as the switches are ‘front cabin’, off of the engine /starter battery or leisure battery. And also the 12 v upstairs socket ?

 

[BeeBee]

Just for info, on a pitch in Melrose and wondered why the 3 pin socket wasn’t getting power from hook up….. checked hook up mains and discovered ‘tripped switch’… simple but could have had us wondering, check fuses 1st !
And next time we’ll check before we put the awning up, just in case there’s a mains issue and we need to move pitch

 

[Lambeth Cali]

Hi all

We just bought a California Ocean but have a few questions re the battery as worried if we use the fridge or heating will it run down the battery. Does it all use the car battery or did I hear something about a leisure battery? How do you charge the batteries or do they charge when the engine is on? And if the leisure battery is out of charge does it use the car battery?

Thanks a million

Sarah

I have a 2008 California I’ve owned since 2009. We camp in it and go for days out in it. It often sits for a couple of months without being driven. If we go out to the beach that will charge the battery up.

I plug it in for 24 hours before we go away every August. Other than that never bother with what ‘VW recommends’. No charging at home.

Charging at home is like flossing. Advisable but, you know, lots of things are advisable.

There is an important switch in the rear cupboard. Normally it will be down and so driving will charge the leisure battery.

When plugged in it needs to be flicked up and red.

I think this is a surge protector to stop your battery being damaged during mains charging.

When we are on holiday en France we are usually driving 3 hours between sites so arrive fully charged. We use the fridge and interior lights, not a lot else and our batteries will lose 10% a day so can easily last 5 days. I tend to alternate plugging in at campsites. This year we are going to 5 sites so I will pay to plug in at sites 2 and 4.

Our batteries are now 14 years old and appear to work perfectly. They are fitted with 2 big, good quality leisure batteries. The California is designed to be used and works very well. Honestly don’t worry about it.

I would definitely recommend setting the control panel to show you the battery %. It’s v reassuring.

It’s in the main menu under “display”.


OP Sept 2018! I need to wake up!