Flat Battery after first camping trip !

[Stbam]

Hi - Advice appreciated. Took delivery of my new Cali last weekend. It had done 600 miles this week so batteries very charged ! I thought that the leisure battery would last 3 days with fridge/heater/lights without hookup from research. We did a 1 night camp trip so I thought we would be fine. We had the fridge on for 12 hours without engine running, heater for 10 minutes and 1 light on for about 2 hours. Next morning Cali wouldn't start, fridge off so both the engine and leisure battery were drained....What did I do wrong ?!

Cheers for any help....

 

[Sp0_0k]

If you use a socket from the dashboard it drains main battery. Same for listening radio.
Not sure why would stock Beach hold 3 days with fridge, lights and heater. Just a fridge alone is around 3-5A/H
That will kill a single leisure battery in 2 days 100%

 

[Hotel California]

If your verhicle details are correct (it says T5 beach ) and due the fact the beach has just one lesure batterie you need to be cautious not to use to much power i guess .
Guess it was a portable frigde in the beach , did you check thatone , maybe it kept running due to thermostat failure...and as @Spooky says use NO 12v sockets from the dash while parked up
Indeed a bummer on your first trip , could be someting was wrong and the batterie was not charged enough during the drive....
Are you beeing towed away or started by an other verhicle ?
Check the charging of the lesurebatterie works by voltmeter.
There are treads on how to check ....

 

[SusiBus]

The important thing is that you have said that both batteries were flat.

With regard to the engine battery, two things that can flatten it over night are, if you've got an electric door fitted and you use that too much, or you listen to the stereo system alot, both can flatten it because both of these items run off the engine battery.

Once the engine battery is flat you will possibly need the radio four number code to get the stereo/ Info system up and running again.

We wild camp all the time and have never used an electric hook-up. We have flatten the battery with the electric door and stereo system, but have never had any trouble with the leisure battery going flat. We now know better, and have ordered a new Cali without an electric door.


As you have said you had done 600 miles the week before, this looks like the might be a slightly bigger problem because both batteries should have been reasonable charged prior to stopping over night.

 

[GrannyJen]

As all of the above, if I am camping without hook-up then my courtesy lights are switched off, all 12V connections in the cab are disconnected and I do not use the vehicles sound system.

Regarding leisure battery, a single battery can discharge quickly. At this time of year with my fridge running virtually all the time my two SE leisure batteries will have lost 30% by the following morning.

 

[Rich20]

Hi - Advice appreciated. Took delivery of my new Cali last weekend. It had done 600 miles this week so batteries very charged ! I thought that the leisure battery would last 3 days with fridge/heater/lights without hookup from research. We did a 1 night camp trip so I thought we would be fine. We had the fridge on for 12 hours without engine running, heater for 10 minutes and 1 light on for about 2 hours. Next morning Cali wouldn't start, fridge off so both the engine and leisure battery were drained....What did I do wrong ?!

Cheers for any help....

The Beach battery is only 75ah which means it can, in theory, run a 1amp ampliance for 75 hours, a 2 amp for 37.5 hours. I say in theory as there are a lot of variable. The battery will only charge to about 80% from the alternator. Temperature makes a difference. The best bet is to do a full charge using a smart charger before a 3 day trip. Did you use a compressor fridge ( only runs when needed) or a themoelectric which runs continuously? As said before at 3-5 amps, your battery could be flat in as much as 10 to 15 hours using a thermoelectric type. Was it plugged into the cab socket or one of the rear ones? Not sure why your starter battery went flat if you were using a rear socket. You can a device from Waeco to prevent your battery drains to far. It will cut of the fridge at a predetermined point to save the battery.

 

[Stbam]

Wow guys thanks so much for the prompt replies. That is so helpful and I'm really grateful. So to answer a couple of questions.
We didn't use the van radio at all once we had stopped.
We don't have an electric door.
We used the 12v socket in the roof section for the light we had on (the light is the LCD one supplied with the new Cali).
The fridge is Waeco that comes with the Cali when you order it from the factory and was connected to the 12v in the boot section.
We did connect to the dash - we tried to charge an iPad mini in the USB socket but realised it did not charge when we were static so ditched that.
Other than that we didn't use the dash chargers at all.

We had the lights in the back of the cab on but only for about 2 hours total.

One thought, does the leisure battery require charging from a hook up before you go away or should it charge with the drive ? (The drive to the night away was 2.5 hours so I am sure it should have been fully charged on arrival)

Hope that helps clarify and get some more suggestions. Thanks a million.

 

[Stbam]

Wow guys thanks so much for the prompt replies. That is so helpful and I'm really grateful. So to answer a couple of questions.
We didn't use the van radio at all once we had stopped.
We don't have an electric door.
We used the 12v socket in the roof section for the light we had on (the light is the LCD one supplied with the new Cali).
The fridge is Waeco that comes with the Cali when you order it from the factory and was connected to the 12v in the boot section.
We did connect to the dash - we tried to charge an iPad mini in the USB socket but realised it did not charge when we were static so ditched that.
Other than that we didn't use the dash chargers at all.

We had the lights in the back of the cab on but only for about 2 hours total.

One thought, does the leisure battery require charging from a hook up before you go away or should it charge with the drive ? (The drive to the night away was 2.5 hours so I am sure it should have been fully charged on arrival)

Hope that helps clarify and get some more suggestions. Thanks a million.

The Beach battery is only 75ah which means it can, in theory, run a 1amp ampliance for 75 hours, a 2 amp for 37.5 hours. I say in theory as there are a lot of variable. The battery will only charge to about 80% from the alternator. Temperature makes a difference. The best bet is to do a full charge using a smart charger before a 3 day trip. Did you use a compressor fridge ( only runs when needed) or a themoelectric which runs continuously? As said before at 3-5 amps, your battery could be flat in as much as 10 to 15 hours using a thermoelectric type. Was it plugged into the cab socket or one of the rear ones? Not sure why your starter battery went flat if you were using a rear socket. You can a device from Waeco to prevent your battery drains to far. It will cut of the fridge at a predetermined point to save the battery.

Thanks Rich - By smart charger do you mean connect to the electric hook up point but then plug into a socket at home before we go ?

 

[Rich20]

Thanks Rich - By smart charger do you mean connect to the electric hook up point but then plug into a socket at home before we go ?

Have a look at Ctek and you will see what I mean. You can charge on hook up at home but again you will not get a full charge from the onboard charger. The smart chargers go through a cycle that reconditions the battery to its full potential each time you use the charger. I always do this before I go away. I then plug into the campsite hookup to maintain the battery. The VW fridge is not a compressor type so will be power hungry. Nothing you have mentioned should have killed the starter battery so that has me confused.

 

[bvddobb]

So, you only use power from your leisure battery, and the next morning your starter battery is down? I don't dare to think that the old ugly 'diode-problem' is back again in the new Cali's...? I couldn't think how else you could have drained your starter battery when nothing was feeding off it.

When on hook-up, these days your Cali charges your leisure battery AND your starter battery. There is a diode between the leisure and starter circuits, making sure that current flows from your leisure circuit to your starter circuit when on hookup, but never from your starter circuit to your leisure circuit. Well, that is the idea...

But in certain older series, VW had managed to put this diode the wrong way around...! And then, when you drain the leisure battery enough for the voltage to drop below the starter's voltage, your starter battery will start to 'help' the leisure battery and drains without your realising it...
Our Cali had that issue, so we had the same experience on our first trip: no starting when we wanted to move on! We turned the diode around, and never had that problem again. Don't tell me they have re-introduced this issue in the Cali!

Can't hurt to check. In this thread on the German Caliboard you will find an extensive description of the issue (in German...).

 

[DM]

The leisure batteries will only charge to a maximum of 80% off the alternator so it is always worth baking sure they are fully charged before a trip by hooking up at home for 24 hours.

 

[vmaxkiddy]

Did you turn off the cab/door courtesy lights ? These run off the engine battery so could run it down if you had the doors open for a while.

 

[MattBW]

If you use a socket from the dashboard it drains main battery. Same for listening radio.
Not sure why would stock Beach hold 3 days with fridge, lights and heater. Just a fridge alone is around 3-5A/H
That will kill a single leisure battery in 2 days 100%

That is not entirely as straight forward as that. The average per hour is a lot less than that, you are quoting the power useage when the compressor is going but it wont be running for the entire hour so it actually considerably less.

My fridge will happily run for two days in the beach and even then the low voltage cutout on the fridge should stop it being absoliutely exhausted as above. It also shouldn't touch the vehicle battery. Perhaps the fridge was plugged into a front 12v socket as you suggest?.

If the van won't start then either you've drained the main battery through front 12v socket or radio use or something is wrong. The leisure system should not drain the main battery.

It is true however to get 100% battery you need to put the van on hookup for a while.

 

[Sp0_0k]

Yes 5AH is for most compressor fridges running non stop. Can happen in -22 freezer mode at hot weather so just giving the max figures.

 

[Punchy England]

I have had experience of leaving the ignition on when I have put the roof up so everything is drawing current in the cab area. Also if you turn the ignition off but leave the keys in my lights stay on outside the vehicle, something to do with the courtesy/safety package. I have had several people come up and tell me my lights were on when I didn't know.
Punchy

 

[MattBW]

24 hours so far with my Waeco on in my beach. Still cold and running with voltage cut out at medium.

I have noticed that the step lights stay on for quite some time before they go out assuming they are in the vehicle battery? Is there a way to disable them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jts46]

24 hours so far with my Waeco on in my beach. Still cold and running with voltage cut out at medium.

I have noticed that the step lights stay on for quite some time before they go out assuming they are in the vehicle battery? Is there a way to disable them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine switch off by using the courtesy switch overhead

John

 

[MattBW]

Mine sadly don't seem to, set to off but they come on every time a door or the boot is opened. I appreciate they are LEDs and efficient but why waste power when wild camping?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Punchy England]

The Beach battery is only 75ah which means it can, in theory, run a 1amp ampliance for 75 hours, a 2 amp for 37.5 hours. I say in theory as there are a lot of variable. The battery will only charge to about 80% from the alternator. Temperature makes a difference. The best bet is to do a full charge using a smart charger before a 3 day trip. Did you use a compressor fridge ( only runs when needed) or a themoelectric which runs continuously? As said before at 3-5 amps, your battery could be flat in as much as 10 to 15 hours using a thermoelectric type. Was it plugged into the cab socket or one of the rear ones? Not sure why your starter battery went flat if you were using a rear socket. You can a device from Waeco to prevent your battery drains to far. It will cut of the fridge at a predetermined point to save the battery.

 

[Punchy England]

Rich where do you plug in your ctek smart charger I can't get to the leisure batteries or do you attach to the van battery under the bonnet
Punchy

 

[WelshGas]

If you use a socket from the dashboard it drains main battery. Same for listening radio.
Not sure why would stock Beach hold 3 days with fridge, lights and heater. Just a fridge alone is around 3-5A/H
That will kill a single leisure battery in 2 days 100%

Unless wired differently there are 2 12v sockets on the Dashboard. On my vehicle the 12v socket in the Cup Holder draw is connected to the engine battery.
The 12v socket on top of the Dashboard is connected to the Leisure circuit. I've confirmed this with a plug in Volt meter.

Hi - Advice appreciated. Took delivery of my new Cali last weekend. It had done 600 miles this week so batteries very charged ! I thought that the leisure battery would last 3 days with fridge/heater/lights without hookup from research. We did a 1 night camp trip so I thought we would be fine. We had the fridge on for 12 hours without engine running, heater for 10 minutes and 1 light on for about 2 hours. Next morning Cali wouldn't start, fridge off so both the engine and leisure battery were drained....What did I do wrong ?!

Cheers for any help....

Did you use the Dasboard sockets when camping?
If so, what did you have plugged in?

Mine sadly don't seem to, set to off but they come on every time a door or the boot is opened. I appreciate they are LEDs and efficient but why waste power when wild camping?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is very strange. Mine switches off the central Courtesy light and the footwell lights. The switch normally has 3 positions All On - Off but On when door open - All Off.

 

[MattBW]

My beach went 2 days running a Waeco cf40 and lights plus charging my phone. Showing as 12.4/12.5 still. The Waeco auto voltage cut out was going on and off the last day but the fridge stayed 5c the whole time. So should be doable.

Shame the step lights stay on for a while though.

 

[Pete M]

I have had experience of leaving the ignition on when I have put the roof up so everything is drawing current in the cab area. Also if you turn the ignition off but leave the keys in my lights stay on outside the vehicle, something to do with the courtesy/safety package. I have had several people come up and tell me my lights were on when I didn't know.
Punchy

Same as!

 

[Rich20]

Sorry for It replying sooner. Been away. I got a ctek comfort adapter with the status LED lights on and wired that straight to the leisure battery. I just plug the charger into the built in socket on the adaptor. I do not use this while on hook up though as the battery will then charge from the built in charger, so I just run a seperate tempory mains supply to the ctek charger.

Rich where do you plug in your ctek smart charger I can't get to the leisure batteries or do you attach to the van battery under the bonnet
Punchy

 

[cleve]

You say the fridge is a waeco but is it actually a compressor waeco or just a 12v coolbox which will drain the battery super fast?