Leisure Battery flat

[MattBW]

Yes my friend had one of those in his Land Rover on our camping weekend. Kept his drinks cold up to Saturday when his battery completely died (no volt reading).

4 days away off grid, I left with 12.4v his battery was utterly dead and after an hour charging only managed 7.6v. Probably ruined.

His runs constantly regardless of internal temp which is why it's so inefficient. My waeco runs only when needed and is well insulated, making it very efficient.

 

[Monica]

Hi all
Still newbies with our Beach. After reading some threads about leisure battery I bought a Voltmeter to check which socket was supplied by leisure battery and which one by the main one. .... Now I am really confused :-( ....... I switched the engine on and ALL sockets displayed 14.8V !! What does this mean? Are they all powered by main battery?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Monica

 

[MattBW]

That's just the alternator charging the batteries


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[Monica]

That's just the alternator charging the batteries


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Thanks fir your reply and apologies for being so clueless .... how can I find out then? With engine off? My understanding was that 14+ V was coming from main batt and 12.5 V (or less) from Leisure .... Also, when we hook up to tje mains on a campsite does the leisure battery get charged or only when driving?
Regards
Monica

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks fir your reply and apologies for being so clueless .... how can I find out then? With engine off? My understanding was that 14+ V was coming from main batt and 12.5 V (or less) from Leisure .... Also, when we hook up to tje mains on a campsite does the leisure battery get charged or only when driving?
Regards
Monica

When fully charged ALL batteries would show about 12.6v. When engine is running ALL batteries will show 14.4v when charged as the engine alternator charges both engine and Leisure Battery via a split charge relay. When on Mains Power the Leisure Battery will show 14.4v and the Engine Battery may show a Voltage greater than 12.6v BUT only when the Leisure Battery is full charged as the Charger only trickle charges the Engine Battery when the Leisure Battery is fully charged.

 

[MattBW]

My fully charged leisure battery will be just over 13v (mine is 13.1v) when fully charged if the engine or charger isn't running. Usually day to day lower as above 12.6ish.

When on hookup you will charge (you should see higher than 13v mine usually between 13.6 and 14.2.


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[Wayne Townsend]

Hi Welsh Gas I'm really interested if Blue motion means I need a smart charger rather than a split relay to ensure my leisure battery is fully charged . See the following 2 links .

https://www.travelvolts.net/

https://www.ablemail.co.uk/sites/default/files/products/ablemailbatterychargerselectionguide.pdf

Does your van always charge at 14V or does it sometimes charge at a lower voltage ?

 

[WelshGas]

Hi Welsh Gas I'm really interested if Blue motion means I need a smart charger rather than a split relay to ensure my leisure battery is fully charged . See the following 2 links .

https://www.travelvolts.net/

https://www.ablemail.co.uk/sites/default/files/products/ablemailbatterychargerselectionguide.pdf

Does your van always charge at 14V or does it sometimes charge at a lower voltage ?

Sorry for the delay. The charging voltage varies with a maximum of 14.4v.

I presume you are undertaking a conversion on a vehicle with BlueMotion?

Are you ever going to WildCamp? If so then a split-charge relay would be definitely required and a Smart Charger to charge the battery at home as the Alternator alone will not be able to charge the Leisure Battery to more than 80% + capacity.

If you are ONLY going to camp with Mains Hook-Up then a Smart Charger is required and also regular top-up charging at home. A Split-Charge relay would not be a necessity but could be helpful.

 

[Wayne Townsend]

Sorry for the delay. The charging voltage varies with a maximum of 14.4v.

I presume you are undertaking a conversion on a vehicle with BlueMotion?

Are you ever going to WildCamp? If so then a split-charge relay would be definitely required and a Smart Charger to charge the battery at home as the Alternator alone will not be able to charge the Leisure Battery to more than 80% + capacity.

If you are ONLY going to camp with Mains Hook-Up then a Smart Charger is required and also regular top-up charging at home. A Split-Charge relay would not be a necessity but could be helpful.

 

[Wayne Townsend]

Yes my vehicle has Bluemotion. I plan to Wildcamp .

Why can an alternator only charge the leisure battery to 80% ? Is that because the alternator and bluemotion alternator control /manage the charging of the starting battery and do not care about any leisure battery .(Or is it the length of cable from the alternator to the leisure battery?Will one of these Smart B2B chargers like the Ablemail unit not achieve 100% charge ?

I like the idea of a solar input on the charger too to make use of the sun too

 

[WelshGas]

Yes my vehicle has Bluemotion. I plan to Wildcamp .

Why can an alternator only charge the leisure battery to 80% ? Is that because the alternator and bluemotion alternator control /manage the charging of the starting battery and do not care about any leisure battery .(Or is it the length of cable from the alternator to the leisure battery?Will one of these Smart B2B chargers like the Ablemail unit not achieve 100% charge ?

I like the idea of a solar input on the charger too to make use of the sun too

The BlueMotion System needs room to store the power generated by Regenerative Braking so normally the maximum will be around 80-90% of the batteries capacity controlled by the electronics. Solar or a Mains Smart Charger can take all the batteries upto 100% in time - about 12-24hrs if starting from a high charge level, of 80% or so.

 

[Wayne Townsend]

The BlueMotion System needs room to store the power generated by Regenerative Braking so normally the maximum will be around 80-90% of the batteries capacity controlled by the electronics. Solar or a Mains Smart Charger can take all the batteries upto 100% in time - about 12-24hrs if starting from a high charge level, of 80% or so.

I think a Smart dc dc charger should also take the leisure battery up to 100% as it works in the same way as a smart mains charger . Interestingly the Ablemail link suggests that 100% is achieved in 2-3hrs for a 30A charger on a discharged battery . Presumably this has something to do with the very high charge current available from an alternator

 

[Esandar#1]

Hi all
Still newbies with our Beach. After reading some threads about leisure battery I bought a Voltmeter to check which socket was supplied by leisure battery and which one by the main one. .... Now I am really confused :-( ....... I switched the engine on and ALL sockets displayed 14.8V !! What does this mean? Are they all powered by main battery?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Monica

Hi Monica, we have a March 2017 Beach so it may be different to yours... but the only 12v socket that appears to run directly off the engine battery is the one on the face of the dashboard (in the middle). The fuse recently blew on our 12v circuit so the leisure battery, all rear lights, the 12v circuit (and aux diesel heater) were all out. VW replaced the leisure battery as they felt it was faulty. So, if we are driving now, we would always plug our Dometic fridge into THAT 12v socket as it definitely isn't linked to the leisure battery 12v circuit. The issue is there is no easy way of telling what the charge is on the leisure battery in the Beach model - unless I buy a voltage meter reader plug in thingy?!

I'd like to have a more powerful leisure battery but unless it fails again that would mean me spending the extra money to replace the new one I have, which right now seems a bit pointless. I guess I should have asked the dealer if I could pay the extra for the (much) uprated more powerful version!