More on leisure battery drain

[v-tec]

Oh well, just put all the bedding etc back after replacement of faulty charger control unit! But guess I am doing public service to all those in our area getting the local van centre up to speed.

I guess the charger was charging then draining the batterys, (not such a smart charger then)
Glad you have it sorted.

 

[campandfly]

On my 2013 LHD Cali, the inverter fuse is SF7 under the driver's seat (LHD...).
Seemingly fuse locations can vary!

Thank you 2cv

 

[WelshGas]

Have you ever used the Inverter socket?
When you plug into the inverter the plug activates a switch to switch the inverter on. It then starts consuming battery power, even if the item plugged in is Off.
If that switch is faulty or you have an adapter plugged into the inverter socket then the inverter is on and is consuming some battery power.

 

[Larkrise]

Yes, we have used the inverter socket, but thanks to the forum we are aware of the switch so have nothing plugged into it. But could be faulty I guess...

 

[muttley]

I am experiencing the same battery drain for the first time this week on my 2 year old van. 100% on Wednesday evening, and now it is down to 60% 2 days later when it has just been sitting on the drive. No lights / fridge etc left on, nothing plugged in. Control panel shows just 0.2A drain.

I can't tell from the replies whether or not this is a common problem, or if a trip to the dealer beckons. Any help would be gratefully received.

Simon

 

[jeff]

7year old van and batteries 100% Monday been sat on drive all week just checked showing 90% charge. Hope this helps.

 

[muttley]

Thanks. That confirms I should add this to the list of problems. Hmmmm.

 

[GrannyJen]

The battery indicator can be very misleading.

Go for a run, switch off, 100% but 100% when there has been only input, not output.

Leave it for 5 minutes and 90% because now there is only output, even if it is only the CCU smiling at you.

Leave it for another 10 minutes and something else might just kick in and now it's 70% but then rush around turning everything off and it's 90% again.

I have a problem with my charging circuit, 18 month old Cali. I know what it is, just have to convince SMG and VW, both of whom have failed to fix it. It's the voltage control unit on the charger which everyone seems to know about other than VW. Too close to the fridge and overheats when the fridge is working.

It causes the EHU to stop charging the battery even though it continues to provide power to the 3 pin 240v circuit.

I'm an historian, not an electro engineer but it's simple deduction.

 

[muttley]

Thanks. That does make perfect sense, but I haven't had anything at all running, so I think the drain is suspiciously large. In the past the van has often been left for a week or more, and the charge seemed to remain pretty static. i think it is worth checking out - I will report back if the dealer finds anything.

Simon

 

[Larkrise]

I have logged this issue with local van centre and am waiting for them to call me back. Granny Jen: I previously had no charge from hook-up and the charging control unit was replaced. This fixed the charging issue but still have the battery discharge issue. I wonder if the control unit problem could have damaged one or both leisure batteries... but am waiting for van centre thinking time.

 

[bvddobb]

It's the voltage control unit on the charger which everyone seems to know about other than VW. Too close to the fridge and overheats when the fridge is working.

It causes the EHU to stop charging the battery even though it continues to provide power to the 3 pin 240v circuit.

Jen, we have the same setup as you, charger and fridge condensor on top of each other, but we have not yet seen that the charger quits us because it gets overheated. Today I made an interesting discovery that may be relevant to this issue.

I did the earth shunt repair thing this afternoon ( a story in itself), and as a part of that process I had to get the fridge out. When the whole unit was out, I noticed a small sort of dip-switch on the power unit. I did not think to make a picture or remember the reading exactly because I didn't realise the relevancy until I read this post, but on the switch it said something like 'with temperature sensor' and 'without temperature sensor'. Ours was switched towards 'without temperature sensor'. I left it like that.
So, it seems one can switch the temp sensor on the charger off, thereby preventing it from switching down when things get hot down there.... Now I don't know if we now run the risk of the whole Cali burning down one night, but it might explain why we have never had the unit switch off on us, and you have. Perhaps yours is switched the other way?

 

[muttley]

The battery indicator can be very misleading.

Go for a run, switch off, 100% but 100% when there has been only input, not output.

Leave it for 5 minutes and 90% because now there is only output, even if it is only the CCU smiling at you.

Leave it for another 10 minutes and something else might just kick in and now it's 70% but then rush around turning everything off and it's 90% again.

I have a problem with my charging circuit, 18 month old Cali. I know what it is, just have to convince SMG and VW, both of whom have failed to fix it. It's the voltage control unit on the charger which everyone seems to know about other than VW. Too close to the fridge and overheats when the fridge is working.

It causes the EHU to stop charging the battery even though it continues to provide power to the 3 pin 240v circuit.

I'm an historian, not an electro engineer but it's simple deduction.

As usual GrannyJen, you are quite right!

We no longer have the 'phantom' current drain, and it seems to have been a case of inaccurate reporting of the battery status. As you say, the % can appear to drop very quickly, but this is simply due to the indicator either guessing or rounding up! If I charge up the van on the drive using the hookup cable, then it remains at 100% or at least 90% for days. However, if I charge the battery by just driving (even on a longish run) then the % drops much faster, suggesting that it was never really at 100% to start with. It is quite possible that the tomtom & dashcam drain far more current than I expect, and so the rate at which the batteries are replenished is much slower than I thought. Thanks for your help.

Simon

 

[bvddobb]

As usual GrannyJen, you are quite right!

We no longer have the 'phantom' current drain, and it seems to have been a case of inaccurate reporting of the battery status. As you say, the % can appear to drop very quickly, but this is simply due to the indicator either guessing or rounding up! If I charge up the van on the drive using the hookup cable, then it remains at 100% or at least 90% for days. However, if I charge the battery by just driving (even on a longish run) then the % drops much faster, suggesting that it was never really at 100% to start with. It is quite possible that the tomtom & dashcam drain far more current than I expect, and so the rate at which the batteries are replenished is much slower than I thought. Thanks for your help.

Simon

The % is a very rough estimate/calculation (not measurement) by the system, and notoriously unreliable. The Voltage is what you should monitor as indication for your battery status, that is measured and much more accurate. Although, in Cali's with the earth shunt problem (roughly those from before 2010) that reading can also be misleading.

 

[2CV67]

I made hundreds of readings of Voltage & Percentage.
The percentage figure is directly linked to the voltage, except that 100% is shown for any voltage above 12.6v (see below) so can cover different degrees of charge.
I never saw an indication of 12.9v or 12.8v...

13.0v - 100%
12.7v - 100%
12.6v - 100%
12.5v - 90%
12.4v - 80%
12.3v - 70%
12.2v - 60%
12.1v - 50%

 

[snowy55]

I made hundreds of readings of Voltage & Percentage.
The percentage figure is directly linked to the voltage, except that 100% is shown for any voltage above 12.6v (see below) so can cover different degrees of charge.
I never saw an indication of 12.9v or 12.8v...

13.0v - 100%
12.7v - 100%
12.6v - 100%
12.5v - 90%
12.4v - 80%
12.3v - 70%
12.2v - 60%
12.1v - 50%

Very useful information, over what period of time did you take these readings, what load did you apply?

 

[2CV67]

They are daily readings over the winter months with very little load - either zero or just the panel or panel+inverter.
The correlation between volts & % was the same in all cases.

 

[snowy55]

They are daily readings over the winter months with very little load - either zero or just the panel or panel+inverter.
The correlation between volts & % was the same in all cases.

Thanks, useful information.

 

[bvddobb]

Thanks, useful information.

Interesting! I know for certain that, before we did the earth shunt repair, we have had readings of 12.3V/90% (because that was where our heater shut down, see elsewhere on this forum) and others. Since the repair we haven't bothered to log anything since our leasure battery issues were gone with it, but next long trip we will take some readings!