Is my leisure battery broken?

[P4dstar]

Will that be suitable for a 105amphr battery? 

My previous battery was 105AH and it worked fine mate. @spruce would be better placed to confirm but the max battery size is 120AH. What do you reckon Spruce?

 

[spruce]

My previous battery was 105AH and it worked fine mate. @spruce would be better placed to confirm but the max battery size is 120AH. What do you reckon Spruce?

I would always recommend the biggest battery you can afford (price as well as size wise.)

The biggest problem is we usually demand more current from the battery than a leisure battery is designed to deliver. So I would now recommend we use a combo battery which is a combined leisure and starter battery.

Numax and others do these batteries. They have a cca (cold cranking amps) rating.

At one time all we had was a couple of pumps. Now we have electric hose reels and diesel heaters which draw far more current than a standard leisure battery is designed to deliver.

 

[P4dstar]

Just to make sure I don't get a paddlin I'm dragging up this old post. The Exide battery I currently use has gone up in price quite considerably. I had a look for A and B rated batteries and found this is the cheapest A rated one around;

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/leisure-batteries/halfords-leisure-battery-hlb800-682097.html

Anyone used one? Its only a 95AH where the Exide one I currently use is 110AH but its A rated where my current one is a B. The current one runs two pumps and two electric reels where this will run 2 pumps and one electric reel. Can pick up in my local Halfords which is a bonus.

Any advice or previous experience welcomed.

 

[ched999uk]

I would go with the 100Ah B class: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/leisure-batteries/halfords-leisure-battery-hlb700-682063.html

Reason being is it's 5% more capacity same 2 year guarantee and it's not an AGM type. Plus its £35 cheaper. Then again the 95Ah agm is heavier so that's better as more lead. 

 

[Pjj]

I've also just noticed that they provide a 2 year warranty on my other one so i'll ask how I put a claim in while i'm there ?

Don’t let them know you are a window cleaner or they will more than likely say the warranty is null and void due to abuse 

 

[P4dstar]

I would go with the 100Ah B class: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/leisure-batteries/halfords-leisure-battery-hlb700-682063.html

Reason being is it's 5% more capacity same 2 year guarantee and it's not an AGM type. Plus its £35 cheaper. Then again the 95Ah agm is heavier so that's better as more lead. 

Forgive my stupidity but the whole AGM thing goes right over my head. I just remember @spruce's advice to buy an A or B rated battery. I'm from St. Helens so I need short simple instructions to get by you see ?

 

[P4dstar]

Don’t let them know you are a window cleaner or they will more than likely say the warranty is null and void due to abuse 

Bloody hell you're only a year late to the party there mate, that was the original question a year ago, I'm just using the same post so I don't get a paddlin ? they were sound about it in the end, straight warranty claim with no quibbles.

 

[ched999uk]

AGM needs a slightly higher voltage to charge so unless you have a decent B2B charger (or mains) with an AGM setting it wont be fully charged.

 

[P4dstar]

AGM needs a slightly higher voltage to charge so unless you have a decent B2B charger (or mains) with an AGM setting it wont be fully charged.

Cool, thats simple enough to understand, thanks mate. It'll be running a sterling 1230 B2B but I could go for the 1260. I could live with the B rated one. I might wait 24 hours to see what discount codes Euro Car Parts send me, normally if you go to checkout but don't finish off they fire offers at you.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I had to order 2 new batteries and it was a nightmare as many types are sold out. Ended up getting a few AGM 110 amp ones for £120 each plus free delivery. They weighed 26 kgs each.

https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/product/advanced-agm-lpx110-leisure-battery-120ah-12v-copy/?https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/leisure-batteries-uk/&gclid=CjwKCAiAgJWABhArEiwAmNVTB0-RwTt56W4jklWxctkiq-9m7eiEDpDbrBp_DBU2cOsqazW7TuNk_hoC6x8QAvD_BwE

I feel I was lucky to get them.

Used code DEC20 and got £30 off as well.

 

[Pjj]

Bloody hell you're only a year late to the party there mate, that was the original question a year ago, I'm just using the same post so I don't get a paddlin ? they were sound about it in the end, straight warranty claim with no quibbles.

?? sorry I didn’t go back to the beginning of the post ??

 

[ched999uk]

Cool, thats simple enough to understand, thanks mate. It'll be running a sterling 1230 B2B but I could go for the 1260. I could live with the B rated one. I might wait 24 hours to see what discount codes Euro Car Parts send me, normally if you go to checkout but don't finish off they fire offers at you.

The 1230 is perfect for a single battery, I think the 1260 is a bit ott unless you have 2 batteries. That said the 1230 would be good for an agm battery as it has a setting for them. 

I would go for Halfords as easy warranty.

Euro Car parts have a code 'MID60' that might help?

 

[P4dstar]

The 1230 is perfect for a single battery, I think the 1260 is a bit ott unless you have 2 batteries. That said the 1230 would be good for an agm battery as it has a setting for them. 

I would go for Halfords as easy warranty.

Euro Car parts have a code 'MID60' that might help?

Yeah that only brings it down to £150, they have a code BATT50 which works intermittently and takes 50% off. I just can't justify that £40 extra for something that will be back to 50% off in a few days.

 

[ched999uk]

Yeah that only brings it down to £150, they have a code BATT50 which works intermittently and takes 50% off. I just can't justify that £40 extra for something that will be back to 50% off in a few days.

Euro Car Parts also do beginning of month, mid month and end of month codes almost every month!!!!! Then extra ones for any occasion they can think off, like valentines day, st Patricks day to name but a few ?

They are a bit like Dominos with their codes and no one ever paying 'full' price ?

 

[spruce]

Euro Car Parts also do beginning of month, mid month and end of month codes almost every month!!!!! Then extra ones for any occasion they can think off, like valentines day, st Patricks day to name but a few ?

They are a bit like Dominos with their codes and no one ever paying 'full' price ?

Like Everest windows.

 

[Part Timer]

Like Everest windows.

I've had mine for 35 years, best double glazing out there, or it was.

 

[P4dstar]

I don't know how they get away with it really. If anywhere else says something is on sale they have to have sold it at a higher price previously. They seem to get around it by charging extortionate prices and then having constant rolling discount codes. In branch their prices are often much more reasonable, sometimes even beating the code prices.

 

[spruce]

I had a standard flooded leisure in my van for the last nearly 7 years. It was replaced with a Lucas leisure maintenance free combo battery with a CCA rating.

I've been tracking the charging rate of the new battery. I thought that as it is able to deliver large amounts of power to start an engine it should also be able to accept a higher rate of charge than a standard leisure battery. But apparently not.

On Friday I took 15 amps from a fully charged battery on a big job. On engine start up and when the charging rate settled down the battery was only accepting a charge of 4amps and dropping. Home was 4 miles away and even with my BB1260 I had hardly replaced any of the current taken.

When a finally finished for the day I was down 18 amps. I plugged my 10 amp charger in when I got home and at 10.00 in the evening the charger still wasn't on 'float.'

As @ched999ukhas reported, an AGM battery needs a dedicated charger. A B2B Sterling BB1260 charger has an AGM setting so having an AGM battery on board is no problem for me. But charging it via a split charge relay or voltage sensing relay isn't ideal. AGM isn't generally suitable for our industry IMHO. (There will be a number who will challenge my saying this.) But a large percentage of window cleaners don't pay enough attention to the battery and seem to be ever having problems.

I follow a few yachting channels on YouTube. A few of them stopped using lead acid batteries in a battery bank due to power delivery limitations. Some went to AGM but found they weren't doing the job either. Lithium Ion seems the way to go for them as they accept large amounts of charge up to 90% of capacity when the charge rate starts tailoring off. Apart from the cost and low temperature charging factors, I haven't reached a conclusion if that technology would help us in our industry or not.

I've had mine for 35 years, best double glazing out there, or it was.

The windows are quality, its the discounts I was thinking about.

 

[ched999uk]

I follow a few yachting channels on YouTube. A few of them stopped using lead acid batteries in a battery bank due to power delivery limitations. Some went to AGM but found they went doing the job either. Lithium Ion seems the way to go for them as they accept large amounts of charge up to 90% of capacity when the charge rate starts tailoring off. Apart from the cost and low temperature charging factors, I haven't reached a conclusion if that technology would help us in our industry or not.

Li-Ion or Li-Po battery are good as you can take 80% capacity out of them and recharge at their capacity rate!!!! So a 100Ah li-po can take a 100Amp charge rate!!! The problem is they don't like cold temps. At 0degC you would probably only get 30-40% Ah out of them. Plus they are very expensive. They are nice and light though. I have quite a few for flying quads ? 

I seem to remember AGM batteries were quite popular with motorhomes when they first came out then they realised the charge requirements were different (some chargers had appropriate settings - Sterling I think) but even with correct settings they were not lasting very well.

 

[spruce]

Li-Ion or Li-Po battery are good as you can take 80% capacity out of them and recharge at their capacity rate!!!! So a 100Ah li-po can take a 100Amp charge rate!!! The problem is they don't like cold temps. At 0degC you would probably only get 30-40% Ah out of them. Plus they are very expensive. They are nice and light though. I have quite a few for flying quads ? 

I seem to remember AGM batteries were quite popular with motorhomes when they first came out then they realised the charge requirements were different (some chargers had appropriate settings - Sterling I think) but even with correct settings they were not lasting very well.

In past posts there have been some windies who swear by AGM. We also had other posts from the same windies telling us a split charge relay (in those days) was a waste of time. The deduction by me is that they only bench charged them.

At one time I might have agreed about a scr being a waste of time for most of us. However, the first scr I had paid for itself on one job. The leisure battery failed on a large job miles from base. We were able to run the van's engine in a secure environment and finish the job. Had we not had that option we would have had to abandon the job, order or find a replacement and then return a couple of days later to finish the job.

It hasn't happened since but anyone with a diesel heater needs to have either a B2B or scr running. At least we can get the first start of the day on the engine's alternator by switching it on before arriving at the first job.

Lets go back to AGM batteries.

I've been watching Dave's YouTube channel "Cruising the Cut."





He installed 3 of these about 18 months ago. He still hasn't done an update on how they are performing that I've come across. Had there been an issue he would have 'kicked off' I'm sure.

In all the industries in the uk, I have come to the conclusion that the demands of live aboard narrow boaters on their batteries are similar to the demands we ask of our batteries.

Yes they have special charge and float parameters which I could set up on my B2B charger. What interests me is that they will accept a rather high recharging rate. What I find off putting is the price. But if the battery lasts longer than a standard lead acid battery then this might justify paying the extra coin for it.

My B2B has a temperature monitor. Our batteries shouldn't drop below freezing as we aim to keep our van's insides above that anyway. I'm sure the rate of charge would reduce in the cold anyway. Of course that would be when we need our batteries performing at their best, wouldn't it?

 

[P4dstar]

I'm gonna have a sterling B2B charger so I don't think I need to worry about AGM then. I don't have a diesel heater so I think I should be set either way. I'm gonna hold out for the Exide one from Euro first, just because I already know that battery though.