Which Leisure Battery Charger ?

[paul1]

HI guys

please can anyone recommend the best leisure battery to use for charging and over night charging etc that will keep battery in good shape?

and how often should I charge leisure batteries when not in use also?

cheers all

 

[paul1]

Its a power line extreme 85ah 12v

 

[Jake]

Ring smart charger, been brilliant for my battery

Google this :

Ring RSC508 8A Smart Charger

 

[mark]

get your self a split charge relay kit from ebay.charge your battery from the alternator!!

 

[Jake]

A friends alrernator was shot to bits with a split relay... Not sure there the best option, but a good idea none the less,

Also if your only doing short journeys, then it's not really with it, it never charges the battery enough

 

[mark]

mine was installed in the van & charges both leisure batteries no probs.

 

[Jake]

That's good

 

[DanielT]

I use a numax cvx and ctek charger

 

[steve garwood]

Leisure batteries should be charged the minute they are used, so a split charged relay is better for the battery

 

[spruce]

In theory a split charge relay or better still a VSR (voltage sensing relay) shouldn't effect the alternator at all.

Occasionally alternators fail due to a faulty rotor (armature), field coils or a faulty bearing. In the old days tightening a fan belt too tight would cause premature wear on the front (bearing closest the drive pulley) and cause it to fail.

I'm sorry but I doubt most mechanics would have a clue why a component failed. That was my experience in the motor trade anyway. Gone are the days where mechanics would trouble shoot a problem. If it doesn't show up as a fault code on the computer then its down to guess work. I put them in the same category as window fitters who blame wfp for the failure of double glazed windows.

My VSR will draw around 8 to 10 amps from the alternator to charge my leisure battery. It could initially start off at 25 amps but drops back very quickly (within a few seconds) to the continuous charging rate. That's the same current draw (amps) as 2 only 55 watt headlight bulbs.

A VSR will give priority to the vans starter battery so shouldn't be charging say 2 flat batteries at the same time. The VSR on my son's van is under the passenger seat and it can take around 20 seconds for the relay to click in after her has started his van first thing in the morning. You can heard the audible click of the relay as it switches the relay on. So his VSR does give priority to his van battery.

 

[Jake]

What happens if your only going shirt trips spruce? All my work is in my town, so I'm only driving 10-15 mins to an area, then 1-2min journeys InBetween houses, so not sure it would work ..

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

All my work is less than 2 miles from HQ Jake.

I have a Numax 110mah battery (£70) from Motabits and an SCR i got off ebay for less than £20.

My SCR connects to vehicle battery and not the alternator.

Three months the new battery has been in and does not drop below 24V at all.

Doubt a SCR killed your mates alternator, mos likely was just the alternators time to die.

 

[Jake]

No idea green, he maintains it was overloaded, but he, nor me, are mechanics, so probably just a coincidence,

I'll defo look into one now, I was always worried it would destroy my alternator, I was also told that the alternator wouldn't cope with charging two battery's and running all the other gubbins in a car, probably rubbish too!

Are they easy to fit?

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

this HTML class. Value is [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLA[/media]

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

Hope that helps jake.

 

[spruce]

What happens if your only going shirt trips spruce? All my work is in my town, so I'm only driving 10-15 mins to an area, then 1-2min journeys InBetween houses, so not sure it would work ..

We are in the same situation Jake - 10 - 15 minutes to our first customers. So I put my leisure battery on charge every couple of days. I guess I don't need to have a VSR either, but its paid for itself on at least one occasion when the leisure battery of 3 1/2 years old failed. (It was loosing its capacity but I didn't realise it.) The two of us started a big job and about 3/4's of the way through the battery died. We were able to finish the job with the van's engine running - not the best idea but it was behind security gates. It saved us having to abandon the job 12 miles away and having to return when the battery was replaced a couple of days later.

I've watched and listened to the experiences of a couple of cleaners who don't have split charge relays and don't have a drive to park their vans on. One works with 2 batteries - one he leaves behind on charge and uses the charged one that day. He then swaps them over the following day. One day he got to his first customer 10 miles away and realised he forgot to put the fully charged battery into his van.

The other cleaner also has to take his battery out and take it inside for charging as he also parks his van on the road. If it was me I would put a 120w solar panel on the roof of my van rather than have to lug a 110 amph battery inside for charging every evening.

If a split charge relay isn't the chosen route, then I would also opt for a change over switch which would allow me to swap from my leisure battery to my van battery which would allow me to finish the job if that should ever happen.

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

If it was me I would put a 120w solar panel on the roof of my van rather than have to lug a 110 amph battery inside for charging every evening.

Agreed
Although it realy is simple Jake £20 and half an hour. I haven't charged or swapped my battery in months. I got a brand new one as I did not realise like Spruce mine was loosing power, took it to my Motabits store and they tested and confirmed it was knackered.

Even rechargeable batteries have life spans I reckon it will be around 3 - 4 years for a leisure battery.