How long to trickle charge leisure battery usually

Hi all,

as title says really. I usually leave mine about 5 to 7 hours, this usually seems fine as it doesnt seem to do anything leaving it any longer. I leave it on the gradual 2amp setting rather than the quicker ones as ive heard thats best. I have left it on for many hours longer before but as it didnt seem to read any higher I couldnt see the point (measured it some hours after to get a proper reading.) anyway, be interesting to hear opinions/what you do etc, 

oh well, been on 8 hours, will go and disconnect it. As my van doesnt do a great mileage id trickle charged van battery as well the other day. I forgot they say dont put the minus (black lead) on the battery as can blow up. They advise put it on the wing or something. I did put it on battery as id forgot. was ok. But if was so dangerous you'd think there would be more warning about it. I'd never heard it before.

ks789 said:

oh well, been on 8 hours, will go and disconnect it. As my van doesnt do a great mileage id trickle charged van battery as well the other day. I forgot they say dont put the minus (black lead) on the battery as can blow up. They advise put it on the wing or something. I did put it on battery as id forgot. was ok. But if was so dangerous you'd think there would be more warning about it. I'd never heard it before.

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I’m guessing this isn’t a smart charger your using?  If it was, they. have reverse polarity protection.   With regards to how long to leave it on, it all depends.   If you use 10ah in a day, your 2a will take about 6 hours to charge it to full.    If you use 50ah, it will take over 24 hours to charge.   If I was you, I would get a smart charger greater than 2a that tells you it’s full 

yeh it is a smart one, I put it on 2 amp charge though it can have 8 and 12 amp charge too, but I heard slow is better for it. Its made by torq. Thing is, it only seems to go up to 90%, yet when I disconnect it says full. Its been pretty good, I do part time at the mo and have only needed to charge about every week to 10 days, charging up when battery goes below 12.3 or 4. Seems roughly 5 or 6 hours so Im guessing not worth leaving on all night as some do. To get a proper reading of the charge Ive given it, I check it the next morning or a few hours after ive disconnected, and it reads around 12.84 to 12.87. Would you say this is good and about right? I dont know how high they go up to. this was my departed dads leisure battery which they used on a motorhome now and then and I dont have any paperwork or instruction on how high etc to get it.

12.8 or above is a fully charged battery in very good condition.    It doesn’t hurt them to leave on longer than it needs because smart chargers drop the voltage to 13.6-13.8 once full.   (Floating charge).   When I charge mine (rare) I put it on when I get in, in the evening and leave it till the morning when I’m out the door again.   The thing with charging current, higher currents can help brake down any sulphastion buildup on the plates,   Sulphate build up reduces the batteries ability to produce electric.    Also, a battery will only absorbe what current it wants.   You can feed it with a few hundred amps, but if it only wants 20, it will only take 20.