snowie Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 We took delivery of our van in Dec 2009. It had a single 110Ah leisure battery and a 3-way fridge. In 08/2011 we had the fridge changed to a Waeco CR65, and had a duplicate battery fitted. We planned to use France Passion sites and the odd aire. Around this time, our charger failed, and we had an Amperor 18amp 3 stage charger fitted. On both of our longer trips last year I noticed that the fridge was causing the charger to trip in more frequently than I remembered, and we started to turn it off to get an undisturbed nights sleep. My question, (finally ?) Am I right to suspect failing batteries (after 6-7 years) , and might I reasonably consider just fitting a single leisure battery, as our camping style is almost 99% hookup. Can I do a simple test of the batteries, or do I need to remove them from the van to do a proper test sequence? Going to Portugal shortly so feel like maybe this should be sorted, Regards, Snowie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alanb Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Snowie, If, as you suggest your original leisure battery is 8 years old, the simle answer to your question is yes, it is time to change. Conventional thinking is that paralleled batteries must be of the same type and should be of the same age. With different ages the older battery can also drag the newer one done. To test the batteries, given the availability of an EHU, you could charge them for say 24 hours, and then isolate both negative poles. Voltage should stabilise after a further 24 hours at about 12.6 volts, but the voltage will depend on the battery type. Perhaps you can learn more from aandncaravanservices (Allan's) website. The Waeco CR65 is a compressor fridge with a power consumption of 45 Watts when running. This equates to 3.75A at 12V. Information on the maker's website points towards a duty cycle approaching 50% at 25C ambient temperature. This would pull an ageing battery down quite quickly. Which is disturbing your sleep, the charger or the fridge? My experience with a faulty battery and compressor fridge on one of our trips to NZ suggests the fridge. When not on EHU the fridge would cut out in less than 30 minutes and issue an audible low voltage alarm. We had to switch the fridge off over night. I see no reason why you could not revert to a single battery. We have made several trips to NZ and the rented PVCs only had one battery, while being fitted with compressor fridges. With a sound habitation battery we were able to use sites devoid of EHU without problems, but then in such cases we were moving next day. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted January 16, 2018 Author Share Posted January 16, 2018 Hi Alan, electrics are not my strong area, so; “isolate both negative poles” means what? Disconnect each negative battery connection to measure individual and separate battery voltage? Van is currently on my drive connected to hookup in garage. So I can test. I think the charger has been tripping in to try to replenish the batteries very regularly in response to the fridge thermostat. Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll start looking at batteries, Regards Snowie (alan b) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alanb Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Snowie, Yes disconnect the battery negatives. Alternatively you could, if connections permit disconnect one battery at a time. This would allow you to maintain the 12V system, lighting in particular. The down side is that you would have to repeat the charging process on the second battery, While disconnecting batteries, and if both are disconnected switch OFF the charger. The test outlined above will show whether or not the battery holds its charge. To get some idea as to what the capacity of the battery is, you would have to apply a load to the battery. This could be done to the connected battery by switching on lights, and checking the voltage at regular intervals. You may be able to check the battery current on the 12V control panel. As a rough guide I would not let the voltage drop below 12.2V, but given the age of your batteries you would not have much to loose if you go slightly lower. Please note that Allan of aandncaravans has reported cases of failing batteries damaging the charger, and chargers tend to be expensive items. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, when mentioning a single battery in my previous post, I was of course referring to a single habitation battery. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 So; continuing my quest for knowledge, I think I have at least a couple off options. I could go wet technology, and choose either a Varta LFD90 or a Bosch L5 (pretty much the same battery I believe) ( and other batteries do exist). Or I could opt for a “gel” battery, which would have the advantage of upto 50%useable capacity, and maybe a more forgiving charging /discharging cycle/ regime. If I choose to just buy a single battery then the gel option: if I have understood it’s characteristics would have a significant advantage. I have been offered a gel battery at approx 150% of the cost of one of the two wet batteries I mentioned above, so costs are comparable. Any experiencees would be helpful Reverting to a single battery in this situation would have the added advantage of increasing our payload, though this is not really an issue. Regards Snowie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alanb Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 The Gel battery will require a different charging regime. Check that you charger can provide this. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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