Peter Boyle Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Hi I'm new to owning a motor home , bought it last year how do i keep the battery charged through the winter at the moment I go every month to start it, my leisure battery is topped up by a solar panel so thats not a problem, I asked somebody they said take the battery out and trickle charge it at home is the correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 I presume as your solar panel is charging the leisure battery , the simplest and cheapest way is to connect an on/off switch and a 5 amp fuse in series between the leisure and starter battery positive terminals. But remember to turn the switch off BEFORE starting the engine. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddy Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Another option is to fit a battery master from Vanbitz which is fit and forget item that is simple to wire in and will keep your starter battery topped up from your leisure battery which already has solar charging. It is not a very expensive item and works very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 buddy - 2019-02-10 7:32 PM Another option is to fit a battery master from Vanbitz which is fit and forget item that is simple to wire in and will keep your starter battery topped up from your leisure battery which already has solar charging. It is not a very expensive item and works very well. The Vanbitz Battery Master is the least efficient of the Starter battery 'maintainers', the CBE being the best. The Vanbitz battery master is the only one of the Votronic, CBE or Sterling units that takes power from both the Starter battery and the Leisure battery because it monitors both batteries sampling the current looking for voltage changes. The CBE, Sterling and Votronic just monitor the Leisure battery voltage and if it rises above 13.2v, such as when the Solar is active, they trigger and start passing current to the Starter battery. They are only sampling the Leisure battery voltage, not both batteries. The Vanbitz unit is different and works on voltage difference. When the unit 'sees' a difference of 0.75v between the two batteries, either by the Leisure battery rising or the Starter battery dropping, it starts taking power from the Leisure battery to charge the Starter battery. In order to do this it is constantly drawing small amounts of power from both batteries. The CBE and Votronic are the cheapest, about £24?, and they keep the Starter battery more fully charged. The Sterling passes the most current, 4a I think, so charges a low Starter battery more quickly than the Votronic and CBE which are 2a devices. Obviously the most efficient option is to utilise a motorhome dual battery Solar Regulator, like the Votronic MPPT 165 at about £65 to charge both batteries directly. The Votronic solar charger is specifically optimised to ensure the Starter battery is always charged at a more suitable, lower 'trickle' voltage, when most battery Master type devices pass current at similar voltage to the Leisure battery, important for not overcharging and shortening the life of the Starter battery. It is likely that the Votronic Solar regulator will also harvest up to 30% more power than your existing regulator, if it is the usual single battery type, so is the way we suggest you investigate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Apologies, someone has pointed out that the Vanbitz battery Master works on a 0.5v difference, not 0.75v so although old documentation I have does say 0.75v, the Vanbitz website lists 0.5v so we will go with that. Vanbitz will fit their Battery Master for £130 or you can buy it at £70, at that money the highly efficient £65 Votronic MPPT Solar regulator upgrade, is a bargain. Sorry but I still don't understand why anyone would fit a Battery Master rather than a decent Solar Regulator, the Battery Masters have so many downsides not just wasting power? Someone has found the CBE CSB-2 Battery maintainer is available from CAK Tanks at £24. Thank you to those for the email contributions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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