Charging Batteries

[Guest Rob]

Hello I have a question regarding charging the vehicle battery.If I leave the 'van plugged into the EHU will it charge both the liesure and the vehicle batteries? It is an Auto Sleeper Duetto.If this will not work how can I keep my vehicle battery charged as I am not using it so much at the moment.Thanks for any help.

[Guest Stephen Stoneham]

Not sure on your vehicles charging system. The best way to keep the battery fully charged is to connect a small 5amp charger to a 7 day timer and set the time to come on for about 3-4 hours per week. Try and fit the charger under the bonnet. Hope this is of some help.

[Guest Neal]

Rob A foolproof method is to fit (or have fitted) a Battery Master. This small, fully sealed and encapsulated device has only 3 wires to connect. When on EHU (or generator), when the leisure battery(s) become fully charged, rather than ceasing the charge current, it "deflects" the charge to the engine battery(s) and only ceases the charging process when all batteries are topped up. It is fully automatic, fit and forget, requiring no maintenance whatsoever. Don't forget, unless you have a sophisticated, "intelligent" charger, continued charging over long periods will "boil" batteries and render tham useless. Regards Neal

[Guest Brian Ramsden]

If your Duetto is like my Talisman, then the vehicle battery is not charged by the ZIG unit. You need to fit a "Batterymate" which will connect the leisure battery charger to the vehicle battery. They are quite easy to fit - or at least, it was on my Talisman. I think Vanguard, who supplied mine, nolonger make them, but you could try Van Bitz - this month's magazine page 221.

[Guest PeteC]

Well the Zig system only charges the leisure battery For the van battery you require either:- One of the systems mentioned, which really should e such that you can connect your van to electric hook up to charge the van battery I have a hook up type socket outside the house door. So that we can hook up at home and keep the doors closed - especially in these cold days Or like we do if the van is to stand - or as the temp has been for the past few days (-7C) I take the battery off (10mins work) and take it itno the garage and put it onto a trickle charge another 10mins to refit I now have a wirless PIR in the van linked to the house alarm

[Guest Clive]

Don,t you lot like complicated ways of doing things! If you want your zig unit to charge both leisure and starter batteries just fit a 10 amp fuse and holder between the positives of both batteries. Fit the fuse when the vehicle is laid up and remove it when the touring season starts. If you forget to remove it the worst you will do is blow the fuse! Come on!

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Rob: If you search the forum using keyword "Duetto" (omit the quotes), you'll see that your question has been asked before with much the same replies. Whether your Duetto's charger can be aimed at both leisure and vehicle batteries will really depend on when the vehicle was made (you will see my posting of 11/01/2004). I suspect the answer is, in fact, No - otherwise your instruction manual would say so and you would have spotted the facility on the control-panel. Everyone: I dearly wish you'd not use the vague generic term "zig unit" (or "Zig system") as it's bound to lead to confusion (particularly for newcomers to motorhomes). Across the years Auto-Sleepers has employed several makes of control-panel/charger system, some sourced from Zig, some from elsewhere. If we're being picky I would argue that the term zig-unit is traditionally only applied to the control-panel and not the battery-charger (even though Zig also manufactures battery-chargers).