derek500 Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 18 month's my dealer replaced the single 85AH Leisure battery that came with the motorhome, with two 100AH batteries. On our recent month away in Italy the batteries were only lasting one day, whereas before we got two days power without problems. I've removed the seats in the Ducato cab and checked the batteries. The battery under the passenger seat (whwere the original single battery was) is all but dead. If I put on charge it shows fully charged within a few minutes, but running a 50w load via an inverter lasts only a few minutes. The voltage on the inverter drops almost immediately from 239v to 180v and then dies. The other battery under the driver's seat is fine. They are both 100AH lead acid, maintenance free, sealed system batteries. I've removed the seal and checked the levels on the dud one and topped it up but still nothing. Any ideas why one battery should die? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomad Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Hi, Batteries can fail so I would be inclined to check out the length of warranty on your purchase. As for present I would disconnect the negative terminal on the faulty one, and just rely on the other one. I hope that this helps Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Leisure batteries have over the years been the bane of my motorhoming life too! It seems that almost every other one that I have bought or had supplied by a dealer has been faulty and the only ones that have consistently been OK are those from Elecsol or Halfords - and even those have been complained about by others. The last one I bought from Halfords I took my multimeter and chose the battery with the highest voltage - not a scientific decision but it was the only thing I could do to get what seemed like the best one on display. I too wish I knew what the answer to getting a decent battery is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Both receiving the same charge with the engine running ? Both discharging the same under communial load ? One battery has a short somewhere in the circuit ? What happens if you swap a good'n with the bad'n ? Does the latter spring back to life ? Does one battery drop to 10V after standing or a little load ? Too many questions, too few answers *-) Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Hi, I would suspect the dud one is draining the good one and that is probably why it appears that the pair are lasting less time Replace the dud one or disconnect it and see how long the good one lasts connected on its own. hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Test it with a Hydrometer to see it has any dud cells, if so it's a new on I'm afraid. when buying a new one get the dealer to do a Drop Test on it, which entails putting a very heavy resistive load on it and seeing how quickly the voltage drops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted November 14, 2008 Author Share Posted November 14, 2008 Thanks for the replies. Incidentally, I run a 300w inverter and the connections are the same as when I had just one battery. Positive to the 'isolation tap' on the side of seat and negative to the first battery, which is the one that has died. Would it be better to have the positive to one battery's positive and the negative to the other battery's negative? Do you think that could be why the battery with the inverter is the the one that has died? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 It shouldn't matter if the batteries are linked in parallel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Time to invest in a digital multimeter and measure battery terminal voltages with the engine running and then when connected to hookup. I suspect some fuses have rendered one battery non connected - but its only a hunch. Measure first, spend last. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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