michele Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 How many people on here have had a problem with their leisure batteries . Its less than two years old bearing in mind the camper is only three . Two years ago Derek kindly helped with the other battery loosing charge all the time ,no warning and just gave up the ghost in Calais left us in the dark . we got back and tried everything possible beliveing the battery to be only a year old with no abuse . It didnt work and we ended up buying another now these things aint cheap I cant remember what I paid for it £147 ? Now tonight he tells me oh the battery has gone again !!!!! why is this I am sick of it at this rate its starting to cost . Its outside on the drive where it lives if it gets on my nerves and we are really not planning on using it I park it up the stables just so that I can get more cars on the drive. It has no real abuse so why does this keep on happening to us . Now I have to purchase another bleeding battery just to go to Paris for a week this is one expensive hobby . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 Hi Michele. Is there any guarantee on the batteries? I have just bought a couple for one of my trucks and there is a 3 year warranty on them!!! Regards Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 20, 2009 Author Share Posted November 20, 2009 Hi pat, the first was with the vehicle so you would of thought it was new but apparently there is no gaurantee as they may of been sitting in a wharehouse for ages so their life may be up by the time they are fitted to any vehicle. the second two years old was bought in Surrey to far away when my daughter went to school there . it would cost more and too much agro to go back . Next one I get which will be in the week I will make sure it has a gaurantee cause I am so fed up with all this malarky they are a right bloody pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Hi Michelle. you say its had no abuse but are you sure? Do you keep it charged up when the van is not in use? If not and it stands for more than a few weeks then its probable that it has been over discharged and that is what's caused its early failure. When you park the van up if you can't plug it in periodically, once a week for 24 hours would do, then disconnect the leisure battery to stop it discharging. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Fit a decent (80 watt plus) solar panel and good regulator. Lots of advantages including keeping that batteries fully charged while parked up - anywhere outside. Our last batteries were over 10 years old and still going strong. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Agree with clive, fit a solar panel. I made the mistake of not regularly charging my motorcycle battery during the winter when it was not used. Same problem new battery ruined due to it becoming discharged and sulphating up ( A bit like a kettle furring up). And yes I do have a solar panel, not cheap but as a %age of motorhome value it is not a lot and what price peace of mind. Any way sorry to hear of your problems. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Hi Michele- As Dave says, you must keep it charged up when left standing for any length of time. Do you put it on EHU to charge when parked up at home ? If a battery completly discharges in this way it will never recover. If you buy a new battery buy a quality wet cell type keep it trickle charged when parked up, and buy a simple specific gravity monitor which tells you the condition of the eletrolite fluid. It may also pay you to have the system checked over by an auto electrician to see there is not a discharge somewhere. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 davenewell@home - 2009-11-21 7:24 AM .............. When you park the van up if you can't plug it in periodically, once a week for 24 hours would do, then disconnect the leisure battery to stop it discharging. D. Alternatively, if the battery terminals are not easy to reach and you don't fancy the cost of a solar panel, get a battery isolator switch installed somewhere handy. If the wiring is not handily routed, get a contactor fitted at the battery instead, with a remote switch to turn it on. If you prefer, get a nice fat green LED installed with the isolator so that you have a reminder when power is on. Then, assuming the battery is fully charged when you leave the van parked, just throw the switch to prevent any drain from the on-board system. It will still need occasional charging, just to keep it fully charged, but assuming the charger has been connected directly to the terminals, and the isolator switch is installed into the main positive supply cable, charging will continue whether or not the supply is switched on. Should be relatively foolproof, and much cheaper than a panel + controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwaviation Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 I had the same problem with my van, two weeks and they were flat - Drove me nuts. I isolated the radio with a switch (fed by leisure batteries) and set about the wiring - It turned out that a relay was always live and would switch off when the battery reached a certain voltage, no doubt a fail safe for battery protection - I discovered that if I bypassed this relay all was well , and has been for the last 30 months. I can't believe that the power drain on this relay was responsible so I guess there was something further down the line but hey , who cares..... The van has been perfect ever since Might be worth a root around. IMHO PS - Brian's idea was my very next step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Batteries discharge by self leakage so fitting any form of battery isolator will not totally eliminate the problem. Regular topping up charge is whats required and a solar panel is a no brain solution. Go on Michelle, you know you want one! C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minstrel Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 A friend of ours recently had a similar problem to yours, his electrics man dismantled the Zig unit and found a couple of wires had fallen out of the connectors, he charged £20! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 A timely reminder! Just went and plugged mine in....... :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Hi, Michele Is your van fitted with a fridge freezer, only if it is, have you checked to ensure the small anti condense heater has been turned off, it should only be left on when your vehicle is connected to the mains. You can find the very small switch up under the fridge control panel you need to open the freezer door to find it, its a little rocker switch. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 Ah ,she says taking in a deep breath . Its always just been a bit of metal to me . I dont know why I think of it as that because I love being in it and when something does not work Iget upset . When it sits on the drive in the past (last battery) we used to constantly leave it plugged to the house . Then the battery failed and Derek Uzzel gave us alot of help . Now on this battery we dont do that we pop out once every two weeks to check and see if the alarm is going inside . We recently lent it to a friend and he has just done France & Portugal in it just arriving home the van has performed faultlessley throught out except for the battery packed up leaving him in darkness the last couple of nights. We intend to go to Paris on Friday so we will have no option but to go and buy a new one again. When its not at home for what ever reason its getting on my nerves need the space for the kids and their cars I park it up my friends Stables on the yard. We want to get rid of it as it does not really suit the need of the children no more as we need forward facing with proper seat belts so Clive we are really reluctant to fit a solar panel,however we most probably will look into that with a new one. Thanks for all the help I can see that we have not done it any favours constantly leaving it plugged in the first one . I cannot see what we have done to this one ,maybe its been beeping like hell fully flat up the yard ,I doubt it as someone would of phoned .So not sure why its is that we havent looked after this battery . Hope that makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hi Michele. Are you sure its the Battery and not the charger. As you have a Swift bassed m/home. Swift had a problem with chargers they were overheating and burnt out, ours did. We had it replaced under Warrenty the replacemant chargers have a built in fan to cool them down. Typical Swift they did not do a recall. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 David Dwight - 2009-11-22 11:20 AM Hi Michele. Are you sure its the Battery and not the charger. As you have a Swift bassed m/home. Swift had a problem with chargers they were overheating and burnt out, ours did. We had it replaced under Warrenty the replacemant chargers have a built in fan to cool them down. Typical Swift they did not do a recall. David. If the inbuilt charger from mains hook up is kaput the battery should still charge via the engine - unless there is a problem in the power supply unit - and this is easy enough to check with a volt meter. Maybe it would be worth visiting a decent auto electrician who is familiar with the foibles of Motorhome electrics for a diagnostic check before splashing out on a new battery? If you are going to change the van why bother with an expensive battery - I would be inclined to get a s/h starter battery of similar overall size from a breaker for about twenty quid and let someone else worry about it in the future! I've found starter batteries to be a darned sight more reliable than leisure batteries over the years anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 michele - 2009-11-22 10:23 AM We recently lent it to a friend and he has just done France & Portugal in it just arriving home the van has performed faultlessley throught out except for the battery packed up leaving him in darkness the last couple of nights. Have you quizzed him on how he 'looked' after your van? It may be that he wasn't keeping it as charged up as he should and overused it, thus discharging it too much, and has actually caused it to fail? It sounds very much to me that something like this has happened whilst, in which case he owes you a new battery (and one reason why I would NEVER lend my van out to anyone, no matter how well I knew them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 Thanks Rich , Mel he's borrowed it loads of time he is getting more use out of it than we are at the mo . He always brings it back spotless and he would say if anythingwas wrong he would be the first up with the money . No its not him its thebloody battery again . I dont know but what with the kids and everything seems like we aint got enough time to maybe's look after it like we would like there never seems enough hours in any day >:-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Michele, I ain't so sure! Your van has just completed a longish trip, and the battery appears to have failed near the end of the trip. If your friends used mainly campsites on hook up, then the battery should have been kept charged all the way round. If they used aires etc and no hook up, then the distance travelled should have ensured the battery was kept adequately charged from the alternator. That it seems to have failed near the end of the trip suggests to me that the battery may have been continually running close to flat. That could be because the on-board charger wasn't charging when on hook-up, that the alternator charge wasn't getting to the battery, or possibly that it has been getting over-charged and boiled off too much electrolyte. One question would be, is it a gel battery, or a water/acid battery and, if the latter, has it been kept topped up? I think before rushing out to buy a new one, you should check the electrolyte level (if water/acid type), then get the charge from the charger, plus the charge from the alternator, and all the terminal clamps and any fuses, checked.No good getting a new battery if the charging is at fault, the new one will just suffer the same damage. Same is true if it is only a blown fuse or a dirty or loose clamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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