Mardee Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 We are currently in Spain (very good weather !!) On our way down through France our leisure battery failed. When the mechanic was removing the old battery he said several times "not for camping car wrong battery." This was after we had agreed to buy a new battery from him so he wasn't saying this to make a sale.The battery which failed was the one which was in our Swift Suntor 630L when we bought it new in September 2008.Has anyone else had similar experience.Margaret and David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 For many years we used car engine batteries as leisure batteries and having now used leisure batteries for leisure batteries for a few years I must say that we have had more aggravation with alleged leisure batteries failing than ever we did with car batteries! However that might have as much to do with the constant low level drain on power that modern van systems impose? Or it might be cost cutting in manufacture? One recurring problem is the split charging relay fuses getting mucky and failing to allow full 10 amp charging current to pass . I think this is because for ease of fitting they are placed just under the bonnet and close to the battery - and water ingress? Please someone save us all from any more progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Mardee - 2011-02-21 4:16 PM We are currently in Spain (very good weather !!) On our way down through France our leisure battery failed. When the mechanic was removing the old battery he said several times "not for camping car wrong battery." This was after we had agreed to buy a new battery from him so he wasn't saying this to make a sale. The battery which failed was the one which was in our Swift Suntor 630L when we bought it new in September 2008. Has anyone else had similar experience. Margaret and David The last time a French 'mechanic' touched my motorhome, he fitted tyre-valves suitable for wheels with an 8.3mm diameter hole in their rims to my Transit's wheels that have 11.3mm diameter tyre-valve holes! Surprisingly the too narrow valves didn't leak during the short period of time between when I realised the mistake had been made and I had the valves replaced. That's not a criticism of French mechanics as a breed - just a caveat that all mechanics (French or otherwise) are not equally well-informed or competent. It's extremely unlikely that Swift will have deliberately factory-fitted a "wrong" leisure-battery" to a brand-new motorhome. They may have fitted a leisure-battery that was not the best money could buy, or fitted a not particularly good make/model of leisure-battery, or fitted a leisure-battery that was on the small size capacity-wise, but I'd be startled if it transpired that Swift had chosen to fit a battery that a French mechanic could instantly recognise as being unsuitable for leisure-type usage. (There is, of course, the small chance that your failed battery was not the one that was in your Suntor when the motorhome left the Swift factory!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Does not surprise me actually. There are very few if any proper deep discharge leisure batteries of 95 Ah, all the ones I know of which are rated at 95AH are dual purpose starting and leisure. A lot of Motorhome builders fit deep discharge capable starter batteries because it is so much cheaper for them to do so, but they do not have the life of decent leisure batteries. However having said that there are many starter batteries named so called leisure which will out perform many so called leisure batteries of poor quality. If you can recall the make of the original battery I can check it out for you if you are really interested. Also be interesting to know what the French mechanic fitted. Tracker, how are you getting on with your new batteries now you have had a while, always intersted in feed back when I have given advice. Hate to think people buy something on my recommendation to find they are useless.Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Having all of the electrics on our caravan serviced in readiness for our big Italy trip later this year.Currently we have two 105 wet cell batteries and we plan to replace them.We keep them charged with 3 large solar panels and direct coupled very expensive charger for sites, we also have a Stirling battery to battery charger fitted. What is the BEST batteries to replace them with please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Brambles - 2011-02-21 11:38 PM Tracker, how are you getting on with your new batteries now you have had a while, always intersted in feed back when I have given advice. Hate to think people buy something on my recommendation to find they are useless. Jon. They worked fine all last summer apart from a glitch when the split charge relay fuses gunged up and lost contact but with house hunting etc we didn't get a 'proper' holiday as such, although we did a lot of miles! However there was always power when we needed it albeit with the help of the solar panel at times. They seem to be holding up OK over the winter although again apart from the occasional start up and short run we have not used the van since October so judgement is reserved until later this year. Hopefully we will get some decent use this year and I'll let you know what happens. I am still inclined to think (hope!) that buying two decent Varta batteries was the right move - but I'm not totally convinced - only time will tell! I did appreciate your help and knowledge and along with all those other good folk who chipped in I certainly learnt a lot about batteries so my thanks again to one and all. This was the thread for those interested. http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18597&start=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmaggott Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I seem to remember there was an article about leisure batteries in one of the magazines fairly recently; either CC or most likely MMM; all our back copies are in the log cabin down the garden at the minute so I can't have a search through for you. Maybe someone else will be able to tell you which month/mag it was in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Chloride leisure batteries are good, I had two in my boat that lasted 15 Years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Madmaggott - 2011-02-22 11:42 AM I seem to remember there was an article about leisure batteries in one of the magazines fairly recently; either CC or most likely MMM; all our back copies are in the log cabin down the garden at the minute so I can't have a search through for you. Maybe someone else will be able to tell you which month/mag it was in? It was MMM, an article done by John Wickersham, August or September 2010 mag I beleive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Following this post, I thought I would check my batteries to my horror my Sargent control unit showed they were only reading very poor 9.6v, 2 weeks ago they were reading good. I allways charge the batteries up for a couple of hours every 2 or 3 weeks. The motorhome Autotrail Cheynne 660 2008 is fitted with 2 110amp Elecsol batteries,it was originally supplied with just 1, but, in 2009 I fitted an additional battery. Every thing has been switched off, including the rear camera, my tester is showing no leakage. I have recharged the batteries over night and will recheck in a couple of days, if there is still a problem I will disconnect each battery and test them seperately. However, I only use Caravan Club sites with EHU, but, to date I have been very disappointed with these batteries. Please excuse my grammer i suffered a brain injury several years go, I would like some advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I would be inclined to remove the batteries from the van and bench charge them with a decent multi stage charger such as made by CTek or Ring. Having checked the fully charged voltage - you are looking for about 12.8 v for a fully charged 12v battery - let them stand totally disconnected for a week or so and re check. If they are good they should still be showing close to 12.8 v. If the batteries have removable cell caps it is worth checking all the cells are topped up. The specific gravity of each cell should be in the order of 1.265 on a hydrometer and all the cells should be very close to each other in readings. If one cell is much lower you may well have a battery on it's way out. Does that help - if not ask again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Unfortunately the Elecsol batteries are sealed, the motorhomes Sargent charger apparently is an intelligent system being able to supply 14.4 - 14.8v. I checked the motorhome about a hour ago it appears to be holding 13v at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCC Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Spoke to a chap from Banner Batteries at the NEC on Tuesday. He was singing the praises of their Running Bull AGM batteries which are dual purpose starting and leisure but are now apparently fitted as standard to a number of European motorhomes, and in ambulances and the like that need a lot of power to run equipment. They offer more flxibilty when installing - they can be fitted on their side which reduces the height for under seat installations and they reduce the issue of gassing. I also spoke to someone on the Concept Multi Car stand who said that whilst they specify the standard VW auxiliary battery on new conversions they have also been fitting the Banner and they seem to work well. Did a bit of research when I got home and found this link to a German article on the Optima Batteries site (hope the link works - cut and paste the text into Google Translate and you will get the gist of what it says). http://www.optima-batterien.eu/news-trade-shows/optima-press-releases/newsdetails/article/der-gewinner-ist-optimaR.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=4&cHash=137fe7a2e9 The Optima came out top in the test but the Banner came second. The main issue with the Banner seems to be the number of cycles available. In many of the tests they out performed the gel leisure batteries. Shame they didn't include a proper traditional leisure battery (eg Varta Hobby) in the test as a control. There are similar Varta/Bosch AGM batteries available which seem to be a bit cheaper than the Banner, though they're still a bit more expensive than a traditional leisure battery. The difference with the new batteries over traditional starter batteries is that they offer higher reserves of power to cope with modern electrical systems, and also cope better with the stop/start systems now being fitted to cars. The Optimas do appear to offer excellent performance which would explain why they are fitted to some upmarket German motorhomes but they are really expensive. Hope the link to the test is useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Just waded through that report, although the maximum capacity available is only 75 ah but they reckon they out perform much larger batteries as they can deliver 100% power at low discharge levels. They don't appear to be that expensive at around £250 only £25 dearer than an Exide Gel G80, but could last a lot longer. The Exide is rated for 700 cycles the Optimas Yellow top is 1000 cycles so if you are a heavy power user & plan to keep your van a while they should work out a lot cheaper. Another advantage being AGM batteries you can get a full charge into them a lot quicker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Mel B - 2011-02-23 8:39 PM Madmaggott - 2011-02-22 11:42 AM I seem to remember there was an article about leisure batteries in one of the magazines fairly recently; either CC or most likely MMM; all our back copies are in the log cabin down the garden at the minute so I can't have a search through for you. Maybe someone else will be able to tell you which month/mag it was in? It was MMM, an article done by John Wickersham, August or September 2010 mag I beleive. THe MMM article was in the July 2010 issue (pages 181-186). Positive comments were made about "Banner" and "Platinum" batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Platinum leisure batteries (UK Batteries) are in completely different leagues. Banner in the premium quaility, and platinum at the budget end and so serving a different market. I think they call it cost conscious now!! I have not seen the article so cannot comment, but many of these articles are based on literature and information companies supply the writer of the article or review and not on actual tests. Uk Batteries are importers and sell under various trade names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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