suntrecker38 Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 We have a Autocruise Stardream with a Eberspacher heater. The problem is that we can drive to a green feild site and run the diesel heater that night but in the morning the heater does not want to start up, it is fine working on hook ups but on the diesel side it just does not want to know. Can any one advise on what may be the cause I have Eberspacher Dealer look at it and they say everything is OK, when I check the leisure battery it looks OK at 12.3v. Is it a low or faulty battery the battery is 6 years old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crinklystarfish Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 More than likely. They need a healthy voltage at start-up and though you see 12.3V, it's likely that there is a drop between wherever you are reading that and the heater's ecu. If the diesel heater works when you are hooked up then that's further evidence that it's your battery that is pooped - or that you need more capacity (bigger battery / additional battery). 12.4V is generally regarded as the point at which a 'rested' battery should be recharged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Also on http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=27400&posts=5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 I doubt a no load 12.3 volts will fire up an Eberspacher as when the very heavy start up battery load is applied that will probably drop to under 12.0 volts. Most of us with Eberspachers have two x 110 ah leisure batteries and even they alone will struggle over a very cold weekend with heating on all the time. If you don't start the weekend with fully charged batteries at 12.7 volts you have no chance and you have to drive a lot of miles to fully charge as the alternator only charges at 10 ah! Best to be on ehu at home for a day or two before leaving, and a solar panel certainly helps - but not so much if it's hissin down all day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Assuming that the battery in question had been allowed to 'settle' for at least 6 hours and no electrical load was being applied to it, an 'across-terminals' voltage-reading of 12.3V denotes a seriously discharged battery. The following across-terminals voltage-readings for a 12V battery in good condition indicate the battery's approximate charge-state: 12.7V or over - 100% charge 12.5V - 75% charge 12.4V - 50% charge 12.2V - 25% charge 12V or under - Discharged Old battery with low charge-state - not much doubt over why the Eberspacher heater would not start up I suggest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suntrecker38 Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Thank you all who replied to my question. It is a 12v 110 ah battery Elecsol bought in Jan/Feb 2006 so I don't think it owes me anything, but have been looking at 12v 120ah battery to replace it. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 In your place and if you intend keeping the van for a while I would seriously consider buying two new 110 ah batteries and fitting them in parallel to almost double your capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 suntrecker38 - 2012-04-27 5:08 PM Thank you all who replied to my question. It is a 12v 110 ah battery Elecsol bought in Jan/Feb 2006 so I don't think it owes me anything, but have been looking at 12v 120ah battery to replace it. Thanks again. Don't overlook the fact that some battery manufacturers/suppliers quote Ah-capacity in a manner that tends to flatter their products. If you look at the "Tech Tips" battery-related section on pages 2 and 3 of the RoadPro catalogue http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1w51i/RoadProcatalogue2012/resources/index.htm you'll see that the Ah capacity for the Banner-branded batteries being offered is shown with 20 hour and 100 hour discharge rates. If a manufactuer/supplier only provides an Ah capacity figure at the 100 hour discharge rate (and particularly if they don't say that's the discharge rate they've used!), this may influence a buyer trying to make valid comparisons. If one battery's Ah capacity were given as, say, 110Ah at the 20 hour discharge rate, and another at 120Ah, but at the 100 hour discharge rate, the latter battery might well have less real-world Ah capacity than the former. As the RoadPro catalogue advises, the battery weight is a useful guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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