leisure battery charger

[anesta]

Hi, new motorhome owner and full of questions, some of them maybe silly!!

Today is about leisure battery charger. I won't be using motorhome very much in autumn/winter, so what will be the best way to keep leisure battery charged? Will it be ok to remove it from Hymer and charge it at home every few weeks? Does each battery (brand/type, etc) need a specific charger? Any particular voltmeter I should get?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Tracker]

Is the van at home or in storage away from home?

 

Firstly don't forget to drain out all the water from both tanks and the water heater and leave the pump off and the taps all open to prevent frost damage. This is very important as frost damage is both inconvenient and expensive.

 

If at home you could simply start the engine once a fortnight and run it for a few minutes although it would be better for all the oily bits and the engine battery if it had a short drive out to warm it up and keep everything moving.

 

You could leave it on mains hookup and let the built in charger take care of keeping both engine and leisure batteries charged IF the charging regime allows for that. If not the occasional burst of charge will help. Using a mains hook up will allow you to run a heater or dehumidifier too if needed to keep it condensation free inside.

 

Sorry have to go out - more later!!

[bolero boy]

Although our van is parked at home, we don't need to keep it hooked up as we have a 80w solar panel on the roof. This is used with the 'smart charging' facility on our van to keep both the leisure batteries and the vehicle battery fully charged. Really good investment as it also lets us cam off EHU for many days if desired.

[Tin Man]

I use my onboard charger once a month for 24 hours.

[lennyhb]

Hymer use one of the best and most popular chargers around - Elektroblock, no problem with leaving them connected all the time in fact if you read your handbook Hymer say do not leave disconnected for more than 10 days, this is to stop the system in standby mode flattering the battery. Also Hymer also fit one of the better batteries Exide Gel.

Our batteries are always on charge as we have a solar panel, our batteries are 5 years old, a month ago I run a test on them and they gave similar results to what I would have expected from new batteries.

 

The Elektroblock has a switch on is to select the charge regime:

 

Gel - Charges to 14.3v then maintains voltage at 14.3v for 8 hours then reduces to a 13.8v maintenance charge.

 

Wet Acid - Charges to 14.3v then maintains voltage at 14.3v for 1 hour then reduces to a 13.8v maintenance charge.

[anesta]

Hi Tracker,

thank you for your help.

Could I just ask what it means : " IF the charging regime allows for that"? Does each motorhome/battery have to follow some different rules?

Sorry if they are stupid questions, but to me this is all very new and alien!!!!

Van is going to be stored near home under a roof, so no problem going to get it once in a while.

Thank you again for your time and help, much appreciated.

[anesta]

Thanks Lenny. I hope I will get a handbook as I need to do some serious reading! My van is a Camp 622 CL, 2007 : as far as you know are most Hymers fitted with that battery charger and battery?

Ignorant question now: if I leave a battery charger connected to the battery all of the time, also when van is in storage, how can it charge the battery if the charger itself is not attached to a power source?

Does the charger charge the battery with the regime you describe all of the time? Or only if I switch some sort of electricity on (if I hook up the van to electricity)?

Could anybody advise on how I make sure battery is in good health when I get the van?

Thank you!

[lennyhb]

Yes your Hymer will have an Elektroblock and an Exide Gel battery.

Yes you must be connected to a mains hook up to charge the battery unless you have a solar panel.

The Elektroblock also trickle charges the engine battery once the leisure battery is charged.

 

You can carry out the following tests using the readings on the control panel although not ideal as when the panel is on with other items in van you will be drawing about 400ma.

Need to establish if you have one or two leisure batteries Hymer usually fit them under the cab seats, standard fit is an 80 amp hour gel with the option of a second one giving total capacity of 160 amp hours.

 

Best way to check the battery is make sure it is fully charged, leave it on charge at least 24 hours, disconnect your hook up switch the control panel off leave for about an hour then turn on the panel and check the battery voltage should be approx 12.8v, now switch on some lights until the panel shows a current drain of 5 amps leave for 4 hours (25% discharge) switch off lights and panel leave for half an hour turn panel on and check voltage should read 12.5 - 12.6v.

Now repeat above test so you now have discharged the battery by 50% reading should be 12.2 - 12.3 v

Repeat again 75% discharge should now Read 12v.

I do not recommend you discharge the battery's any further, if you attain the above readings not much wrong with your battery the above tests are for an 80 amp hour battery, if you have two batteries you need to double the load or the test time.

[anesta]

Many thanks to everybody, you are all stars (lol) ! Fell better now, although I have a lot of reading to do....

[Derek Uzzell]

anesta - 2013-08-20 12:14 AM

 

Hi, new motorhome owner and full of questions, some of them maybe silly!!

Today is about leisure battery charger. I won't be using motorhome very much in autumn/winter, so what will be the best way to keep leisure battery charged? Will it be ok to remove it from Hymer and charge it at home every few weeks? Does each battery (brand/type, etc) need a specific charger? Any particular voltmeter I should get?

Thanks for any help!

 

There's a useful (USA) video-clip on choosing/using a multimeter here:

 

 

Of the two multimeters shown at the start of the video-clip I happen to have the yellow/black one shown on the right. I think I bought it several years ago from Argos and I'm sure it wasn't expensive.

 

There are lots of these things available. Examples are shown here http://tinyurl.com/lc2986e

 

I don't know if there's a 'Best Buy', but I suggest you pick one in the £10-£15 price range.

 

I'm certain you'd benefit from a book that would provide you with some basic motorcaravan technical background. I recommend John Wickersham's "The Motorcaravan Manual" that's about £15 via Amazon

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcaravan-Manual-Choosing-Using-Maintaining/dp/0857331248/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

 

Another book that's regularly suggested is this one

 

https://www.vicarious-shop.com/Go-Motorhoming-and-Campervanning-9780956678119.html

 

but (as I haven't read it myself) I don't know how effective it is at explaining technical matters.

 

As should be apparent to you with this forum thread, asking what seems to be a straightforward 'beginner's' question can result in a host of 'expert' replies that may well not mean much to you. This may compel you to ask more 'beginner's' questions that will, in turn, produce more 'expert' replies, etc. etc. The Motorcaravan Manual devotes a whole chapter (about 15 pages) to motorhome electrical systems - it's a far from simple subject and, if you've no foundation-knowledge to draw on, you can rapidly get bogged down.

 

I'm not that familiar with Hymer model-classifications, but I believe a 2007 Camp 622CL will have been built using a Ford Transit chassis. It's likely that Hymer fitted a Schaudt Electroblock unit and Exide gel battery (as lennyhb advises) but these may not be installed in the same places in a Ford-based motorhome as they would be in a Fiat-based Hymer.

 

I'm not going to attempt to advise on your Autumn/Winter charging questions (too many unknowns) except to say that, if you intend to start/drive the vehicle at all during the Autumn/Winter period, you probably don't want to be removing batteries from the motorhome to charge them.

 

Your question "Could anybody advise on how I make sure battery is in good health when I get the van?" is relevant as your motorhome is 6 years old and (despite the vehicle having covered just 5000 miles) age matters with batteries.

 

Although you can follow lennyhb's advice on checking the batteries' condition after you've obtained the vehicle, it's going to be trickier to establish condition at the hand-over stage. You could try turning everything on (lights, heater, etc.) and see if anything shows up but, unless the batteries (Don't forget the vehicle's 'starter battery') are knackered, such a test may not be conclusive.

 

Try to establish if the batteries are originals or replacements and ask the dealer to confirm that they are in good condition.The price of a new Exide 80Ah gel battery is around £200 and the one fitted to my Hobby gave up the ghost when 6 years old with little advance warning.

[lennyhb]

Derek Uzzell - 2013-08-21 9:22 AM

 

 

Although you can follow lennyhb's advice on checking the batteries' condition after you've obtained the vehicle, it's going to be trickier to establish condition at the hand-over stage. You could try turning everything on (lights, heater, etc.) and see if anything shows up but, unless the batteries (Don't forget the vehicle's 'starter battery') are knackered, such a test may not be conclusive.

 

Try to establish if the batteries are originals or replacements and ask the dealer to confirm that they are in good condition.The price of a new Exide 80Ah gel battery is around £200 and the one fitted to my Hobby gave up the ghost when 6 years old with little advance warning.

 

If the engine & leisure batteries are the original ones which I suspect they are you need to factor in replacement cost, as Derek says at 6 years old they can fail at any time. The Exide Gel leisure batteries have a good reputation and often last 6 to 8 years if they have been correctly maintained.

An engine battery will be about £100 a slightly cheaper leisure battery is the Sonnenschein Gel it is the same battery as the Exide (they make them for Exide) they are £180, there are some cheaper AGM batteries on the market at around £100 don't know how well they perform.

If you have two leisure batteries and one fails you will need to replace both, when two batteries are in parallel they should be the same type and capacity and no more than one year age difference.

[Derek Uzzell]

As lennyhb advises, a new Sonnenschein gel battery should be a good deal cheaper than an Exide-branded equivalent.

 

A leisure-battery beneath a Transit Mk 6/Mk 7 cab-seat is likely to have (nominal) dimensions of 353mm long x 175mm wide x 190mm high and the appropriate Sonnenschien product would be this one: http://tinyurl.com/mn94284

 

An AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) Banner "Running Bull" 592 01 battery would have similar dimensions but seems to be even more expensive than the Sonnenschien gel one. Unless one opted for a 'wet' leisure-battery, rather than the gel or AGM type, it looks like a replacement would cost at least £150. Having a 'wet' battery beneath a swivelling cab-seat would normally require the battery to be vented to the outside air even if the battery were genuinely maintenance-free.

 

Incidentally, I notice that there was an owner's report on a 2008 Hymer C-662CL in the August 2012 issue of MMM magazine. There's also a 2007 MMM review of the shorter C-542CL model here:

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/userfiles/file/MMM%20historic%20road%20tests/Hymer%20C-Class%20542CL%202007.pdf

[Tea Cup]

Derek Uzzell - 2013-08-21 9:22 AM

Of the two multimeters shown at the start of the video-clip I happen to have the yellow/black one shown on the right. I think I bought it several years ago from Argos and I'm sure it wasn't expensive.

 

There are lots of these things available. Examples are shown here http://tinyurl.com/lc2986e

 

I don't know if there's a 'Best Buy', but I suggest you pick one in the £10-£15 price range

 

Does this unit have a continuity tester? I have a really cheap one that has been really useful but which does not have this feature (but claims it does have) but which feature I sorely miss.

[Derek Uzzell]

Tea Cup - 2013-08-22 12:29 PM

 

Derek Uzzell - 2013-08-21 9:22 AM

Of the two multimeters shown at the start of the video-clip I happen to have the yellow/black one shown on the right. I think I bought it several years ago from Argos and I'm sure it wasn't expensive.

 

There are lots of these things available. Examples are shown here http://tinyurl.com/lc2986e

 

I don't know if there's a 'Best Buy', but I suggest you pick one in the £10-£15 price range

 

Does this unit have a continuity tester? I have a really cheap one that has been really useful but which does not have this feature (but claims it does have) but which feature I sorely miss.

 

The link I provided showed examples of multimeters currently available via Amazon(UK), so I'm not sure which unit you are referring to.

 

I've checked which multimeter I have and it turns out to be a MASTECH MY-64. This is advertised here

 

http://www.atp-instrumentation.co.uk/manual-ranging-digital-temp-multimeter-3.html

 

and you'll see that the Technical Specification includes a continuity testing-capability.

 

I've never had cause to use this feature but, just in case it was not actually present on my MY-64 despite (like your cheapo unit) it being advertised, I have now confirmed it is there and that it works.

[Tea Cup]

Derek Uzzell - 2013-08-22 1:36 PM

 

Tea Cup - 2013-08-22 12:29 PM

 

Derek Uzzell - 2013-08-21 9:22 AM

Of the two multimeters shown at the start of the video-clip I happen to have the yellow/black one shown on the right. I think I bought it several years ago from Argos and I'm sure it wasn't expensive.

 

There are lots of these things available. Examples are shown here http://tinyurl.com/lc2986e

 

I don't know if there's a 'Best Buy', but I suggest you pick one in the £10-£15 price range

 

Does this unit have a continuity tester? I have a really cheap one that has been really useful but which does not have this feature (but claims it does have) but which feature I sorely miss.

 

The link I provided showed examples of multimeters currently available via Amazon(UK), so I'm not sure which unit you are referring to.

 

I've checked which multimeter I have and it turns out to be a MASTECH MY-64. This is advertised here

 

http://www.atp-instrumentation.co.uk/manual-ranging-digital-temp-multimeter-3.html

 

and you'll see that the Technical Specification includes a continuity testing-capability.

 

I've never had cause to use this feature but, just in case it was not actually present on my MY-64 despite (like your cheapo unit) it being advertised, I have now confirmed it is there and that it works.

Thanks for that. I just did a search on MY64 and they seem to be priced between £5 and £50.

And they are all different makes. I guess the one you suggested is midway.

 

Any way, thanks - I seem to have hijacked this thread. Sorry