Don't mention the ..............

[Tracker]

aandncaravan - 2018-08-03 10:24 AM

 

That might sound like an insignificant step, but Care and Maintenance sheets for buyers might be a major step forward to many who have limited battery knowledge.

 

Printing the minimum charging voltage the battery requires, is also a start.

I wonder if they will add the battery resting voltage to that?

 

As you know some high technology batteries have a higher resting voltage of 13.0v whereas a conventional battery may be as low as 12.6v when fully charged. That obviously affects the depth to which they can be discharged, for example a 13.0v battery is regarded as 50% discharged at 12.5v but a Conventional battery isn't 50% discharged until around 12.2v.

That info should be on the battery label, but the next best thing is on the advert's Tech spec at sale time.

 

 

Like so many of us I have years of experience with batteries and everything I learned in many years was experience based only, not a good information base but all that was reliably available.

In recent years knowledge has either come via Allan and others on this forum, and before that Google where so much info is contradictory so any factual reliable information should be gratefully recieved by us all and again I laud both Allan's and Alpha's efforts. Thanks guys.

I venture to suggest that a digital multi meter is worth being a part of everyone's toolkit?

[Wasnt Me]

£740 for a motorhome battery?

 

What else does it do, drive the engine through the alternator and turn it into an electric vehicle?

[Tracker]

Wasn't Me - 2018-08-03 7:50 PM

 

£740 for a motorhome battery?

 

What else does it do, drive the engine through the alternator and turn it into an electric vehicle?

 

If the engine won't start it gets out and tows you home!

[Wasnt Me]

Tracker - 2018-08-03 7:56 PM

 

Wasn't Me - 2018-08-03 7:50 PM

 

£740 for a motorhome battery?

 

What else does it do, drive the engine through the alternator and turn it into an electric vehicle?

 

If the engine won't start it gets out and tows you home!

 

And the washing up?

[aandncaravan]

Wasn't Me - 2018-08-03 8:32 PM

 

Tracker - 2018-08-03 7:56 PM

 

Wasn't Me - 2018-08-03 7:50 PM

 

£740 for a motorhome battery?

 

What else does it do, drive the engine through the alternator and turn it into an electric vehicle?

 

If the engine won't start it gets out and tows you home!

 

And the washing up?

 

 

 

Wasn't Me, It was all perfectly sensible until you asked about the Washing up. That was just plain daft.

 

 

Everyone knows Water and Electricity doesn't mix. :D

 

 

But on a more sensible note, I did hear that a 9Ah motorhome Lithium battery can power a Toyota Prius to the Moon and back on a single charge.

Honest.

 

[plwsm2000]

aandncaravan - 2018-08-03 9:51 PM

 

 

Wasn't Me, It was all perfectly sensible until you asked about the Washing up. That is just plain daft.

 

 

Everyone knows Water and Electricity doesn't mix. :D

 

 

 

Oh yes it does.

There is a very good webpage on how batteries work

[url=] http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/how-does-a-battery-work.php [/url]

 

Apparently, you put deionised water in them every so often and they make electricity :-D

[aandncaravan]

Rats, I have been caught out. Exposed as not knowing ANYTHING about electricity.

 

Curses (and all the other phrases they use in those Black and White films).

 

 

This bit is serious =

 

More great news!! - 03/08/2018

 

As you know Alpha Batteries have agreed to work with us to become the retailer the consumers want. They are already one of the most competitive, selling the Varta LFD 90 within 90 pence of the Battery Megastore and Tayna's price, but want to be the best.

They want to rework their website to use our proposed Traffic Light system for battery capability when showing a batteries Tech Spec.

 

They will present more information in an easier to read format so buyers can make an informed choice when buying Leisure batteries.

 

They seem to have a genuine will to be different, hoping that if they operate in an ethical way, customers fed up with being ripped off, will flock to their doors. They know that if they don't stick to their promises, the buying public will just walk away.

 

 

 

Today I had this email (one of many recently) -

 

"Hi Allan, The more information the customer gets at the point of sale and enquiry the better. We need to apply what's happening on the phone desks now to the website. (This refers to the technical retraining of the phone desk staff to give better advice).

 

We do have more information than most at this stage but it can and will be much better.

I have emailed our web company with an outline of making key specs readable in traffic light format. They will get back to me with the options we can implement and the timescales.

So, do you think these key points should be under the traffic light system -

 

Voltage

Capacity

Cycles

CCA - EN DUAL PURPOSE

Watt Hours

Charge Voltage

Weight

Fluid consumption

Venting required?

I'm really committed to the plans and hope you don't feel this is marketing or lip service. Watch this space... I can't do it overnight but good plans are in place.

John".

 

 

I genuinely believe the changes made to the website will offer more technical information and more clarity than we have ever seen before.

The use of Traffic Light Style colours will be a good guide to how effective that might be for a national Battery labelling standard.

 

 

[Tracker]

aandncaravan - 2018-08-03 9:51 PM

 

But on a more sensible note, I did hear that a 9Ah motorhome Lithium battery can power a Toyota Prius to the Moon and back on a single charge.

 

 

I often wondered what the man in the moon drives!

 

But that's no big deal - so can a single AA alkaline battery!

[plwsm2000]

aandncaravan - 2018-08-03 9:51 PM

 

But on a more sensible note, I did hear that a 9Ah motorhome Lithium battery can power a Toyota Prius to the Moon and back on a single charge.

Honest.

 

Well fancy that!

After the Americans spending billions getting to the moon they could have just jumped into an Uber.

:-D

[Thai Bry]

Keithl - 2018-07-27 9:45 PMAllan,I am at a loss for words to express my feelings right now but all I can say is a huge THANKYOU from all MH'ers (and caravanners) for the work you have done so far and the plans you are putting in place, as you have said change is long overdue in this industry.All my best wishes,Keith.

Allan

I too am utterly shocked by the sad news.

As you know we have been in very recent contact, and I've also pm you. 

I know from a personal point of view what you are going through. 

It has been a privelidge to have met you when you sorted out my leisure battery and  elektroblok issues. 

All the best to you and your family 

[Violet1956]

Allan I am ashamed to say that I have read most, if not all of your posts on the subject of batteries but I am a twit when it comes to electrickery and failed to understand most of them. What I gained from your posts, including your campaign and the advice you gave for free to members of this forum, was that you are a “top bloke” who strives to help others so I am so sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

[aandncaravan]

Thank you all again.

 

 

Just had an email from Alpha Batteries MD, John Gabbott, with feedback from their web site builder on the ideas of presenting the Sales technical information pages using 'our' proposed National Battery Labelling idea.

It is all exceptionally positive, the email ends with :

"I think this is a really positive step towards something we’ve talked about for a long, long time".

 

 

Full email here :

 

 

"Hi John,

I’ve just been reading through some of the notes from the A&N website. I’m with you on this – between us we’ve tried for years to determine the most important aspects for the consumer and the idea of traffic light grading we’ve talked about before, in a sense this is what I’d been hoping to achieve later in the year with the product page re-design. This seems like the ideal opportunity for everyone involved across the industry.

As discussed I’ll spend some time working out our next steps on this, but in relation to the actual technical elements it’d be good if you could start working out some core key specifications along with your contact at A&N.

 

Based on our previous experience I wonder if it’s unrealistic to think 10 different items can all have equal importance or even work purely in terms of a traffic light approach as there’s just too much for users to take into account then – but 5 could work.

 

 

I’ll keep thinking on this anyway but just wanted to drop over my initial musings. Despite what I’ve said above I think you should approach this from purely a data perspective – if 15 technical attributes all need rating then that’s for me to work out how exactly that works for the end user – I’d much rather that than another half baked solution for the sake of convenience. On a whole I think this is a really positive step towards something we’ve talked about for a long long time.

 

Regards,

M. L".

 

 

I particularly like the sentence -,

"This seems like the ideal opportunity for everyone involved across the industry"

as even an Internet web site designer can see great value, not just for Alpha Batteries, but the whole industry.

 

 

I am going to start a new thread for what I think is a land mark.

 

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/National-Battery-labelling-standard-Progress-/49999/#M575215