n1nja Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 Thats great Derek Looks like you got a good deal on your Varta battery too. Well done on that. I am guessing i just need "any distilled water" ? to top up the battery. The battery will be secured upright under the rock n roll bed so there will be limited movement, if any. I will vent pipe/tube through the floor. Also think there is only one vent hole in the ET650, so can go wrong there. Thank you for the tip on the coding dates of the battery too, I will check that too. Read the review about leakage, his unfortunately his battery was delivered upside down so looks like transit error I have ordered one of these too MOTOPOWER MP0514A-UK 12V Digital Battery Tester Voltmeter and Alternator Charging System Analyzer and Einhell Battery Charger CC-BC 2 M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n1nja Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 think i need better battery charger Einhell Battery Charger CC-BC 2 M only goes upto 60ah ? From Alpha battery: The battery will require periodic water maintenance using distilled water These batteries in our stock long enough for them to be aged. The battery will arrive to you fully charged at 12.69 volts which is a good indicator of age. The three digit code on the lid is a production batch code not date next mission is to find a decent battery charger haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 Derek Uzzell - 2020-10-02 11:50 AM My Varta batteries have a vent-hole in each end, but only one vent plug is provided (the plug needs to be separated from the battery’s plastic handle). Presumably, if the batteries had been couriered to me, the vent-holes would have been taped over. My LFD75's from Alpha came plugged and with this label. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n1nja Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 Spoke to Exide and its Low maintenance › Slight inclination › Medium vibration & tilt resistant so doesn't really need topping up with distilled water, its just feature if you did every need too. Trying to find a suitable charger there the CTEK MXS 7.0 but a bit pricey, but some chargers have restriction on what (ah) they got upto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veletron Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 Hi I have a pair of the ER650's - I am on my second set of these having replaced with same after 4 years use. I would consider myself to be a heavy user, I rarely stay on sites, my van is full of gadgets and I run a mains kettle and toaster from an inverter for convenience. The ER650's are charged with 200W of solar and a 60A Sterling B2B. The ER650's are big and bulky, but make best use of the space available in my van - which would go to waste if it were not for the height of these batteries. I have certainly had better results from these than from the previous Banner 'A' rated batteries that I had! pic: https://photos.veletron.com/picture.php?/183/category/222 Karen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 n1nja - 2020-10-02 12:46 PM ...Also think there is only one vent hole in the ET650, so can go wrong there... The Banner leisure battery I replaced with a Varta LFD90 had a single vent-hole, whereas the FIAMM starter battery I replaced with a Varta H3 Silver Dynamic has two vent-holes. It shouldn’t matter in your case as you can choose where to take the vent-tube through the floor, but if either of the Varta batteries had just a single vent-hole in the ‘wrong’ end, replacement would have been more complicated, particularly where the starter-battery was concerned. Regarding automotive battery date-codes, these normally used tobe stamped into one of the battery’s terminals, but that’s often not the case nowadays. This 2016 forum thread discussed Exide battery age https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Are-batteries-marked-with-their-date-of-manufacture-/40656/ You’ll note my posting of 26 January 2016 12:09 PM there and Brambles’ posting of 26 January 2016 1:40 PM (copied below) I am now being told there should be a long number stamped on the lid back right with terminals towards you. The 1st two characters are the date code and straight forward. 1st number is year. e.g. 5 is 2015. The second is a letter for the month A B C ..Jan Feb March etc. The rest is the battery type/model. There’s no guarantee that a battery manufacturer will continue to use the same date-code methodology indefinitely and, although I knew how Banner was recording the date-code in 2016, the company may use a different code format nowadays. I know how Varta shows the date-code now and the method differs from Banner’s. It’s also the case that, without actually KNOWING the format, it may not be practicable to ‘break’ the code. My experience is that, unless a battery’s date-code is very visible and its meaning is very obvious, a battery retailer will rarely be able to advise on a battery’s date of manufacture. Even though the 3-digit code Alpha Batteries refers to is not a date-code, somewhere on an ET650 battery there will be information showing when it was made. This recent forum thread related to CTEK battery chargers https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/CTEK-Battery-Charger/56323/ The latest CTEK MXS 5.0 is designed to handle batteries up to 160Ah (though the CTEK webpage conflicts with this) https://www.ctek.com/uk/products/car/mxs-5-0-uk and obtainable for under £70. The CTEK MXS 7.0 is advertised for charging 14Ah - 225Ah batteries https://www.ctek.com/uk/products/car/mxs-7-0-uk but you are looking at a price of around £100. I’ve used my CTEK MXS 5.0 charger for batteries up to 100Ah capacity without any problems, so you shouldn’t NEED to buy the MXS 7.0 unless you think you’ll fit a larger capacity battery in the future or want to charge a bit faster than the MXS 5.0 charger can do, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veletron Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 Worth pointing out that at least with my ER650's, if the single vent hole is at the wrong end, you just prize off the cell cover and switch it 180 degrees and hey presto, vent hole is at the correct end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirou Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 Don't waste your time with these tiny chargers. First one has a 2A charge current, the last two mentioned are hardly any better at 5 & 7A. OK if you're constantly plugged in but woefully undersized for the 200Ah you plan on charging. Go up to 20A, possibly even 25A size and you will actually leave a site with batteries charged overnight rather than a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 Spirou The information Vincent has provided about his vehicle is that it is a 2002 Toyota “Hiace”, has a 70A alternator, does not have an electric hook-up (which I assume to mean that it cannot be connected to a 230V mains power-supply and currently has no on-board battery-charger) and that the leisure-battery will be positioned under rock-&-roll seating. This suggests to me that the vehicle is pretty small and may be similar to the photo attached below. I don’t know from where you’ve got the idea that Vincent is planning to charge 200Ah-worth of batteries - the battery he is buying is an Exide ET650 rated by Exide as 90Ah (20h) capacity and it’s unlikely - given a Hiace day-van’s size and specification - that adding a 2nd battery would be a realistic option. I’m unsure what purpose Vincent has in mind for the battery charger. The fact that he considered a 2A output charger initially suggests that he might only be planning to maintenance-charge the leisure-battery when the Hiace is not in use, with charging normally being via the vehicle’s alternator. If the charger is to be installed ‘permanently’ within the Hiace and operated when the vehicle is in use and a 230V mains hook-up becomes available, then - as you point out - a higher output charger would make more sense. But Vincent was not keen on the £100-odd price of a CTEK MXS 7.0 charger, so what would you suggest he choose as a sub-£100 20A/25A charger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirou Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 For some reason I thought he's buying 2x100Ah batteries. I still wouldn't buy less than 10A charger unless it will only be used to maintain the battery. I have one fairly large 8A charger/starter from Lidl (mainly for car batteries) and I once left it to charge twin LFD90s...it took an eternity and it was extremely hot even though batteries were at about 12.5V at start (so more than 50% SOC). An undersized charger is undersized charger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n1nja Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 Thats right was looking for only one leisure battery and will be charging from the Alternator via the Durite VSR. Spoke to excide about the battery charger and they said anything under 10amps charging, therefore both the CTEK MXS 7.0 and CTEK MXS 5.0 would be suitable. This was just to maintain the battery now and then if needed. The ET650 has arrived so installing it later today. Thanks again for everyone help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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