# Adria PVC electrics



## relay (May 9, 2005)

Hi, 

Can anyone with a Van M or Twin (I'm guessing the electric panel will be the same) tell me if you need to press anything to have the leisure battery charge whilst driving? I assumed it would be on a relay but as the battery is now flat, perhaps I'm wrong  

Pressing the battery level indicator whilst the engine is running, shows it at full strength, but within 10 minutes of stopping, the red light is flashing to say the battery is discharged. I'm going to get into the battery box (it's in a silly place) tomorrow with a volt meter and try to see what's happening, but just thought I'd ask here first. Thanks 
-H


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

"tell me if you need to press anything to have the leisure battery charge whilst driving?"

I don't have either but I think it fair to say it would be a pretty unique feature 

The multimeter is the next step, though if you have mains to the van you could ensure it has a full charge that way if you haven't driven much after the leisure battery were flat. You can still do your multimeter checks for alternator charging afterwards.

Dave


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## relay (May 9, 2005)

Thanks Dave, unfortunately we can't put it on hook-up (though we can take the battery off tomorrow and charge it in the house), but we drove 75 miles yesterday, stopped and put one light on for five minutes and that was it - tea in the dark, and the red light on the panel again.  

Will try tomorrow & report back.
Thanks again
-H


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

1) Volts at the leisure battery when you get there with no loads.
2) Ditto once the engine has started.
3) If not significant difference, check the fuses in the thick vehicle battery/ alternator/ leisure battery leads (can be a set at each end).
4) Once you have a reasonable charge into the battery (whether then or after a charge at home and placement back in the van) optionally measure the current in series between the disconnected negative battery lead and the negative battery terminal with engine off and all loads switched off. Should be zero or around 0.2A if control panel live.

Dave


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## wooly (Oct 3, 2007)

A quick Thought - As the battery is so difficult to get too, Is there any water the cells?
Michael


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## relay (May 9, 2005)

wooly said:


> A quick Thought - As the battery is so difficult to get too, Is there any water the cells?
> Michael


Hi Michael,
I'll let you know that tomorrow too :lol: I would certainly hope so, we picked the van up, new, 5 weeks ago. But... one never knows! We won't be doing complicated sorting of this issue, obviously because it's under warranty, but I'd like to have some idea of what's wrong before I take it in! 
-H


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## relay (May 9, 2005)

DABurleigh said:


> 1) Volts at the leisure battery when you get there with no loads.


11.14



> 2) Ditto once the engine has started.


14.32

So didn't do 3!



> 3) If not significant difference, check the fuses in the thick vehicle battery/ alternator/ leisure battery leads (can be a set at each end).
> 
> 4) Once you have a reasonable charge into the battery


I decided that since it's a warranty issue anyway and it was freezing today, I couldn't be bothered to take the battery to the house to charge so will call about it tomorrow.

Thanks Dave, and all for the suggestions - I'll keep you posted on what the outcome is.

Bit disappointed to find that there's not room to install a bigger battery. The fitted one is only 70Ah 
-H


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## tramp (May 25, 2005)

*dg sb*

hi Relay,
I think you will find the battery is a gel type so sealed. once totally discharged they take longer to recharge. the one in our twin took 3 days to totally flatten under heavy usuage. when you statr the engine in automatically charges the leisure and engina at the same time , taking into account the battrey discharge rate. ie if it flat it gets a fast recharge then a trickel charge.

when on mains it charges both the engine and leisure again. one very important thing to check is that someone hasnt set the charge rate to acid when its a gel and vice versa .

your handbook should say which model of charger it is "probably German" then do a search on the net, if battery not holding charge its knackered - maybe dealer swaped it to someones new van and didnt replace hoping you wouldnt notice  it happens all the time.

tramp


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## relay (May 9, 2005)

Hi Tramp,

Thanks for that. I did check it was set to gel, that seems ok. Regarding the charging, should 75 miles ought to have put enough in (even if it was flat) to have one light on for 10 minutes? (we'd only been stopped long enough to boil the kettle - on gas, I hasten to add :lol: ). It's a nuisance that we can't put it on hookup to try till we go away :roll: 

The EMS is an Elektrobolck EBL208 S, according to the manual. 

The battery does look new and had a booklet taped to it (when I could get at it - you have to remove the table and 6 screws to get in there 8O )
-H


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

H,

Either:

1) You haven't got a problem beyond not charging your leisure battery for long enough (from flat it takes HOURS of driving to fully charge), or;

2) You have a constant load on the leisure battery (my previous 4), or;

3) You have a faulty battery.

You diagnose/ pursue in that order.

Dave


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## tramp (May 25, 2005)

*bdb*

hi ,
when you have the engine running and press the control panel the green light shows that a charge is gong to the battery, i would expect 75mls drive sufficient to put some charge in a flat battery as it would go into fast charge mode for 75% charge then a slow trickel till fully charged. sounds to me the battery is "US"  they have a 2 year warrenty so demand a new battery as the only way to check is fully recharge then do a test after 12 hours as with acid batts you can check electrolite levels.

in our old [2007] twin we put a large agm battery 250amps under the bed in a seperate box and linked to charge box with no problems.

even with blown air and lights and a tv through invertor I would expect at least 2 days use.

tramp.


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