# Autotrail Leisure Battery stopped Charging



## Stevosp1 (May 17, 2021)

Hi,

I’m new to motorhoming and not 100% sure how all the electrical stuff works fully, but we’re on our 4th trip and for first time the leisure battery capacity has dropped from 100% and currently on 23% the control panel says it’s operating at 13.7v

We’re on electric hookup as we have been at previous sites over last few weekends but this is the first time the battery capacity has dropped.

I noticed on the control panel I can switch to vehicle battery and when I do this the capacity indicator disappears, not sure why.

I assume we should have leisure battery selected farther than vehicle battery?

We have an Autotrail Dakota 2012 running an EC500 power control system

Any ideas if I’m doing something wrong?

Thanks


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

I have an Autotrail Navajo and I have the same problem with the AH dropping, but the batteries show full. 
I contacted Sargent and was told it can be reset to 100% which I have done a few times, he also said as long as the batteries show full not to worry about it, so I don´t :laugh:


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## Stevosp1 (May 17, 2021)

Added some pics


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## Stevosp1 (May 17, 2021)

JanHank said:


> I have an Autotrail Navajo and I have the same problem with the AH dropping, but the batteries show full.
> I contacted Sargent and was told it can be reset to 100% which I have done a few times, he also said as long as the batteries show full not to worry about it, so I don´t :laugh:


Thankyou so much for that and such a fast reply, we're out on a site now and was starting to get little worried we were about to have problems but as the volts are showing 13.7v sounds like it's all ok.

Thanks for sending that document over it all makes sense now 👍

Thanks again


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

I’ll go to bed happy tonight knowing I could help someone. :grin2:

Just to show you how daft that thing is, about an hour ago I checked because someone else had an Autotrail problem and the AH Said 82%. Now where is the AH thingy?
I don’t think my solar panel reading is correct either, it’s in the Full sun.
A lot of people have problems with the Sargent.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

If you are seeing 13.7, and the reading is correct, you are charging the batteries at the moment. It is normal for the capacity to be below 100% while the batteries are charging. Once they reach 100% the charging will taper off.

When your batteries are not on charge, or a while after they come off charge, say an hour later when the voltage has settled, you shoud see only 12.6 or 12.7 volts. Anything more than that and either your gauge is wrong or the batteries are getting a charge from somewhere.

Do you have a solar panel?

There is a battery charge graphic which I will try and find to post for you.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

So what does it mean when the gauge disappears Alan?

If the batteries are full does the solar panel go into slow motion, I am not charging from the mains.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

JanHank said:


> So what does it mean when the gauge disappears Alan?
> 
> If the batteries are full does the solar panel go into slow motion, I am not charging from the mains.


Sorry Jan I don't understand your first question.

When the batteries are full the solar charge controller should cut the current to them only allowing a small amount of power wben.necessary to keep them topped up. If that did not happen the batteries would overcharge, overhead and be damaged.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

erneboy said:


> *Sorry Jan I don't understand your first question.*
> 
> When the batteries are full the solar charge controller should cut the current to them only allowing a small amount of power wben.necessary to keep them topped up. If that did not happen the batteries would overcharge, overhead and be damaged.


We have two different pictures, The first is Steves, he is on the Leisure battery
The second mine and mine is on the vehicle battery with no AH sign.
I have just been in the van and turned it to the Leisure battery and the AH gauge shows. Don´t I need to know the AH on a vehicle battery?
Maybe if Steve turns it to the vehicle battery the AH will go up after a while. It´s time Autotrail used something different to Sargent becaue they are a pain in the bum.

Going by the _solar cuts out when the battery is full_ Steves batterie is definitely full as he has no solar input.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

The idea may be that since you don't use the vehicle battery to run appliances knowing how many Ah it could deliver is not particularly important. 

What's important in a vehicle battery is cold cranking amps which is a measure of how much power that engine can deliver to turn the engine over.

The theory is that they are different types of battery performing different functions. One delivering fairly small amounts of current over longish times and the other giving short bursts where a lot of power iss required.

Often though both batteries are the same. There is a school of thought that says that leisure batteries are not worth bothering with. I tend to agree with that.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

erneboy said:


> Often though both batteries are the same. *There is a school of thought that says that leisure batteries are not worth bothering with. I tend to agree with that.*


What does that mean exactly Alan? Not worth having or not worth worrying about the AH, or what ?


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Can't find the article Jan but there was a great explanation about the differences of the two types of batteries but in the end both would be perfectly adequate in either use.

Correction, the Varta Silver lead acid batteries worked well in either situation.

Ray.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Usually jan a battery labelled Leisure may be more expensive, and some may perform no better than a normal vehicle battery. Either way a vehicle battery will do the job for most of us.

Leisure batteries can endure more deep discharge/charge cycles, in theory. But since we tend to have solar or a hook up and don't use a great deal of power anyway we don't really need to be too concerned about that. And on the basis of cost you may change batteries a bit more often if you use vehicle batteries but then they are cheaper. Thus it can be argued that it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.


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## Drew (May 30, 2005)

Without going into a long explanation:

A leisure battery and a car battery are two very different power sources. ... A car battery has thinner plates and different separators, which mean that it is not as well-equipped to deal with a prolonged period of use for a lower level of energy, and vice versa for leisure batteries.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

I will keep my set up of 2 leisure batteries and one vehicle battery because this discussion no doubt could go on for some time.

Remember in 2019 when I got the van back after all those weeks, all batteries were flat and some thought they would never recover? well the did and are _still working very well _. I say that in a whisper.

Off to Henriettenhof for a few days, gas and batteries will do me even though they have leclic. It´s very sunny so the solar will do me.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Drew said:


> Without going into a long explanation:
> 
> A leisure battery and a car battery are two very different power sources. ... A car battery has thinner plates and different separators, which mean that it is not as well-equipped to deal with a prolonged period of use for a lower level of energy, and vice versa for leisure batteries.


I forebore so as not to get overly complicated.

however perhaps we should say that the above differences apply to a true leisure battery. There's a common suspicion that some are labelled leisure yet may be little or no different and would seem to perform no better in leisure use.


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## Drew (May 30, 2005)

I rest my case.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/techni...ast to a standard,a recharge must be provided.


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## Stevosp1 (May 17, 2021)

I just wanted to say thanks to Janhank and erneboy for the quick reply’s and explanations it helped me out while I was out on a site!

Apologies I was trying to reply at the time but unbeknown to me I had used up my message credits and had to subscribe and although I did there and then it’s taken until today for my subscription to have been applied on my account and have not been able to post messages until now so sorry if it looked like I posted and legged it, I really didn’t 😂


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

I am so pleased I could and it seems did help. Just goes ta show ya we gals aren’t always helpless or hopeless. 
May the rest of your travels be trouble free.


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