# Varta leisure battery



## k11ngy (Jul 16, 2012)

Just about to buy new battery, 180 AH varta

We had fully charged battery, had lights on inside and heating, fridge was on gas and battery light (ON heating panel) started to flash after 4 hours and the all lights etc went off

Is this just a bad battery or possible fault?

Is it better to have 1 x 180ah or 2 90ah joined?

Newbiee

thanks

steve


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

what capacity is battery?
how many lights?
halogen or fluorescent ?
what amperage does heating consume ?


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## k11ngy (Jul 16, 2012)

I will check this all in mng

I do know

1. Lounge lights at front are halogen

2. Lounge at back are BOTH

batter typye Varta, spec I will check in morning

Thank you for help

Steve



vicdicdoc said:


> what capacity is battery?
> how many lights?
> halogen or fluorescent ?
> what amperage does heating consume ?


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## k11ngy (Jul 16, 2012)

Last thing

On the digital display I could see engine battery showing 12+ VOLTS

It showed the leisure battery at 9. ? volts can i i assume thats whats left in battery?? if so, cant see why all lights went off and had to switch engine battery to power habitat section??

Not a battery expert

Cheers

Steve


vicdicdoc said:


> what capacity is battery?
> how many lights?
> halogen or fluorescent ?
> what amperage does heating consume ?


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

If you have switched over to the vehicle battery you will flatten that as well. When battery drops below 10.8 volts the heating will drop out to save depleting itself completely.I would buy 2 x as large as you can fit.then change lights to led's.

cabby


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## Patrick_Phillips (Aug 17, 2006)

If your battery is 180Ah, then you have no more than 90 amps available from fully charged.
Spread over 4 hours, that is 22.5 amps per hour or 270 watts.
If you are using heating and halogen that could well be what you have been using and so the battery is probably not to blame but...
Once you take a battery below about 10.5 volts, you risk doing permanent damage to it! Once, and you should get away with it  

Using a battery from fully charged to "flat" at about 11 volts is a "cycle". Each battery is capable of a number of cycles before it is dead and needs to be replaced. Many "leisure" batteries will only allow 150 cycles; others will allow as many as 1,000 cycles. If you only use half the capacity before recharging that is half a cycle etc.

Getting battery manufacturers to tell you what the cycles capacity is ain't easy!!!

Patrick


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## CostaBlancaServices (Dec 22, 2012)

Useful information from Patrick. You could have easily have been consuming that much power. The lack of battery power on motor homes never ceases to surprise me. I too, as suggested by Cabby would get two of the largest capacity you can and change the lights for LEDs. 

I assume you didn't have a mains hook up as an automatic charger / conditioner would have eased some of the battery's pain. 

Sterling Power have some very interesting information about batteries in their support faqs


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

CostaBlancaServices said:


> Useful information from Patrick. You could have easily have been consuming that much power. The lack of battery power on motor homes never ceases to surprise me. I too, as suggested by Cabby would get two of the largest capacity you can and change the lights for LEDs.
> 
> I assume you didn't have a mains hook up as an automatic charger / conditioner would have eased some of the battery's pain.
> 
> Sterling Power have some very interesting information about batteries in their support faqs


I'd have thought a 180ah battery would have coped quite well, before chucking it, make sure the battery and other connections are clean and tight, as changing the battery will obviously make things better, as the new ones will be clean and tight, the old tip of a little vaseline on the terminals is still a good idea, but in these modern times, replacement is easier than a little maintenance, but a damned site more expensive, also what type of battery might it be low on "distilled" water.


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## k11ngy (Jul 16, 2012)

On the matter of heating in the Kontiki which I assume?? with lights?? drained the leisure battery?

Dont forget, I am newbie so was just wondering that when I put JUST the heating on and select GAS as the source does it still take power from the battery (Which I can only assume it does so as to blow the heat around?) and hence the flashing red light on heating controls and then sudden loss of all power to habitat?

Thanks again

Steve



cabby said:


> If you have switched over to the vehicle battery you will flatten that as well. When battery drops below 10.8 volts the heating will drop out to save depleting itself completely.I would buy 2 x as large as you can fit.then change lights to led's.
> 
> cabby


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