# Battery Advice



## bulawayolass (Jul 27, 2010)

I think l may have messed up and worrying a tad so any advice welcome to settle my mind:

When l went out to check CB the other day l realised that l hadn't plugged CB back into electric at some point in last couple of months or so. I had the electric heater that l put in for winter plugged in and on. I screamed and plugged in the electric but wondering if l have screwed the batteries up. 

I have a 100watt solar panel and 2x leisure batteries. Can not remember total voltage but was heavy batteries was done at vanbitz. Not sure if there was enough juice for the heater to run and if there was l am guessing in the night would have pulled them flat then day recharged a bit at least.


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## ched999uk (Jan 31, 2011)

It would be unusual for a heater to run off the batteries. Heaters pull lots of power and I doubt a 100 watt solar panel would be enough to replace the charge that a heater would need.

Is your heater pugged into a 'mains' socket? Unless you have an inverter that generates 240vac from the batteries and a changeover system I very much doubt your heater will run off batteries.

Without heating on as long as you have drained the water you should be fine.


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## johnthompson (Jul 29, 2010)

Your heater would need mains to run, not 12v so forgetting to plug in the mains lead should not have affected your batteries.

Your heater would not be working however, until you plugged the cable in. 

If you had a CB radio on that could have flattened your batteries and solar would not be man enough to recharge your batteries at this time of year in the northern hemisphere.

John


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## johnthompson (Jul 29, 2010)

Your heater would need mains to run, not 12v so forgetting to plug in the mains lead should not have affected your batteries.

Your heater would not be working however, until you plugged the cable in. 

If you had a CB radio on that could have flattened your batteries and solar would not be man enough to recharge your batteries at this time of year in the northern hemisphere.

John


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## bulawayolass (Jul 27, 2010)

Thanks John that's put my mind at rest had visions of double battery replacement!


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## Senator (Apr 24, 2008)

bulawayolass said:


> I think l may have messed up and worrying a tad so any advice welcome to settle my mind:
> 
> When l went out to check CB the other day l realised that l hadn't plugged CB back into electric at some point in last couple of months or so. I had the electric heater that l put in for winter plugged in and on. I screamed and plugged in the electric but wondering if l have screwed the batteries up.
> 
> I have a 100watt solar panel and 2x leisure batteries. Can not remember total voltage but was heavy batteries was done at vanbitz. Not sure if there was enough juice for the heater to run and if there was l am guessing in the night would have pulled them flat then day recharged a bit at least.


Hi

If your heater is plugged into a 230v socket in the van then this will not have affected the batteries in any way as there is no connection between them. Unless you are referring to the built in gas/electric heater which perhaps has blown air heating in which case the blower (only) runs from the batteries.

Your batteries should be ok if they are in good condition and were fully charged when you last had mains to the van.

The solar panel will of course help, particually if you have anything like an alarm which will pull power continuously from the batteries albeit a small amount.

I have a battery charger with an 'amp' display that provides a good indication of battery condition. If they are on the way out it generally stays at a high charge continuously rather than slowly dropping to a lower rate. If the battery is completely shot then it won't even try and charge it but gives an error warning.

Hope this helps!

Mark


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## bulawayolass (Jul 27, 2010)

Yes l have that visual panel as well Mark but remembered it after elec plugged in so figured if that had temp charged them then wouldnt count.

No wasnt the blown air it is a small think oil filled/filled radiator Brian bought as winter MH warmer


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## johnthompson (Jul 29, 2010)

We also thought we would have to replace our leisure batteries. We were in southern France and Italy and they were performing very poorly. 

Normally when fully charged they get up to 14v. They would not go above 13.5v on charge and as soon as they came off charge dropped to 12,4v in less than a minute.

We were in temperatures of minus 11c at night which on good days rose to minus 5c during the day.

This poor performance was both with the vehicle charging or on our Gasparini generator.

We cut our trip short and returned to the UK. We had everything tested and the leisure batteries were charging fine and holding at 13v off charge.

We can only put it down to the batteries not liking the cold conditions.

It taught us the lesson that even on the Med coast it can get bitterly cold in winter. The only place for warmth is southern Spain or Morocco. I tried to wash the rear window at Narnonne Plage and the brush froze instantly to the plastic rear window. Very Very Cold blustery wind day and night. 

We were warm in the Motorhome but the outlet of the waste tank froze and we were only able to dump the contents in Birmingham on a CL on return from our last dump in Narbonne Plage. There were still plenty of places where we could dump toilet waste on route but water was not available anywhere.

John


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## Senator (Apr 24, 2008)

As it is likely your batteries have discharged it might pay you to charge them (van and leisure) from an independent battery charger, ie, not the one fitted to your motorhome.

The independent ones will charge to a slightly higher voltage than the one in your m/h.

But before you do, it is best if you leave the 12v main switch (probably on the vans control panel) in the 'off' position to isolate all your 12v items, and disconnect the solar panels.

Mark


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## johnthompson (Jul 29, 2010)

Senator said:


> As it is likely your batteries have discharged it might pay you to charge them (van and leisure) from an independent battery charger, ie, not the one fitted to your motorhome.
> 
> The independent ones will charge to a slightly higher voltage than the one in your m/h.
> 
> ...


Thanks Mark.

We did recharge them when we got to the CL in Birmingham and after 2 nights on hookup they were tested at Conrad Andersons and off charge they settled to 13v. A good battery will settle to 12.8v so there was nothing wrong with the batteries it was just the severe cold that we experience on our trip to Italy through France in January & February that was affecting their performance.

We had an alternator and vehicle battery fail in Italy and the garage could not refit the Waeco B2B (40 amp) as it apeared to be just sparking on connecting to the system. Conrad Anderson tested this unit and it was fine, so we now have that as a means to charge the leisure batteries to 14.2 v to get a maximum charge into them on the road.

We were off hook up for two months in atrocious condition but are now on a CL with hookup. The trip to Italy was to get our Gasparini generator sorted at the factory in Bologna and that normally also takes the batteries to 14v with a 20 amp charge rate but under the exreme cold conditions it could not bring the batteries back to normal. Only when we got back to the mild UK were we able to get normal readings again.

John


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