# Elecsol Batteries



## Fatalhud

I bought 2- 110AH Elecsol batteries just over a year ago
And to be honest I have always suspected they where rubbish, but with mostly using sites with hook up had never had time to test my doubts.
I am now working in Guildford, staying on a lovely farm with no electric and after less than 2 days they are less than 10.5 volt

Has any one else had problems with their Elecsol batteries

Alan H


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## EJB

What does the company say about the situation?


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## Fatalhud

I have not contacted them yet
I'm sat in a field and the receipts are at home
Although the Batteries are meant to have a 5 year warranty I was wondering if any others have similar experience with there Elecsol's and the company

Alan H


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## erneboy

My two 110ah are just over two years old and seem to be knackered. I am in Germany so will not bother trying a warranty claim, others have said they quibble quite a bit and are not keen to replace under warranty, Alan.


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## Don_Madge

Fatalhud said:


> I bought 2- 110AH Elecsol batteries just over a year ago
> And to be honest I have always suspected they where rubbish, but with mostly using sites with hook up had never had time to test my doubts.
> I am now working in Guildford, staying on a lovely farm with no electric and after less than 2 days they are less than 10.5 volt
> 
> Has any one else had problems with their Elecsol batteries
> 
> Alan H


Hi Alan,

I've been using Elecsol batteries now for about 12 years and never had a problem.

The current ones on the Timberland are seven years old and are kept topped up by the solar panel.

During our long winter trips we free camp a lot and the batteries have never given any problems.

I use them as leisure batteries and find they need topping up every 4/5 months.

Elecsol after sales service is/was very poor and I would be surprised if you get any joy out of them.

Don


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## bob44

Just to balance the opinions - I fitted two of a similar capacity about four years ago and have had absolutely no problems.


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## javea

I have 2 Elecsol batteries which are 2 years old. Not had a problem until this week. Left the motorhome in it's covered storage, batteries fully charged at the beginning of June, all electrics turned off, went to the van at the start of the week and the battery indicator was showing '0' which was a bit of a surprise. Vehicle battery was fine.

Have charged them up again and will obviously watch the situation as there is clearly a problem.


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## wilse

A few months back I suspected my batteries were faulty, after a couple of days camping, I too found the voltage was low. Recently had them load tested with a 100amp load [local garage] they reported back the batteries were fine.

I think it's my battery placement... as when it's cold so are the batts!

It seem that these batteries cannot be topped up. [orange/red lid version] bought 1 year ago.

Personally when these do go kaput I've buy a different brand NOT elecsol. Have a search on here there are plenty of reports of elecsol being very unhelpful.

The dealer I got mine from said they were a 'little difficult' to deal with.

I'd have them load tested and repost with your findings.

PS I can say in our old van Exide 80A Gel was superb!

w


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## javea

Since my earlier post I have emailed Elecsol Technical and Warranty department and await an answer.

If you look on their website under Literature you can download an E brochure for leisure batteries, under the Guarantee section they say, and I quote:-

The heading:- A BATTERY SO ADVANCED IT'S GUARANTEED FOR 5 YEARS

In the body of this portion of the brochure they go on to say "We offer you an unrivalled five year guarantee which is backed up both nationally and internationally"

I await their response with interest, anyone having problems with their Elecsol battery within the 5 year period might like to quote their own publicity to them.


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## eddievanbitz

Fatalhud said:


> I bought 2- 110AH Elecsol batteries just over a year ago
> And to be honest I have always suspected they where rubbish, but with mostly using sites with hook up had never had time to test my doubts.
> I am now working in Guildford, staying on a lovely farm with no electric and after less than 2 days they are less than 10.5 volt
> 
> Has any one else had problems with their Elecsol batteries
> 
> Alan H


LOL When I was a student I used to have a cheque book like that: Rubbish! Never any money left after a few days of arriving!

Over the two years how often have you topped them up Alan? We get people in all the time with battery problems who have never checked the levels or topped them up, which if you have been using hook up for the last year you will undoubtedly need to do.

Also don't forget that with 2 x 110amp you have a roughly 50% of the batteries capacity available (although I always calculate 50% of 80% for my own use to avoid upset spouse and no inverter ergo hairdryer! 8O ) So have you been a little extravagant? easy done when you're used to electric hook up.

Steve at Elecsol has bent over backwards and gone so far out of his way over the years, helping our customers with warranty problems, yet I read with dismay on forums that some people think he is unhelpful. If you have registered the warranty card and have the warranty documents there is never any problem. If you don't then to be fair with no idea the source of the battery or the age of the battery, you may have a problem

Eddie


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## erneboy

eddievanbitz said:


> Over the two years how often have you topped them up Alan?
> Eddie


Eddie, at the risk of seeming daft, can you top Elecsol up? Mine came with the van when it was new, no paperwork was provided but they told me they were maintenance free, Alan.

Edit: I see no obvious way to open the tops, but they are hard to reach because of the locker they are in.


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## wilse

> Steve at Elecsol has bent over backwards and gone so far out of his way over the years, helping our customers with warranty problems, yet I read with dismay on forums that some people think he is unhelpful. If you have registered the warranty card and have the warranty documents there is never any problem. If you don't then to be fair with no idea the source of the battery or the age of the battery, you may have a problem
> 
> Eddie


What warranty cards? Where do these come from.
Palletways delivered the batteries [I understand this is Eelecsol's courier of choice] but there was no paperwork??

W


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## inkey-2008

You will wait and wait they do not answer emails. You get a very rude reply if you phone very abrupt.

You need to get a drop test with a report send that with the warrenty card and they send a replacement battery. 

Do not send by registered mail they will not sign for it and it will be returned unopened.

Andy


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## Telbell

> We get people in all the time with battery problems who have never checked the levels or topped them up, which if you have been using hook up for the last year you will undoubtedly need to do.


Sorry- a bit oiff topic but...is there more demand on batteries when on ehu? I'd have thought there was more when off ehu??


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## wilse

On these current elecsol batteries... they are sealed and don't require any top-ups.
Elecsol themselves told me this.

w


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## Fatalhud

Hi Eddie
For my TV I have a 80ah lead acid up front
The Elecsol's only have to keep the fridge going on gas( milliamps), and I am using a home made 12volt LED light that drags less than an amp.

As Alan Has said I think these batteries are sealed for life, so you can't top them up.

I have checked the van for parasitic loads and found none
I was hoping with such little use they would have lasted over a week, not less than 2 days.

I have now split the 2 batteries to see if it just one of them that is knackered and dragging the other one down.

I have nothing with me that I can do a load test with, and they are a bit heavy to carry on my Scooter to take for testing. 

I shall wait until I get home in 8 weeks and hunt out the warranty cards.


Alan H


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## Fatalhud

Telbell said:


> We get people in all the time with battery problems who have never checked the levels or topped them up, which if you have been using hook up for the last year you will undoubtedly need to do.
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry- a bit oiff topic but...is there more demand on batteries when on ehu? I'd have thought there was more when off ehu??
Click to expand...

I think the point being made was that constant charging evaporates more battery fluid

Alan H


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## inkey-2008

Telbell
On EHU with the battery charger on all the time the batteries get hot and if they are not sealed they lose water and the plates are exposed to the air and this is not good for them.

Even some so called sealed batteries will do this. The Elecsol batteries aresuppose to put the evaporation back into the batteries.

Andy


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## DTPCHEMICALS

As i have just posted on another thread our elcosol battery is on permanent ehu at home.

No problems over 4 years , in fact it will be 5 years old in october.

dave p


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## eddievanbitz

I am not sure how long ago the sealed ones came through, a few months ago, so if you have a solid orange top you have sealed and cannot top them up, if you have round bits on the top you have to!

I can only vouch for Elecsol in what we have experienced. We have NEVER had ANY warranty issues with Elecsol. We have had assistance way beyound the call of duty assisting our customers abroad with Elecsol batteries and assumed failiures.

Before any one gets on their high horse, this is our experience as a company selling hundreds of Elecsol batteries, not an expressio of doubt about anyone elses experiences :roll: 

Eddie


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## javea

wilse said:


> What warranty cards? Where do these come from.
> Palletways delivered the batteries [I understand this is Eelecsol's courier of choice] but there was no paperwork??
> 
> W


Same here. My batteries were delivered to Brownhills who fitted them for me, no warranty cards given to me. At least I have the credit card bill for their purchase so perhaps this will be sufficient if they have to be changed.


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## erneboy

My batteries are Elecsol 125, they are all black on top and there is no obvious way to take the tops off to top them up. I know that with some batteries a cover can be levered off to reveal the caps. This does not seem to be the case here, Alan.


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## wakk44

I also bought my pair from Brownhills but did receive the warranty cards,only had them for about 7 months so too early to form an opinion but so far so good


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## inkey-2008

Mine came direct from Elecsol. I bought them on a third parties web site.
the cards were attached to the batteries.

If anybody wants to buy a cheap 270 amp Elecsol pm with an offer collection only. cost £300 pounds new.

Andy


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## davesport

I've had my Elecsol 270 for about two years. No problems to report so far. My battery cannot be topped up by the end user & is fitted with caps tha recombine the gasses to produce water that goes back into the cells.

One bit of advice I got from someone at Elecsol was to keep the battery in the highest state of charge at all times. So now the van is left on hook-up whilst parked up, somehing I never used to bother doing.

So far no problems with my Elecsol & yes......I've filled in & sent them my warranty card  

Happy (at the moment) to recommend.

D.


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## Ifor

*Most batteries are way below labeled capacity.*

My dad cut out an article from a recent MMM that I was reading today. They tested 8 different 'leisure' batteries. They did a discharge test and then interestingly took the batteries apart to looks at the construction method and plate thickness. Only 2 of the 8 tested anything like up to spec. On taking them apart most did not have thick plates like you would want in a leisure batterie 2 did though. They did not name names for the bad ones but the good ones were Banner Energy Bulls (a German brand) which I have never heard of but I found them avalible in the UK.
http://www.thehappymotorist.co.uk/category.php?Category_ID=84
I expect to see more in subsiquent MMM's.

I have gone though rather a lot of batteries. I have the equipment to test them and none have come anywhere near up to spec. I did try a pair of Elecsol's but they were worse % wise than anything else also the pair were not matched so I got them swapped out for somthing cheaper where the pair were at least matched and a higher capacity than the Elecsol's although still 25% less than what is on the lable.

Hopefully I want need any more new ones for a while but I will be checking out the Banners next time unless I see somthing else in the meantime.


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## Codfinger

*Elecsol*

Our 2x110amp have been on for about 2 years, all seems fine we can stay off hook up for quite a while.
Chris


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## javea

I did send an email to Elecsol telling them of the loss of power on the batteries when all electrics were turned off at the main panel.

They responded quite quickly as follows:-

Sir,

Something has been draining batteries for this to happen 'aerial booster' is an example of this. They will now need a good 3 days and nights charge at say 10amp and I assure you everything will be fine.

regards,

team elecsol'

I have responded, thanking them for their response and pointing out that my original email did point out that all electrics were turned off at the main panel and there is no aerial booster on the vehicle. Advised them that I am now monitoring the situation on a regular basis and asked them to note my original notification in case a warranty claim becomes necessary. 

When the panel is turned on it is only showing a drain of 0.4 amps which I would imagine is being taken by the panel itself.


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## hblewett

I am confused! I have understood that Elecsol batteries are GEL batteries, and as such require no maintenance. I had been meaning to ask a question about this, but now this thread has turned up. But I'm not sure having read it whether they need maintenance of not. 

Our two 110 amp batteries are two and a half years old. Are they likely to be gel or just normal acid (water fill) batteries? Are they likely to need topping up or not? 

I would welcome any enlightenment anyone can offer!


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## davesport

Elecsols are Lead acid battery's not gel's.

D.


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## javea

Further to my previous posts on this topic, I received an email from Elecsol Technical Department asking me to ring them. Did this today and they advised that the problem with my batteries is down to 'underuse'. 

They say that these batteries 'love to be taken down to the minimum and then recharged periodically'. The chap explained that they are like NiCad batteries and if I let them run right down now and again and then recharge to full capacity then they will be fine.

Have recharged them as they originally advised and will see how they go on now.


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## Waggys

Just looked at my info ref the battery and it says "NEW Sealed for Life Design" 

I to thought it was GEL and that is what I have changed the charger to!!!

Have I dropped something????


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## erneboy

The running flat comment seems very odd as they are really just a version of lead acid battery, Alan.


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## inkey-2008

What they answered an email. You must be honoured, pahaps the miserable git has cheered up. 

Andy


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## erneboy

I have been emailing about an order and received no reply. Not impressed, Alan.


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## hblewett

eddievanbitz said:


> I am not sure how long ago the sealed ones came through, a few months ago, so if you have a solid orange top you have sealed and cannot top them up, if you have round bits on the top you have to!
> Eddie


Ours have the solid orange tops (which no-way can be removed) and are two and a half years old


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## Jassy

A link to my miserable Elecsol experience:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1825763

To anyone awaiting a courier delivery of Elecsol batteries, expect the worst. The norm seems to be to wrap them in a bin liner and then put them in a cardboard box.
The 3 that I received had all saturated the cardboard with acid.


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## DABurleigh

"They say that these batteries 'love to be taken down to the minimum and then recharged periodically'. "

Looks like Elecsol marketing is missing a trick; they could claim a world first for lead-acid batteries ....

Dave


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## erneboy

Jassy, that is a scary story. Thanks forewarned etc., Alan.


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## Fatalhud

Hi all
Decided to come home to try and sort my batteries out

Tried charging them both for 24 hours on 7amp chargers, then placed a 5amp load on both
Both lasted 2 hours before going below 10.5 volt

Not good

I dropped into Lowdham Leisure (Nottingham), where I bought them from, 18 months ago

On explaining my problems with the batteries and my concerns with dealing with Elecsol direct, they swapped them straight away for 2 brand new ones

They did not have to do this for me, so a massive thanks to Lowdham Leisure Nottingham for top notch customer service

Alan H


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## davesport

> They say that these batteries 'love to be taken down to the minimum and then recharged periodically'. The chap explained that they are like NiCad batteries and if I let them run right down now and again and then recharge to full capacity then they will be fine.


Completely at odds with the advice Elecsol gave to me. Which was to keep the battery in "the highest state of charge possible" all the time IE plugged into the hook-up. This came up in a conversation with them about the suitability of the charging system in the Schaudt Electroblock. In brief his advice was to leave the van on hook-up all the time whilst not in use. Absolutely no mention of discharging & then re-charging.

It's begining to sound like they're making this up as they go along :x

D.


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## erneboy

They also seem to make delivery dates up as they go along. They did not answer my emails.

Last week trying to ring them from Germany I only had an 0800 number which does not work from here on my mobile so I posted on here to see if anyone knew a geographic number for them. Several members rang and asked them for one, this seemed to annoy the guy who answered, to the extent that when Dave/Zebedee rang and said it was an MHF forum query he could not even be polite to him.

A little while later I rang asking if he could give me a delivery date and tracking details. He was downright nasty to me, asking how many phone calls he was going to get about this order. I stopped him and explained that I was not aware that people from the forum had telephoned him. I had no idea how they had got the number for me. He calmed down a little and told me the batteries would arrive on Monday. It is now late Monday afternoon so I rang again to see where they are. He gave me a phone number for their courier who say they will deliver on Wednesday.

In my opinion there was no need for any of this. An email to me letting me know the batteries had been dispatched and giving contact details for the courier or better still a tracking number would have allowed me to follow their progress without bothering any body.

One more point. My current batteries are Elecsol and are dud at just over two years old. They came in the van when it was new but I was not given the guarantee cards so have not tried claiming. Difficult from Germany anyway.

However a year ago I fitted a Sterling b2b charger. Knowing nothing about Elecsol batteries I rang and asked what to set the b2b at. The man on the phone said 14.5 volts. Now that I know they are lead acid AGM batteries I have checked the Sterling instructions which say 14.1 might be more suitable. So it looks as though I may have cooked the batteries as a result of what Elecsol told me to do, Alan.


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## erneboy

My batteries arrived this morning, a day earlier than I was told which was nice. Four batteries and one guarantee card, maybe that is enough.

They were in perfect condition which was good.

I fitted them straight away and my problems are solved I am pleased to say, Alan.


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## Zebedee

Glad you got it sorted Alan . . . . . . . . . eventually!!

Dave


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## joedenise

Erneboy

Did they charge you carriage & insurance? As when I phoned up last week was told, very abuptly, what to do which was to send a report to them with the guarantee stub, and then said you know about the £35 carriage and insurance don't you? Then hung up.

Joe


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## sallytrafic

hblewett said:


> eddievanbitz said:
> 
> 
> 
> I am not sure how long ago the sealed ones came through, a few months ago, so if you have a solid orange top you have sealed and cannot top them up, if you have round bits on the top you have to!
> Eddie
> 
> 
> 
> Ours have the solid orange tops (which no-way can be removed) and are two and a half years old
Click to expand...

Does this look like your top (removed today to check levels which were perfect)










The battery is two years old and this is the first time it has been checked.


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## Schurchy

I also bought 2 Elecsol 110Ah sealed leisure batteries from a dealer in Oct 2011; never been happy with them...gave me less reliable power than the old single lead-acid leisure battery on the vehicle when it was purchased. Dealer says he cannot contact Elecsol, they dont reply to calls or emails; he offered to replace them at cost price on the replacements as the Elecsol batteries "techically" passed the battery load test...not too happy about that result, but need to have a reliable supply for forthcoming trip to FranceSpain Portugal and Morocco hopefully involving lots of wild camping.


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## Fatalhud

I think I heard somewhere they had gone bust
no great loss :roll: :roll: 

Alan H


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## dalspa

Yes, they went to the wall a few weeks ago. There was a thread on here about it.

DavidL


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## listerdiesel

Just to clear up a little bit of confusion about battery types.

There are only Lead-Acid batteries in common consumer use in motorhomes, so we will concentrate on those.

There are two main sub-groups, sealed or vented types.

Vented/wet batteries are what we see on our cars and motorhomes for the vehicle engine, they are relatively cheap and robust, but are really only designed for occasional heavy starting loads and not much else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sealed come in many flavours, and the main differences are how the electrolyte is retained around the plates in the cells and how the battery responds to overcharging.

VRLA or Valve Regulated Lead Acid is the most common, and these have little valves in each cell that keeps any fluid and gas inside, but they will open in extremes of pressure. The battery has an absorbent matting between the plates which keeps electrolyte in suspension and the plates electrically involved.

GEL batteries are similar but they use a more static electrolyte, but their principle of operation is the same.

Flooded Mat, Starved Electrolyte and other descriptions are basically the same thing, it's a sealed Lead-Acid battery!

What these batteries all have in common is a degree of gas recombination going on when they reach the overcharge point. This is where the battery is fully charged but the charger is still trying to push power into the battery.

As the vents are sealed, the battery cannot vent off gases, but under a certain amount of pressure there is some recombination at the plates, but this is very limited and continued overcharge will see the pressure building up and the vents popping open to relive the pressure, then closing again. When that happens, you have lost water and you cannot replace it.

Lead-Acid batteries of ALL types exhibit degradation of capacity when their terminal voltage is held below a critical point. This point is where Sulphation occurs at the plates and it is generally a non-reversible process.

Leaving a battery in a semi-discharged condition will halve its life/capacity in a few weeks, great for sales of new batteries but not so good if you have to pay out for new ones.

So you should generally hold Lead-Acid batteries on float charge at just below their gassing point, which is around 13.60 to 13.80V per 12V battery. Some are slightly higher in voltage, especially sealed types which may need 13.80 to 14.00V.

A good battery on float charge should take a small charge to maintain itself at this level, which is higher than it would sit at if it wasn't on charge. This is the 'Maintenance Charge' rate, and it gets higher and higher as the battery gets older, but normally is about 0.5A to 1.5A, depending on the capacity of the battery.

It is counter-productive to charge at extended rates and voltage for any time, especially with sealed and particular with vented, where the rate of release of gases can be quite high.

Multi-stage chargers are all well and good, but for any given installation, a good, tightly regulated single-stage charger will do just as good a job, if not better as the battery doesn't get knocked about by elevated voltage charging levels.

Industrially we don't use multi-rate chargers at all, nearly all our big stuff is single-rate with batteries on 20-year life cycles.

The winter is the time when most damage is done, plus the situation where the motorhome charger has gone down but nobody has noticed it.

Battery voltage monitoring is probably the biggest thing you can do to extend the life of your battery, followed by keeping it on charge whenever possible and not allowing it to get over discharged.

The low-voltage cut-outs on solar panel controllers are well worth utilising, they can save your battery from certain death if something is left on without you knowing it. Some vehicles have this function already incorporated in the main electrical controller.

One last thing, batteries in parallel will give their combined capacity at the same voltage, so 2 X 110AH will give you 220AH and so on.

Sorry for the long post, there were a few things in that thread that needed sorting out.#

Peter


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## wakk44

Fatalhud said:


> I think I heard somewhere they had gone bust
> no great loss :roll: :roll:
> 
> Alan H


There could be,I have recently bought a 270 A/H Elecsol for the truck,one of the reasons was the 5 year warranty which is now as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

I had 2 110A/H Elecsols on the last motorhome and they were still going strong when I sold it after 4 years,which is one of the reasons I stayed with Elecsol,big mistake methinks.


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## elgizmops

I also had a problem with a pair of Elecsol batteries a couple of years ago. I did however manage to get them changed under warranty.
The replacements also failed within 2 years but as I was abroad at the time I binned them and got Bosch. No problem since.
Pursue your claim but done expect much.


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## BillCreer

Just going through my van documentation for insurance renewal and found a Sonnenchein battery (gel) guarantee form which gives the following info:-

> 12.80 V 100%
approx. 12.55 V 57%
approx. 12.32 V 50%
approx. 12.18 V 25%
< 12.00 V 0%

The measurements should be performed several hours after completion of charge when the charge state has stabilised.

(C&CC still the cheapest Insurance by many £100s for me)


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## cheshiregordon

my 110 ah elecsol lasted 4yrs 9 months it was at that stage I found out that they'd closed and the guarantee was void. The chap who sold it to me didn't want to know.


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## tarba

please be aware if you draw a typical 4a from any pair of 110AH batteries at this time of year you will be lucky to get 40AH of use out of your 220AH before they are flat. This will rise to above 110AH during summer months.


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## PaulW2

tarba said:


> please be aware if you draw a typical 4a from any pair of 110AH batteries at this time of year you will be lucky to get 40AH of use out of your 220AH before they are flat. This will rise to above 110AH during summer months.


Is that because of the temperature of the batteries? If so, if the batteries are maintained at the ambient temperature of the inside of the van (say 19 or 20 degrees) would you be able to utilise the normal 110AH?

Thanks
Paul


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## listerdiesel

tarba said:


> please be aware if you draw a typical 4a from any pair of 110AH batteries at this time of year you will be lucky to get 40AH of use out of your 220AH before they are flat. This will rise to above 110AH during summer months.


Totally and utterly incorrect.

I don't know where you got that information from, but I'm afraid is is just so wrong as to be a joke.

Another '5-post Troll' !

Peter


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## listerdiesel

PaulW2 said:


> Is that because of the temperature of the batteries? If so, if the batteries are maintained at the ambient temperature of the inside of the van (say 19 or 20 degrees) would you be able to utilise the normal 110AH?
> 
> Thanks
> Paul


Ignore it Paul, It's a Troll posting wildly incorrect information.

Peter


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