# Up-ing Leisure battery Ah



## missbusybusy (Jun 11, 2010)

Good afternoon all

I need a new leisure battery and I have been told that I can go up in Amps from 100ah to 110ah or 120ah will this have any adverse effect on the charging system or when on EHU ?

regards

TE


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

none  

tony


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## joedenise (Jul 20, 2007)

if you go up a lot it will just take longer to recharge the battery,only going up a little will be hardly noticeable


joe


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

when buying your new battery find out what discharge rate the capacity was calculated from eg:- 20hr or 100h ?


my friend recently bought what he thought was a 110ah battery but it ran flat last weekend with the heating running 

when I looked at it the plates we so much smaller than the casing 

just as highlighted in a recent Caravan club test ( last months mag)

he has since replaced it with a Varta LFD90 rated at 90ah(C20)
cost £87 delivered where as the other one cost him £83 for a half empty battery ( he returned it for a refund!)

eg a 110ah battery at 20hr (C20) has a bigger capacity than a 110ah battery rated at 100hr (C100)


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## missbusybusy (Jun 11, 2010)

ok great thanks, the Varta looks like a great deal, so deep cycle are better for our intended use ?


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## rayrecrok (Nov 21, 2008)

Hi.

Another consideration is the number of times it can recycle as some can only be recharged a certain number of times, where others can be re charged far more, it should tell you in the bumf relateing to the battery.

I think this is the main consideration when buying a leisure battery, and if you have two and you put an old one with a new one, the new one will only be as good as the old one which will pull it down, so batteries are best bought in matching pairs.

Along with a large amperage, the more you have the more you can use as the usable amperage is down to maybe 11 volts for electrical items, less for say lighting.. You haven't the full 120 amps tp play with.


ray.


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## 04HBG (Dec 9, 2007)

You will find that with a lot of vans you are limited to the size of battery you can physically fit into your battery box without major alteration.

I can fit two 105amp batteries into my Autotrail Apache but cant go any bigger without major alterations.

RD


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## Techno100 (May 8, 2010)

These are my personal choice. I have 3 dedicated to feeding my inverter only.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALPHALINE...ervan_Caravan_Accessories&hash=item41783ae915


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

All lead-acid batteries should be rated at the 20 hour rate, that is pretty much industry-standard across almost all mobile batteries for cars. trucks etc.

Anything like a 100hr rate is a bit of a joke, walk away from that.

Some heavy discharge batteries may have a 5 hour rating, but the manufacturers of ALL batteries are required to show discharge graphs for different discharge rates, if you can't see them, ask for them from the seller.

If the state of charge is well mainrained and you have no charging capacity problems, 'conventional' batteries will do a good job for you.

Deep cycle batteries are useful if you have very heavy loads and cannot always recharge immediately, but as a general principal you should never let batteries go below the level at which they will start to sulphate.

We have a couple of 55AH sealed standby batteries in parallel, they were already 4 years old when we put them in the trailer, and they've been fine, but we do have them on EHU at home plus we have the solar panels, so they never get near to being flat.

Peter

Peter


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

Techno100's recommendation brings me back to my original point

(please understand that I am not disputing their quality & capacity I am using it as an example to highlight the difficulities us non-experts face finding a value for money battery )

the Alphaline DC31 batteries say they are 125ah so that sounds great , but whan I had a quick search & didn't find the discharge rate for them

so without knowing the discharge rate you just can't compare like for like

EN50342 is the standard to use in selecting a battery

the caravan club has recently discussed this in their November 2013 magazine

just googling EN50342 brings up many links

for example:-


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

just found this old thread on MHF

batteries


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## VanFlair (Nov 21, 2009)

I think that the weight of a battery will tell you a lot about the quality of its construction and is important if you want to pull high loads from them for extended periods as you do using inverters.

I rate my Exide Gel batteries very highly as they are over 7 years old now and still giving good service, two 80ah are running the inverter for microwave, coffee machine and hair dryer (not me I have no hair).

At 80ah these batteries weigh 30kg compared with many rated at 100+ah and they are just over 20kg in many cases.

I did try two 110ah elecsol on the same duty and they could not handle the draw so they came straight off again.

Martin


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## dpsuk999 (Mar 25, 2012)

I have 2 Trojan 6v 220ah batteries wired in series to give me 12v. They are HEAVY because they are classed as traction batteries which are perfect for drawing high current and are superb. I have had them now for over 2 years and are still performing as new and that's with running microwaves, hair dryers, electric blankets, heaters, kettles, toasters etc from the inverter when wild camping. They are expensive but worth every penny in my opinion.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

When we are talking about capacities and drawing heavy currents etc, bear in mind that most folks don't have a clue about what actually goes in and out of a battery over a 24-hour period, and to be fair, there's no need for them to know as long as the system is working correctly.

For example, an 800W hair dryer being used through a reasonably efficient inverter will take 68amps at 12.5 volts, but only for something like a quarter of an hour, so the capacity removed is 17ah.

That's about a 6th of the capacity of the typical 110ah battery, so doesn't sound like a lot, but if the recharging of the battery is not up to scratch, it could well be that the battery doesn't get fully recharged before the next time the hair dryer is used, so instead of 110ah you only have 105ah (as an example) and if this goes on over a few days, your available capacity is shrinking daily and eventually you'll have a flat battery.

That is why solar panels are such a boon for those who don't have EHU, it means they can normally get that capacity back in during the normal daylight hours without a problem.

Peter


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## bigtwin (May 24, 2008)

joedenise said:


> if you go up a lot it will just take longer to recharge the battery,only going up a little will be hardly noticeable
> 
> joe


It will only take longer to recharge if you took more current out prior to charging!
If your starting conditions are the same, it won't take any longer to recharge!

You have to compare like with like.

Ian


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## missbusybusy (Jun 11, 2010)

thanks all, I have another question about solar charging but will start another thread


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

Hi DPSUK999

I have previously looked at Trojan batteries ( & ROLLS) but they did not appear to have a vent tube connection which I needed to vent the battery to the outside through the floor

if you use these batteries then I suspect you would need to provided some form of ventilation yourself ?? 

(this was discussed quite some time ago on MHF )


you can buy recombining caps for these quality batteries to avoid water loss & possibly the need for the external vent tube but these are not cheap & you would need 6 for a 12v battery


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

trek said:


> Hi DPSUK999
> 
> I have previously looked at Trojan batteries ( & ROLLS) but they did not appear to have a vent tube connection which I needed to vent the battery to the outside through the floor
> 
> ...


Some of the Trojan series state "with POD vent"

These are the 24/27TMX range and the 12v marine.

Does this mean they can be vented?

We have a Varta LDF140 that runs the habitation electrics. We have another duff battery that is dedicated to running the inverter. This is charged via the Schaudt system and Solar, This is via a Ctek 250s after the chassis Varta battery has been charged.

TM


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

Hi TM

instead of each cell having an individual vent cap these batteries have a cover that span 3 cells

Trojan 27TMX

there appears to be no facility to connect a vent pipe to it

Trojans user guide states following :-

2.3 Ventilation
Deep-cycle flooded/wet lead acid batteries release small amounts of gas during usage, particularly 
during the charging process. Deep-cycle AGM and gel batteries generally do not release gas but can if 
too much pressure builds up during charging. It is critical to charge batteries in a properly ventilated area. 
For more assistance in calculating ventilation needs, please contact Trojan Battery Company's technical 
support engineers.

Trojan user guide

How did you get on with your Varta batteries - do these need replacing ?


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

If you have gassing from a battery, it will release Oxygen and Hydrogen in the proportion of 2 parts Hydrogen to one part Oxygen as the water in the electrolyte is broken down. This happens as the battery passes its fully charged state and goes into overcharge. If the charger is accurately voltage controlled, it will lower its output current as it approaches the battery's fully charged condition, limiting any overcharging.

The volumes of gas vary according to how much overcharging is going on, and normally the actual volumes are very low indeed, and a couple of floor drop vents and something around the top of the compartment to outside the m/h will be sufficient.

I wouldn't get too wound up over vent tubes, they do make it convenient to take any gases outside, but are by no means absolutely necessary. Once the released gases mix with surrounding air, they become far less of a hazard, so open, roomy battery boxes with floor and lid vents would be fine.

Just keep naked flames and sparks away, just as you would near an LPG cylinder, and check that your charging facilities are correctly set for the battery you have.

Peter


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