How to care for your leisure battery
· Ensure your battery is fully charged after every use:
- If the battery is deeply discharged (e.g. a day has been spent using the application away from electric hook-up or a motor mover has been used), most chargers fitted to motorhomes and caravans are not powerful enough to fully recharge a battery, leading to irreversible damage to the plates.
- This may mean taking the battery off the application, to fit a more powerful charger. A full charge usually takes 48 hours.
- Your charger should be circa 10-15% capacity of the battery (e.g. if your battery is 100Ah your charger should be 10-15Ah).
Check charge level:
- Most modern caravans have a built-in battery monitor, however, on some older models, this may not always be accurate. Alternatively, you can check the battery with a hand-held multimeter.
- 12.6 – 12.8V is 100% charged.
- 12.35V – 12.6V is an acceptable charged battery.
- Lower than 12.35V – Seriously discharged battery. Urgent recharge required.
· If your motorhome or caravan is going to be stored for an extended period of time (i.e. over the winter months), you must disconnect your battery and charge it fully once a month, as batteries naturally self-discharge:
- Alternatively, you can leave a battery connected to an intelligent charger, that once fully charged will keep the battery topped up at optimum voltage. Always check your charger’s instructions to make sure it has a maintenance mode and is safe for unattended charging.
- If your motorhome or caravan has a tracker fitted to the battery, be aware this can flatten a battery in as little as two weeks.
User errors not covered under warranty
Undercharge:
- A flat battery leads to the crystallisation of sulphur on the lead plates, this is irreversible damage that is not covered under warranty.
Incorrect battery fitted:
- Fitting the wrong battery will result in poor performance and will prematurely kill the battery through no fault of the manufacturer.