Effective chargers for leisure batteries are not cheap. Neither is a good leisure battery. It most certainly pays to look after your leisure battery in the most effective way that you can.
Motor caravaners, caravaners, campers and boaters, amongst other users, rely on leisure batteries to supply a constant rate of power at the touch of a switch. To find that your battery is not holding a charge or is not achieving a fully charged state, can lead to unpleasant consequences when touring, as the battery fades. It may also be a fact that incorrect charging can permanently damage your battery, as can leaving it discharged for long periods.
Most systems for day to day use of leisure batteries, employ some form of basic charging through the vehicle`s electrical system, either through the S type socket on the rear of the tow car, or through internal electronic wizadry in the motor home or caravan. These systems are fine and do give some charge to the leisure battery, but do you know that it has been estimated that to fully recharge a typical 85 Amp Hour battery from a discharged condition would take a road journey of some 750 miles.The fuel cost alone would probably pay for 2 new fully charged batteries!
The answer when touring, is to use a dedicated leisure battery charger each time you hook up to the mains on a touring site. An automatic leisure charger can be left permanently connected to your battery, and will become active only when a mains connection is present. At this point it will start to go through its 3 modes of charge automatically. It will read the state of the battery charge level and will then go into its first mode, which will put into the battery an initial constant voltage at a reduced amperage. This will effectively liven up the battery, but, and this is very important, will not allow excessive gassing or plate damage to occur. Depending on the state of discharge of the battery, after a period of time, the charger will change to its bulk charge mode, when constant amperage and varying voltage is sent to the battery.
Eventually when the battery becomes fully charged the charger will recognise that and will change to a maintenance charge which will trickle minimal current to the battery to combat natural discharge. In this mode it cannot overcharge, cause gassing or plate damage and will keep the battery in good condition.
Most leisure batteries do not receive this kind of charge rate and consequently can fail to ever receive a charge that will help to prolong its life and will give less than the expected Amp Hr output.
Leaving a battery unattended overwinter can cause natural discharge which will increase as the weather becomes colder. The battery can quickly become fully discharged, eventuallyreaching a state from which it cannot be resurected.
The answer is to remove the battery at lay up time and connect to an efficient leisure battery charger on the bench and leave it for the duration. When you are ready for the new season , refit the battery and you will be ready to go with a fully charged perfect condition leisure battery.
Alternatively if you continue to use your outfit during the winterseason you can leave the battery in situ and keep a permanent mains connection hooked up at home. This will mean that whenever you use the outfit, the battery will be charged and any discharge replaced automatically on mains electricity connection.
Some campervaners and caravaners rely on portable generators during winter months when most sites are closed. It is fine to use a leisure charger with a generator powering it, as long as you only connect to the generator power supply when the generator is running. Very often on starting and stopping a portable generator a sharp power surge or spike can occur which may in certain circumstances cause damage to the charger`s electronics.
