Leisure battery issue

Johnsais

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I have recently bought a brand new Swift Escape 664 which I have had converted by Coachbuilt GB for full disabled use. It’s a fantastic vehicle and despite a few teething troubles which have now been ironed out it is now running perfectly.

However I am a little concerned about the leisure battery. When out and about we only use it for a couple of hours of TV and the water pump and odd lighting. We have driven over 2000 miles since we collected it and on our trips out have invariably been on EHU. But I find that after a week of non use back home and not hooked up, the leisure battery shows 55-65% and the vehicle battery not much more. That is with no drain at all that I am aware of. I find I am having to connect it up every week if we’re not using it. The converters say that is about normal, but is it? I would expect the battery to last longer if not being used. I’m concerned that the leisure battery has maybe sat around too long unused and is not cycling very well. My main worry is that the vehicle battery which is obviously keeping the leisure topped up is going to fail on me one day when I come to start it if I forget to plug in for 2 weeks! I am a newbie to ownership so forgive me my ignorance in this. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
 
Well, you say "the vehicle battery which is obviously keeping the leisure topped up is going to fail on me one day when I come to start it if I forget to plug in for 2 weeks!". I don't think the vehicle battery is keeping the leisure battery topped up unless you have a very unusual setup, so I would say ignore that worry for now.

You are seeing "55-65%" - where are you getting those numbers from for the batteries? If you attach a multimeter (if you don't have on, it is worth getting one - they are not expensive and is something that is worth carrying in the van) to the battery, what is the voltage reported?

What mains charger is fitted to the van? many chargers do not charge batteries properly/fully and you might have a situation where the Leisure battery is never starting from a high charge and so is not actually dropping as much as you think? what percentage charge are you seeing on the battery a couple of hours after you have unplugged and/or parked up after getting home compared to the 55-65% a week later?
Also, what battery is fitted? type and size.
 
wildebus said:
Well, you say "the vehicle battery which is obviously keeping the leisure topped up is going to fail on me one day when I come to start it if I forget to plug in for 2 weeks!". I don't think the vehicle battery is keeping the leisure battery topped up unless you have a very unusual setup, so I would say ignore that worry for now.

You are seeing "55-65%" - where are you getting those numbers from for the batteries? If you attach a multimeter (if you don't have on, it is worth getting one - they are not expensive and is something that is worth carrying in the van) to the battery, what is the voltage reported?

What mains charger is fitted to the van? many chargers do not charge batteries properly/fully and you might have a situation where the Leisure battery is never starting from a high charge and so is not actually dropping as much as you think? what percentage charge are you seeing on the battery a couple of hours after you have unplugged and/or parked up after getting home compared to the 55-65% a week later?
Also, what battery is fitted? type and size.
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I will have to check actual voltages when I get a moment. I’m getting these figures from the Swift Connect panel above the door. The charger soon brings the levels up and they stay pretty stable when we are out and about, we checked after one night not on EHU and all was well, drain as expected from TV and light use. I guess I wasn’t expecting to worry about the batteries quite so soon into ownership! Also I have a friend who has a 10 year old Swift and he only plugs in before he is due to go away, only really uses it in the summer! And thank you for putting me straight about the vehicle battery - I assumed that as both were dropping at a fairly similar rate that the vehicle battery was acting as a charger. I will check the voltages and which charger is being used when I get a moment. Thank you for your swift reply, this forum is the best!
 
Johnsais said:
I will have to check actual voltages when I get a moment. I’m getting these figures from the Swift Connect panel above the door. The charger soon brings the levels up and they stay pretty stable when we are out and about, we checked after one night not on EHU and all was well, drain as expected from TV and light use. I guess I wasn’t expecting to worry about the batteries quite so soon into ownership! Also I have a friend who has a 10 year old Swift and he only plugs in before he is due to go away, only really uses it in the summer! And thank you for putting me straight about the vehicle battery - I assumed that as both were dropping at a fairly similar rate that the vehicle battery was acting as a charger. I will check the voltages and which charger is being used when I get a moment. Thank you for your swift reply, this forum is the best!
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Because everyones useage varies, it is hard to be sure if there is a problem, but some investigation should help determine :)

A brand new conversion should have a battery in tip-top condition of course. You are right that if a battery is left uncharged for a long period it can give problems and it is not unusual for a motorhome dealer to have to replace a battery in a brand new camper/motorhome for that reason. Some dealers plug in every single van in their stock into EHU periodically to help deal with that. We don't know if that is the case with yours.
The percentage numbers on the control panel will be based solely on the Voltage level which is a fairly crude (but very common) way to determine the battery state. As I said, a Multimeter on the battery to give you an actual value would be useful to know.
The "correct" table will depend on the battery, but for a typical Lead Acid battery fitted in the average motorhome, this table is a pretty decent one to go by:
1630775436886.png

The above voltages and the corresponding State of Charge would be when there is no load, AND no charge taking place for at least an hour. If the van has been on EHU, disconnect and turn something on briefly (just for a matter of seconds is all that is needed) to take away any surface charge and check the voltage at the leisure battery and see how it compares to the table.
If you have Solar, you need to remove that charging as well - cover the panel or do the test when it is dark.
Then plug back into EHU and see what the voltage is. If the battery is lowish, it may take some time to increase to the max, but you want to see a voltage in excess of 14V. The exact voltage will vary depending on the battery, but typically 14.4-14.7V is what most Lead Acid batteries want when on a charge. If you see 13.8V and no more (which is what many 'chargers' put it), then you won't be charging the battery fully ever.
This is sadly common for masses of vans from all sorts of converters and factory Motorhomes even though it is far from ideal.

End of the day, it might be that the Swift display is just underreading the battery level and your battery is perfect (the voltage shown on the Sargent display for my own Motorhome is much lower than the reality, for example. Slightly annoying, but I monitor the battery another way so it doesn't matter).

So step one .... check the voltage and see what is what. Fingers crossed you are worrying about nothing (y)

Oh, and possible drains .... Fridge? what kind of fridge have you and do you switch it off between trips?
 
Either not getting a full charge/battery not in good order, also is there an alarm device on board, also all new engines have a brain which consumes about 2% of charge to keep it alive, this may also be the case for a smart radio.
The charger should put out 14.4 volts when the battery is up and then drop back to around 13.7 or so float charge, one bit of advice is get solar panels and a good mppt regulater if one is not built in, I would also be looking at 2 batteries each around 100ah or more.
 
trevskoda said:
Either not getting a full charge/battery not in good order, also is there an alarm device on board, also all new engines have a brain which consumes about 2% of charge to keep it alive, this may also be the case for a smart radio.
The charger should put out 14.4 volts when the battery is up and then drop back to around 13.7 or so float charge, one bit of advice is get solar panels and a good mppt regulater if one is not built in, I would also be looking at 2 batteries each around 100ah or more.
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Good point on the radio.
Many motorhomes have the dash radio wired up to the Lesiure Battery and also not controlled by the ignition - they can be a real drain
 
wildebus said:
Good point on the radio.
Many motorhomes have the dash radio wired up to the Lesiure Battery and also not controlled by the ignition - they can be a real drain
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Yes to many gizmos on tick over running batteries down in modern cars/vans these days for the unsuspecting folk who own them, never tell you this when you buy them.
 
Johnsais said:
I find that after a week of non use back home and not hooked up, the leisure battery shows 55-65% and the vehicle battery not much more. That is with no drain at all that I am aware of. I find I am having to connect it up every week if we’re not using it.
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I assume then that you don't have a solar panel fitted as that would keep all batteries about fully charged when not in use?
 
Look at controle panel are you turning it off when not in use make sure every thing possible is turned off even down to the TV areal booster ,at this time of year solar output is fading as the cloud is thickening and days shortening,
 
In the meantime, is there any reason why it cannot be on EHU when not being used.

I'd deffo get a 100w panel fitted with an MPPT controller so it will always get a maintenance charge regardless of if it's on EHU or not, but it seems something is dragging the voltage down. is there an electric wheelchair charger etc, or even a USB socket or two, radios and clocks can also be a drain.

It could of course be a duff leisure battery.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I think I will get the converters to take a look when it has to go back for a few tweaks and repairs. I don’t really expect it to drain so fast, there is nothing at all running, fridge is on gas (we keep it ready to take off at any minute at the moment, trying to make the most of it!), the only question mark is the ScorpionTracker which I would assume runs off the vehicle battery and may explain why that one runs so low after a week. Is it good practice to leave it plugged into EHU constantly, or just give it a blast for a day once a week? I will check the voltages when I can, it has a Sargeant charging system and no solar.
 
Rememeber the brain in modern vh runs batteries down along with standby radios with a memory.
Votronic and 200w of panels too 2 100ah batts, 2/3 mths of the year a hookup will be required.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I don’t think I have space for solar panels as the external cross roof supports for the hoist track take up what little space there is on top. I’m not too worried about putting it on EHU whilst at home, just not sure if I should leave it on constantly or give it a week on week off? We can’t go long off grid anyway with my wife’s disability so the leisure battery would do us for 3-4 days with our power usage. I will get the converters to check batteries when it goes in for its next repairs ☹️ Currently on a brilliant CL in north Wales, the views across to Anglesey would be amazing if it weren’t for the driving rain😡
 
You could consider a freestanding fold out solar panel.

You would need to fit an external socket to connect the panel, and fit some means of securing the panel to the 'van.
 
Not all uilt in ehu chargers are suitable for continuous use or even decently matched to battery types.
It would probably be worth doing a bit of research if you're going be 'permanently' on why at home.
 
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