Leisure Battery -Mains Charging

[christine]

Elddis Autostratus 1990

When not connected to mains supply leisure battery voltage is at about 12V. I connected to mains supply and the voltage remained at 12V until I switched on water pump when voltage increased o 13.5V and is presumably charging the battery. Why does the charger need a load on the circuit before it comes into play?
Thanks.

 

[pappajohn]

hi christine.
do you need to keep the pump switch on all the time to get 13.5v.
if so it sounds like a wiring fault at the switchs. ie:- power going to the pump switch BEFORE the power on/off switch.
i could be wrong but thats what it seems like.
what does it do with the engine running?

john.

 

[GARY ENGLISH]

leisure battery

Hi christine, i have a autostratus to ,fitted with a x7 charger.When batterry is full the charger switches off auotmatically.When you then use a item the charger kicks in ,the more power you use ,the more is put in by the charger automatically.Hope this is some help,i am sure more people will help.

 

[pappajohn]

Hi christine, i have a autostratus to ,fitted with a x7 charger.When batterry is full the charger switches off auotmatically.When you then use a item the charger kicks in ,the more power you use ,the more is put in by the charger automatically.Hope this is some help,i am sure more people will help.

I stand corrected.
not seen one of these chargers before.

john

 

[Nosha]

Battery Voltages

As I'm sure you've guessed by now, as your battery is reading at least 12v it's fully charged... so the charger thinks it's done its job and has switched off to prevent boiling or gassing the 'full' battery to excess.

Once you've taken the float charge off, or pulled it down below 12v the charger will kick-in and will supply at least 13v (the engine alternator would do the same thing if the engine was running - but puts out up to 14.2v!!) and start the charging process again.

So you DO NOT have a problem.

 

[christine]

Thanks everyone for you help on this confusing issue. Gary and Nosha, you have reassured us that all is as it should be and we'll re-post when we return from Scotland to let yo know how we got on.
Thanks.

 

[GARY ENGLISH]

pappajohn

No need to apoligse mate, every one on here is freindly,and tries to help each other out.More the better.

 

[christine]

Well the battery lasted fine throughout our Scottish holiday. Didn't plug in once and the leisure battery read around 12.5v every day with the engine battery around 12.8v. On our return, the leisure read 12.6v and the engine 12.9v.

 

[GARY ENGLISH]

christine

Glad to hear your leisure battery was ok .Hope your holiday in scotland was good.