Starter battery charging.

andyja

Guest
I have an Elddis on a Boxer with a zig charger. My engine battery has run flat whilst wintered. How do I charge this battery with a hook up? Display shows good power in my leisure battery (green light on panel and electrics work) but when turning the switch to "Engine battery" I get no light and no power cos it's flat. With hook up connected do I need to select "Engine battery" for it to charge or doesn't it matter what position the switch is in? The manual is a waste of time for operating instructions so any advice would be much appreciated.
 
andyja said:
I have an Elddis on a Boxer with a zig charger. My engine battery has run flat whilst wintered. How do I charge this battery with a hook up? Display shows good power in my leisure battery (green light on panel and electrics work) but when turning the switch to "Engine battery" I get no light and no power cos it's flat. With hook up connected do I need to select "Engine battery" for it to charge or doesn't it matter what position the switch is in? The manual is a waste of time for operating instructions so any advice would be much appreciated.
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Normal practice is that you need to select engine battery when on hookup in order to charge it.

But as always an electrical meter is your friend here, test the volts at the engine battery when on hook up but without the power switched to the engine battery. You will get a nice low reading if its flat then switch your zip to engine battery and test the volts again, hopefully it will show a higher reading showing that its charging :)

Meters are only about £10 from maplins you don't really need a very good one for basic system testing and even the cheap ones seem to be quite accurate these days :)
 
Sometimes when the vehicle engine battery is totally flat the onboard charger is not up to the job of charging a totally flat battery, its only a trickle charger.

It is probably better to put a separate charger direct to the engine battery, i do this with mine if it is stood for any length of time the alarm system runs the engine battery down.
 
sponge dad said:
its only a trickle charger.
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Hi
Mine is what is known as a 'Smart' charger and will supply between 1 and 16 amps as required. Plenty adequate to charge the main battery if required and more powerful than many of the 'chargers' supplied by the likes of Halfords, maintenance chargers supply about 1 - 2 amps max :)
 
If you try an external charger and it does still not charge up, see if you can get the lend of one with `pulse` charging.

They are supposed to reach the parts that ordinary chargers cannot. They claim to resurrect dead batteries.
 
I am right in saying that when I hu to lecky I only charge my liesure battery:confused::confused:

But some vans both batterys charge.............. my van is a CI
 
Have a look on Ebay for a 12v Solar Panel Power Charger they are about £12 approx. I've had one on my Elddis Voyager over the winter and it kept the battery trickle charged - started first time after a couple of months. Just plugs into the cigarette lighter socket (ensure its live when the ignition is switched off!!) and put it on top of the dashboard - cheap and effective!!
 
A product called Battery Master should do the trick. When on mains hook-up, with solar panels or no charge but an unused leisure battery, the unit will safely transfer 1.1amps of trickle charge when the engine battery drops 0.5 volts under the leisure battery.
This means that whilst the charger/solar panel is dealing with the leisure batteries, the Battery Master will transfer the 1.1 amps automaticly bring the engine battery within 0.5v of the leisure. However if there is not charge available, it will support the engine battery for as long as there is available energy from the leisure battery circuit.
Easy 3 wire fit and cost is £69.95.
If you need more info, PM me.
 
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