Trickle Charger

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EMPTAGE123

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Hi, can anyone recommend a trickle charger for our leisure battery, have read loads of info and now totally confused, many thanks, Tanya.
 
Keep an eye out at aldi. Lidle they do a small intelligent charger for about £13 .I am well pleased with mine 3 year guarantee.
 
Im not sure of your vehicle set up or why you need a trickle charger. However my on-board charging unit is knackered and my solar panel is not keeping my leisure batteries fully charged but as I am now static for an extended period and with EHU I am using a Ring Battery Charger every couple of days - Ring SmartCharge (Smart Charger) - RSC512
Maybe with a bit more info about your motorhome/set up other folk with more knowledge than me will be able to help.
Pat
 
ctek or any smart charger that will peak and then float battery ,these type can be left on where as a cheep one cannot or it will boil battery.
 
I have read somewhere or other that onboard chargers don't fully charge the leisure batteries, could I use my CTEK charger to charge both my leisure batteries at once to fully charge them to max capacity ?
Obviously I would have to make up some wiring. On reflection I have a flying lead from my batteries fitted with an Anderson type plug that I use to connect my folding solar panel, I could utilise that.
Can I charge them in situ in the van without disconnecting them ?
 
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Obanboy666 said:
I have read somewhere or other that onboard chargers don't fully charge the leisure batteries, could I use my CTEK charger to charge both my leisure batteries at once to fully charge them to max capacity ?
Obviously I would have to make up some wiring. On reflection I have a flying lead from my batteries fitted with an Anderson type plug that I use to connect my folding solar panel, I could utilise that.
Can I charge them in situ in the van without disconnecting them ?
Click to expand...

Providing they are wired in parallel its no problem.
 
Trickle Charge

Hi, thanks for the replies, the reason for asking is our on board charger has lost the plot, and our solar panels don't seem to be charging the battery either, I swear our Big Bertha needs blessing by the Pope, many thanks, Tanya.:scared:
 
not sure if your in the UK, but at this time of year panels don't produce much. For example I have 4KW of panels on my house, yesterday they generated 4kw/h total (summer its 20).
 
i use one of these split charge units from one charger.from ebay about £15
 

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Trickle charging batteries is a very old concept, and is actually very harmful to batteries. As has been rightly said by other members, you need an intelligent charger, that will charge the battery correctly and prevent the dreaded Sulphation. Even cheap batteries will last a bit longer if looked after properly. I have cheap batteries, and when they are cooked, will hopefully be able to get something like those Varta batteries, that Simplyloco has got.:idea:
 
The built in "chargers" are really a battery replacement unit and as such aren't really designed to charge, just run your appliances when on hook up, after all, that's what most motorhomers do!!

The leisure battery is just there to power things until you get to an EHU!! Hence the charging from the alternator is poor but isn't needed to be any better than that as you are either driving or on EHU.

Until you get to wilding, when the whole concept changes, and there is a need to quickly charge up those leisure batts so battery to battery chargers charge from the alternator and an intelligent charger for those who use EHU if stopping in one location for a period of time.

The internal charger as supplied will take an age just to put back some charge into the leisure batts although rated at several amps output, they're not the correct voltage to charge your batt, just will take over the load from your batt when stationary.

Still be a Scrooge with power, even a TV on standby uses power, OK, only about 3 watts, but at 12v that's about 0.25A. I have a switch on the power feed to TV, satellite, TV booster etc so when not in use, it's powered off.
 
OPTIMATE is the one to go with. I have used them for years on all my classic motors cars / motorhome.
 
trickle charger

Just bought a CTEK charger 8 amp and a trickle charge facility from Argos at half price £39- used and it works brilliantly and comes with a 3 year guarantee
 
I'm not at all sure that most trickle chargers have anything like the 'spuds' to charge a battery well.

Given that a good rule of thumb is a charger rated at 10% of the capacity of the battery, then that suggests a 10A charger for a 100AH battery. Most trickle chargers are a fraction of that.

I have one hard-wired in the van for on EHU sited in the servie area near the LB & my Night Heater (normally only on EHU when its outside my house) that normally is used as an intelligent charge support for industrial generators - and that's only 5A (still a lot more than most trickle chargers like Optimate etc)

I also have another intelligent charger that is a Numax 10A job like this 12V 10A Intelligent Leisure Battery Charger Caravan Motorhome, Marine, Boat, | eBay that can put a decent equalise charge onto a battery.
 
Features & Benefits of CTEK XS0.8 Battery Charger
◾Contains: charger, clamps connection, eyelet connection, instructions & storage bag
◾ Suitable for charging car and motorcycle batteries up to 32Ah & maintaining charged batteries up to 100Ah
aid

As said, not really big enough for most peoples battery banks.
 
Bigpeetee said:
The built in "chargers" are really a battery replacement unit and as such aren't really designed to charge, just run your appliances when on hook up, after all, that's what most motorhomers do!!

The leisure battery is just there to power things until you get to an EHU!! Hence the charging from the alternator is poor but isn't needed to be any better than that as you are either driving or on EHU.

Until you get to wilding, when the whole concept changes, and there is a need to quickly charge up those leisure batts so battery to battery chargers charge from the alternator and an intelligent charger for those who use EHU if stopping in one location for a period of time.

The internal charger as supplied will take an age just to put back some charge into the leisure batts although rated at several amps output, they're not the correct voltage to charge your batt, just will take over the load from your batt when stationary.

Still be a Scrooge with power, even a TV on standby uses power, OK, only about 3 watts, but at 12v that's about 0.25A. I have a switch on the power feed to TV, satellite, TV booster etc so when not in use, it's powered off.
Click to expand...

You've lost me here. How are internal chargers not the correct voltage?

Pat
 
Hi, have had some really helpful replies, thanks, just to answer a question regarding our solar panels not charging the leisure battery, I do live in the UK and have two 60w panels, is this not sufficient enough to keep the leisure battery topped up when not in use?:rolleyes2: Tanya.
 
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