Van Battery

Devonlad

Guest
My battery is less than a year old, have 10500 on clock, but since I had
a Thatchum 1 alarm fitted it goes dead in a few days being left, I leave absoloutly nothing on, including the rear camera? The fitter said the alarm on uses minute power
when on.
I put a clamp meter across but shows no discharge?
Any other idea's what problem is.

Thanks
 
is the clamp meter OK for DC? Most arnt.

check again with an in line ammeter. Then go through the fuse box, remove one at a time, and short out with the ammeter, so you can measure which circuit is using the power.

or its a duff battery.
 
if everything was ok before the work was carried out on the alarm then i would naturaly go for that , but i suppose that you could be unlucky and your battery give up the ghost at the same time as your work on the alarm .have the battery checked first then i would check up with the alarm company explaining what your problem is. i do agree with the last post of checking all the circuits just to see
 
I'd try the current in the alarm circuit first if all was OK before it was fitted. I agree with GUYD, take out the fuse and insert a digital multimeter set to amps inplace of the fuse.

Could be a coincidence that this happened after the alarm was fitted.

If you take it back to the installer and explain they will quickly determine how much current is being drawn by the alarm circuit.

Does this happen with the van habitation electrics switched off?

Is the alarm connected to the Starter battery or habitation battery? Which one goes flat?
 
If the alarm drew 100mA then that is 2.5Ah per day, 20Ah a week so after two weeks a small engine battery (that is never fully charged anyway) could be looking a bit worse for wear - especially when you add other small loads such as the radio memory and the engine management system.

Most DC clamp meters won't register much below an Amp so a normal multimeter is the way to go.

(JUST make sure you put the test leads back in the normal sockets before you go measuring voltages again or the results will be spectacular)
 
Thanks for your help, have got an auto electrician coming over Saturday to check
out basically your comments. Will update you.

Thanks Again Devonlad
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top