To help you navigate our blog more easily - this link - https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2025/06/how-to-navigate-our-blog.html will take you to a summary page detailing all our blog posts. Clicking on a link will open that post in a new browser window. To return to the home current page just close the browser page and return to the post you were reading beforehand
Buying a new leisure battery
Well, what a steep learning curve this battery saga
is. If you have been following the blog you know what happened – we flattened
both batteries inadvertently. The story can be found here:
https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-continuing-saga-of-motorhome.html
The vehicle battery has been resurrected using a good
7 stage charger. We now have it at home and maintenance charge it once a fortnight.
We are not looking forward to having to work out again how to reset the dash
clock etc.
The outgoing leisure battery was a Hankook DMC27 12v
90Ah battery and after some internet searches we found that they seem to have
mixed reviews to say the least. Our charger managed to resurrect it and it is
back in Bryony charging the tracker. The EC 700 unit is switched off and
on the smart panel we switched the solar panel charging over to the leisure
battery before closing it down. Whether this will make a difference or not we
have no idea but at the moment the leisure battery seems to last just about ten
days before we have to go and extract it and bring it home for a charging again.
The drain of the tracker cannot be made up by the lack of winter sunshine on
the solar panel!
So where does this leave us? After extensive advice
from various Facebook and internet forum members we seem to have arrived at the
following either/or/both options:
1. Do a by-pass of the EC700 unit
by installing a votronic MPPT controller, connecting both batteries to the
controller and shutting down the EC700 when laying up the Moho for any period
of time.
2. Install a second 80w panel to
help top up the winter solar panel charge input to the batteries.
3. Install a second battery (wiring
them in parallel I assume?).
4. Do the modification in 1 above
along with an extra solar panel up top and an extra battery.
5. Keep things as they are so as
not to void any warranties and just replacing the leisure battery. Then we make
sure that the Moho gets charged up every ten days or so at home. We could bring
both batteries home and charge them up every ten days instead. Alternatively,
we could isolate the vehicle battery and use a dash solar panel trickle charger
to keep it topped up? However, will this
will affect the alarm and the central locking and if so, are there any work
arounds?
6. We could just remove all
batteries and bring them home permanently when the Moho isn’t in use – but then
that means the alarm won’t work and the tracker will run off its own internal
battery, running that down. We would have to inform the tracker company that we
had put the Moho into a permanent service mode so to speak.
Steve is not feeling sufficiently confident enough to
do any electronic by-passes. Maggie’s exhortations about him being able “to
build boats so [you] should be able to do electronics; all [you] need to is
some self-confidence and faith in your own abilities” is falling on deaf ears!
So, whatever we do, we will probably have to return
to the dealer to do it. On the bright side, Steve has become an expert at
battery removal and installation! Everyone seems to be recommending the by-pass
though but no-one seems sure as to whether it would invalidate the warranty.
We think that probably a phone call to Autosleepers
is in order to see what they advise and also to help us just clarify one or two
things about how to store the motorhome long term.
And now to a battery replacement for the defunct
Hankook battery.
In choosing a new battery to replace the somewhat
flattened one, that too became a mine field for us newbies! You really “don’t
know what you don’t know”, do you?
We did a post for beginner motorhomers’ on batteries
and what you need to know basics:
https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/02/guidance-for-those-new-to-motorhomes.html
The received advice from various forums and two
well-known battery suppliers seems to go like this.
1. Fit the largest Ah leisure
battery you can physically fit in the battery storage compartment – note it
will take longer to charge a higher Ah one
2. Worthy battery brands seem to
be Yuasa, Varta, Exide, Bosch and to a certain extent Banner
3. Avoid AGM leisure batteries –
although we are still trying to ascertain why
4. Sort out your longer-term
storage strategy so that you don’t flatten them again – most people saying do
the by-pass modification
Batteries that
seem to get recommendations on the various forums are:
·
Yuasa L36
– EFB 100Ah
·
Varta
LFD-90
·
Bosch
L5013 (LFD90)
·
Exide
ET650 12v 100Ah
·
Varta 12v
110Ah
·
Exide 12v
115Ah ER550
·
Bosch
L4033 12v 105Ah
For us, who tend to use campsites and EHU’s and then
do one or two nights off grid before returning to EHU again – we have to
calculate the draw on our batteries when off grid. At its simplest level this
seems to involve adding up the wattage load from each of the appliances we
would use that evening and then doing a calculation.
The helpful people at Tayna and Alpha batteries –
suggest that a 12v 110Ah battery would give around 1300watts before reaching
complete discharge. Following the rule that a battery should never be
discharged below 50% - then this is 650 watts available before needing to be
recharged.
So, you have to work out what you will be using that
evening off grid. A 12v TV might draw 60w per hour; your water pump around 80w
in an evening if you are using it for just normal washing up and cleaning
teeth. Two halogen lights on will be negligible. Let’s just say very
conservatively, that your load for an evening is 250w per hour - well you could
get away with a night, just. You then have to factor in how much it gets
recharged by the 80w solar panel the following day and any driving you do. Many
factors come into play on this one – weather conditions, latitude, angle of the
sun, amount of shade on panel, your set up in the Moho etc.
At least that is how Steve thinks both sellers
explained it to him. He was glazing over at one point during one of the phone
conversations and that is no criticism of the guys talking to him. They were
excellent and really helpful; it’s just Steve – he so struggles to compute any maths!
So, there we have it. Next job to buy a battery. The
only hard rule seems to be fit the biggest you can regarding Ah but keep an eye
on what your controller can cope with, what kind of batteries it is designed
for and also keep an eye on the payload. Our current battery weighs 20 kg – a
likely replacement will weigh 25kg. It may seem a small increase but these
‘small increases’ soon tally up!
As always, if you have any thoughts or advice, do
drop us a comment in the box below and try and help us newbies along on this
great adventure. We hope you have plenty of trips planned for when lock down
gets lifted on 12th April and remember when you get out and about,
have fun, stay safe and using the immortal words from ‘Hill Street Blues’, “
….take care out there…. .”
Steve and Maggie
We get no commission or any benefit from the
following but most people on the forums seemed to recommend these two battery
suppliers the most:
https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/
PS: an update
A website we found really helpful was this one: http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/battery-technology.php
Here, they recommended the Varta LFD 90 and the Bosch
L5 series. However, they also recommended the Yuasa L36 – EFB. After some
discussions with Alpha and Tayna batteries and quickly discussing on various
forums – we went with the Yuasa because it seems to come highly
recommended, has a quick charging rate and copes well with various demands. It
also fits inside our current battery storage tray as well!
PS PS update:
After writing this post, Pete dropped us some
comments and he was really helpful. Here is a summary of what he said
“I am looking at putting a
second leisure battery in ours to overcome the Sargent discharge issues I hope
so will let you know how I get on with that. I am lucky enough to have mine at
home so have been keeping a close eye on the charge levels but have read as you
have about the ec700 bypass to stop the drain. The issue I see with doing this
is the warranty hence looking for an alternative method”.
“One
option I did look at was to add a portable solar panel to trickle charge the
vehicle battery then the main panel can deal with the leisure battery and also
looking at replacing the existing [habitation battery] with a 110ah and adding
a second one to resolve the problem in the short term. We also want to do short
wild camping and I am currently dubious as to whether the [current] battery
will last out or not”.
“My plan on the batteries is to
discuss with the dealership - do not want any warranty issues! I will get them
to fit two new batteries but ideally with me purchasing them to save on the
cost if they will agree to it. With the batteries, 2 new batteries have to be the
same age, make and output. They need to be wired in parallel so effectively you
are just doubling the capacity so effectively if you have 2 x 110Ah then you
would have 220Ah capacity but you can only use 50% of that due to the battery
type but you still have twice as much available”.
“I too have thoughts about putting a larger solar panel up or a second
one but am also confused as to whether I would need it, I also don't want to
put anymore holes in the roof unless we really have to. My view was if I added
more storage and charged the Moho at home then the worst case I would have
twice the time off hook-up when we are out and about and after this year we
would know so much more before we ventured further afield, as Europe is so
appealing”.
PS PS PS
Our battery arrived the next day. That is so efficient. Well done to
Alpha Batteries and DX tracking. We bought the Yuasa L36-EFB in the end. A
compromise between more Ah, good reputation and weight. We will let you know
how we get on. Our current plan is to go away for a night or two next to our
secure storage area to make sure that all systems are working as they should
after we have reinstalled both batteries. It will give us an opportunity to run
through the heating, sort the PSU, reset the dashboard clocks etc and test all
the systems onboard. We can clean out the freshwater tank at the same time. We
will also give Bryony a couple of good runs as well to clear out the
catalytic converter. Because we ran her on the site for some time, the engine
warning light came on. Hopefully it will disappear after a run, otherwise we
will have to track down a local Peugeot dealer to have a look!
Its hard work learning this motorhome malarkey isn’t it 😊
Videos we have found useful include;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Or99_q1tQ&t=418s
Comments
Post a Comment
Hi, we always look forward to hearing your comments, tips and thoughts. Drop us a line or two below. Take care now. Steve and Maggie