Looking after my batterys over winter

[AxlFoley]

Hello

Although I intend to use my van over the winter, I am thinking of fitting a trickle charger to keep the battry on top form, I was just wondering what people on here use? also can I just plug my Zig in to the mains to keep my leisure battery topped up?

Thanks

Mark

 

[easy]

I have one of those solar trickle chargers, goes in a window and slowly charges it. Used it for about 2 years now and battery has always been spot on

 

[lard]

I have a 3 stage charger hooked into my leisure system that states it can be permanently connected to the battery as it uses trickle charge so will just hook my van up to the plug when in the garage, not sure if the Zig is a 1/2/3 stage charger so leaving it connected would need confirmation of how smart the voltage sensing and charging is

Think my charger was £20 - it's a probudget and link/piccies are in my leisure system thread - though I do like the idea of solar! Would need to calculate power draw of charger on trickle charge, work out unit cost of electricity and see how long you'd need to leave it on charge before you started making money back on the sun power!

How long is the lead on the solar charger? My bus is in a garage so would need to mount externally and run it through the roof!

 

[AxlFoley]

I like the idea of solar power, but my garage has no windows! also so the have to be outside to work ? for that money i could get two, one for each battery.

 

[lard]

I like the idea of solar power, but my garage has no windows! also so the have to be outside to work ? for that money i could get two, one for each battery.

- my bad, I wished it had cost £20 :mrgreen: - this is the one I have:

TE-PB12V6A - Pro-Budget Battery Charger 12V 6A (STE-PB12V6A), £68.43

It's the little blue box:

That may be over specced for you as it's also a power pack - in which case a good 3 stage charger should be perfect and provide charge and trickle! Did see posts about Aldi doing cheap multi stage chargers?

 

[AxlFoley]

yeah i have an Aldi one, but i was told that it was probably no good for a leisure battery, although i'm not quite sure why.

 

[lard]

yeah i have an Aldi one, but i was told that it was probably no good for a leisure battery, although i'm not quite sure why.

hmm - not sure either - I know that leisure batteries are built around deep cycle charge's so they like being run down and then charged up, opposite to car batteries that like to be kept topped up and not run all the way down - they usually have gel rather than lead acid and it may be that trickle charge isn't necessary for a leisure battery and it's better to schedule charge rather than keep it constant?

 

[BJ1]

You can charge a LB through any socket that's wired into it - I use a cig lighter socket up front and simply plug in a solar charger that sits on the dash. Use a similar system for my mates boat. If you want a mains charger Maplin do a nice 'smart' trickle changer - if you get bored you can talk to it about philosophy...................
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48446