Leisure Battery Charge Info

[whites75]

Hey team - so I have my 100ah leisure battery ready to use at this weekends Iceman series - just wondering how long they loose their charge once charged?

thinking of putting the battery on to charge on weds so I have time to spare and assuming it will take approx. 14hrs to charge but will it loose much charge as I aint using it until sunday - or shall I just charge it say Friday?
cheers

[Aire valley]

Leisure batteries need to be charged on a regular basis, approx once a month whether used or not. Once charged, they are then usually ok for a month even if not used. However, I keep mine on a trickle charger ( less than £20 from Halfords) most of the time..

[whites75]

ok pal cheers - prob gone overboard with the charger then lol as I got a smart charger by ctek, about 55 quid, ah well never mind

[Aire valley]

If you have a smart charger, that's good....just leave it connected until you need to use the battery... It will fast charge after you have used it, and then trickle charge to keep it topped up..
I just have an old car battery charger to fast charge then use the trickle charger..

[whites75]

yeah they are supposed to be very good chargers by all accounts, no idea personally but a quick net search led me to them and they sounded decent:)

[mattr]

I have a ctek smart charger in the caravan, so i reckon it's probably overkill for your usage!

[BazzerH]

I charge mine from my multi purpose battery charger, after every 3 or 4 meets. Don't trickle charge it or anything. Am I doing it any harm? Deep discharge battery so thought be ok to leave it at any voltage for any amount of time. .. no?

[SlowOne]

Keep all lead-acid batteries charged up. During discharge, or kept at low charge, a process called sulfation occurs. Over time, this cannot be reversed and the plates gradually degrade until the battery won't hold a charge. Sulfation can be avoided if the battery is fully charged after each discharge, and held on a float charge.

For best life, lead-acid batteries should be fully charged after each use, and held on a float charge until the next use. Your good-qaulity charger may prove to be a better investment than constantly replacing a battery that loses life and is improperly charged - good leisure batteries are not cheap! These links give more information. HTH :)

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–acid_battery

[J77MYF]

I use an optimiser on mine. As soon as I'm back home it goes on charge and stays on charge until I need it again.

If anyone wants to buy a new optimiser give me a shout. I have some brand new ones that should be £50 and I can do them for £25.

[whites75]

this is the charger I got :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CTEK-Multi-MXS-5-0-12V-Car-Battery-Smart-Charger-Conditioner-/160927753460?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25780aa4f4

not sure about leaving on charge though once used until I need it at a later date.....it could be a while?

[SlowOne]

That covers all the requirements. Leave it on the battery. It will allow the battery to self-discharge and then top it up again. It also has temperature compensation. I'd say you have a very good charger at a good price.

It doesn't matter how long you leave it between using the battery, that charger will keep it in the right condition for immediate use if you leave it connected up. I'd put it on a protected plug (http://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-rcd-plug/44855) to be certain that if anything goes wrong it will simply trip out. HTH :)