charging leisure battery?

[marandali]

Any one out there a leisure battery guru?

Basically I just want to charge our leisure battery and was wondering if there was a best way of doing it?

Our battery is:
Voyager Leisure battery TYPE VL678 AH85

I was going to use my dad's charger. About the charger:
Automatic switch over between charging and maintenance mode. Suitable for all 12v types.

How long should I charge it for?
Do I have to take the tops off to charge? (the battery has a line of circular tops that can unscrew)

Cheers all

[Grun]

Not a battery guru but....
General rule of thumb is....

1.3 X battery capacity (AH) will give you the amount of charge necessary to fully charge a completely discharged battery.

Charge rate should be about 10% of the capacity (AH)

Therefore a 13 hour charge at 8.5 Amps would fully charge yours (from fully discharged)

Sounds as if your Dad's charger will automatically switch to a lower charge rate as the battery voltage rises towards the end of the charge period. It may not be capable of 8.5 amps so charging could take longer, on the other hand the battery may not be fully discharged, and would take less time to reach full charge.

I would loosen the caps while charging, and check the electrolyte level. Top up with distilled or de-ionised water, Do not overfill

Have plenty of ventilation, the mixture of gases discharged are explosive.

Take a look at this thread....... lots of info.

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7663

Mike

[marandali]

Thanks for quick reply Mike. Good info!

cheers
Mark

[R0B]

worth a read..http://www.leisurebatteryshop.co.uk/lei ... mation.php...

Recharging must not be effected by the means of a rapid charger

[Bobber]

We tend to charge ours up weekly after use by hooking it up to the mains at home and letting the zig charge it up....Should I be removing the vent caps for this??

[Mocki]

proper leisure batterys do not need the caps taking off to charge, thet have vent pipes, which ideally should vent outside the van, by drilling a hole the correct size for the pipe in the floor of the battery compartment