battery drain

[BALDY3260]

afternoon all, just wanting to check that 0.05 amps is an acceptable drain for radio running off leisure battery when radio is off. when radio is on and door lights are on jumps up to 3.42, and when door is open radio off drain is around 1.45 amps. just checking as i have fitted a battery disconnect yesterday and radio came on when it was switched off , however checked through all wiring and found an iffy connection(had a stray strand of wire sticking out), remade and all seems good now so just checking that 0.05 amps is an acceptable drain really
cheers baldy

[1664]

Bog standard interior cab lights are 10 watts. 10 watts divided by 12 volts equals 0.8 amps so a bit high. You just got the one interior cab courtesy light?
0.05 amps (50mA) with everything turned off sounds quite good to me although I have no idea what the drain is 'supposed' to be. Not just your radio memory to power, but also the clock and alarm (if fitted). What are you using to measure it as most multimeters don't do anything greater than mA?

E D I T: Just re-read your post - the battery isolator switch isolates the leisure battery rather than the starter battery?

[BALDY3260]

hi 1664, two cab lights , i fitted the battery disconnect cos i was having problems with battery drain after a couple of days without use, but as said when i had the battery disconnected radio still came on which led me to check wiring and find stray strand of wire which may have been shorting out and causing drain just wanted to know if 0.05 amps was very low drain. i used a car circuit tester here http://www.maplin.co.uk/automotive-curr ... ter-217879" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; great bit of kit to keep in your tool bag

[1664]

Yeah, two cab light approx 1.6 amps. I've got one of those meters too. You still haven't said which battery your isolating - the starter presumably and the 0.05 amp 'drain' is from the leisure and is just the radio as the clock is connected to the starter yes?

[BALDY3260]

sorry chap, it's the leisure i'm isolating(radio, cab lights etc wired to run from this) because it was running flat after a few days, but i think the stray strand was shorting to earth, plus the fact that radio came on when battery was isolated . starter battery fine and dandy

[1664]

Ok so presumably you've re-routed circuit 3 to the leisure battery. There shouldn't be any drain (from the battery) with it totally isolated from everything. Everything fed by the leisure is fed from the load side of the isolating switch? Where are you connecting the ammeter between?

[BALDY3260]

correct, drain is only there when isolator switched on, when off 0.00 amps so i'm guessing all is good now(i have the isolator on the negative side of battery) ammeter plugged into fuse holder that supplies power to circuit three from the leisure battery positive side.

[1664]

Right, with you now

[DentedDevon]

up to 0.03A is ideal. (van can stand for a month or more and still start)
up to 0.05A is acceptable
up to 0.08A is the limit (ok if the van is in daily use)
Over 0.08A and you are loosing nearly 2 amp hour per day - Starting problems within a couple of weeks !

[BALDY3260]

thanks for that richard, useful info there, will be checking daily for a few days, after 24hrs battery had lost 0.25 volts when measured across terminals, original fault must have been caused by stray strand of wire shorting, all seems good now

[BALDY3260]

quick update, after 6 days not using van, and all this cold leisure battery has 'lost' 0.45 volts, so looks like i have sorted the drain issue cheers baldy