leisure battery reccomendations

[Mk2Tony]

Hey guys,

The previous owner of my van had a starter battery in the place of the leisure battery, which I have been using since I purchased the van about 8mnths ago with the intention of changing it when it no longer held a decent charge. Its still fine at the moment but I figured I might as well get it done now and put a decent one in there ready for the summer season.
Does anyone have any recommendations on leisure batteries, we deal with a company called Supac through work so can get decent prices. On their website they have leisure batteries listed and then deep cycle batteries listed separately. the deep cycle ones are Trojan, odyssey and optima and the leisure ones are just the usual varta etc
Any info much appreciated

Tony

[California Dreamin]

Your decisions will be governed by where you house the battery....if you stick with the VW battery box then the space, particularly the height, is fairly restrictive.
There are several users on here that absolutely swear by Trojans, others that will point you towards Alpha and there 100ah leisure and some will say starter batteries are just fine as long as you don't leave them flat.

Here is the Leisure battery link:
http://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/volksw ... e-battery/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Martin

[Mk2Tony]

Cheers for the reply, my battery has been relocated to the rear cupboard so space is not an issue. I can get a 130ah deep cycle crown battery for £118, or a normal varta leisure battery(I think that one was only 80ah or there abouts) for £51. The starter battery has done ok for the last 8 months or so (not sure how long it had been in there before I bought it) but I can tell it doesn't hold a charge as good as it used too and I only really use it for the led lights, when camping I try not to take many electronics with me just the phone charger which is usually plugged in when driving anyway

Tony

[California Dreamin]

You need to be thinking about how you are going to keep it charged...a normal split charge circuit is fine if you're going to drive for a few hours but even then, you really want to avoid charging from a discharged state with the split charge circuit. You also want to avoid flattening the battery below 50% (around 12 volts) although true 'leisure' batteries are more resiliant to this kind of abuse NO battery benefits from being flat or being left in a discharged state for ANY length of time.
The real damage occurs from just standing around SUB 11.5 volts, so if you have some sort of charging system ie: Solar panel, hookup with SMART charger etc, then the leisure battery will last for years because its always charged and active so 'sulphation' won't occur.

Martin

[Mk2Tony]

Yeh I need to get a solar panel setup, but that's a bit further down the line I'm in the process of process of pulling the interior out at the moment, to re-line and build new cupboards as ours are looking a bit tired now, and I want to pull the flooring up and look for any hidden rust! Hoping to get that finished in the next two weeks, will be concentrating on the electrical side then

Tony

[shepster]

I bought this 130amp one around 12mths ago and it's been faultless, I run a 19" DVD TV off it for the kids, quite a high output stereo and amp, propex and loads of LED lights inside and out and it's never let me down for a 2/3 night camp.

I do have a 100w solar panel though which keeps it topped up.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hankook-130Ah ... 3aa68cb4b3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dcfb77]

I use 2x 6v Trojan batteries rated at 225ah. I experimented with different set ups and found this one best for what i'm running (Waeco fridge, 4x rows of led lights, 2x water pumps, & 2x exterior led lights for the awning). We regularly go away for 3 weeks at a time and very, very rarely need hook up. I reckon we get around 6-7 days of use without starting the engine with fridge at half power. I do disconnect them over winter unless in use. They are tied them down under the rear bench seat.

Batteries were £105 each 2 years ago and they are still running perfectly fine.

I tried cheapo batteries one after another and once I got these, I wished I did so earlier...Hope that helps.

[randamonia]

I bought this 130amp one around 12mths ago and it's been faultless, I run a 19" DVD TV off it for the kids, quite a high output stereo and amp, propex and loads of LED lights inside and out and it's never let me down for a 2/3 night camp.

I do have a 100w solar panel though which keeps it topped up.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hankook-130Ah ... 3aa68cb4b3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does this fit under the seat ok or do you have it housed elsewhere? 4 year warranty is appealing.

[California Dreamin]

Definitely not under the seat! Maximum dimension of an 'underseat' battery box with lid down are: 180mm high X 175mm wide X 310mm length.
so you can see that the Hancook is way too tall and a bit too long.
Length (mm) - 330
Width (mm) - 172
Total Height (mm) - 242

Leisure battery wise: Alfa batteries reportedly have a 100ah battery with the required 175mm height.
Or you could 'squeeze' a UK Type 110 in there, which is a starter battery around 80ah.
Martin

[shepster]

As Martin says NOT under the seat, far too big.

[randamonia]

Ok, thanks for confirming folks. Will revisit the alpha's.

Cheers

P.s sorry for the thread hijack.

[California Dreamin]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Volkswage ... 1258461691" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've always been a bit sceptical about their claims (100ah battery that comes within the VW battery box dimensions) however, I am now CLEAR on how they have done this!
Where as nearly all manufacturers stick to quoting Amp Hour rating on the 20 Hour discharge scale Alpha have chosen to 'move the goal posts a little by rating this battery against 100 hours of discharge, thus EXAGGERATING it's true Amp/Hour rating when compared to others.

This is it's quoted spec: 100ah using the 100 hour discharge scale but in reality 90ah when using the more common 20 hour discharge scale of its competitors.

So as I stated back in 2013 when these first appeared that I didn't believe its quoted power and that's the reason.........still, 90ah is nothing to be sniffed at and a substantial amount of power for the original small VW battery box.


Martin