Club 80-90 Forums

My leisure battery is about a year old, it's a 115 amp deep cycle battery, it has recently been running out of power much faster than expected. I tried charging it fully and it only lasted 12 hours on a compressor fridge set on a medium setting. I had an auto electrican look at it and his opinion is that the battery is sulphated, I have never heard of this before. Has anyone had this problem and is there a way to reverse this?

If you leave the battery flat, a layer of sulphate is building up on the lead surface iside the battery. (From the sulphuric acid) regular charging with good chargers and not allowing to flat under 11 volts will extend the battery life.

There are some desulphating chargers and devices (like Ctek) on the market but they are expensive.
Some cheaper intelligent chargers (like the Aldi and Lidl ones) can manage some sulphate build up, but I am not sure about their efficiency. You need tho charge for a few days with them to check it out.

If the battery serviceable then filling up with distilled water is needed before charging.

After you have replaced that battery with a new one ( ) get yourself a "Low Voltage Disconnect" unit like THESE.
It will make your battery last for years and so pay for itself many times over.

A charger with a 'pulse' phase to clear the sulphation may help but to be honest, completely flattening the battery is the issue. I agree with John in that if users insist on running on 12 volts when using relatively 'high' consumers like a fridge, even a compressor type, then you must take precautions not to allow the battery to fully flatten. And even then, re-charge straight away afterwards.

As a side note* You could have your battery tested properly with a more sophisticated tester that shows capacity and amp hour rating. Your local battery shop should have one of these diagnostic type units, the test typically takes an hour and puts the battery through several phases and produces a printout of the batteries status.

Martin

If the battery has the filling holes, you can also try those battery 'tablets'.

They do work to help reduce sulphation.

Won't go into the chemistry but they a compound called EDTA for short and do help with old sulphated batteries, but to be honest most of this just extends the inevitable.

Thanks for the replies, I think the son in law has a smart charger, will try that first. Looked at EDTA and the process involved, looks like it's a problem to dispose of responsibly.