Hi, Just tested my leisure battery on my van and it is reading 10.5v, is it worth buying a charger (e.g C-Tek 5) to try to bring it back to life or just replace? Thanks Gregg
Yes, using the mains hookup via the pms, pms indicator goes to high when it's on the hookup. Not sure how to tell if the pms is charging the battery. Thanks
check the voltage going into the battery to see if it is charging correctly. Might be worth trying to "boil" it up for a few minutes if you can get it on a charger that kicks out a few amps to desulphate the plates if the battery itself is suspect.
As above, put your voltmeter on the leisure battery when the PMS is on and take a reading. Charging voltage should be somewhere between 13.8 and 14.4V though it may go a bit over initially. If it still reads 10.5V it's not being charged. The key with lead/acid batteries is to recharge them as soon as possible after use. If they're left sitting flat for weeks, they will sulphate and then won't take a charge.
I was always told if it goes under 9 Volts then to replace it, so you should be fine just don't boost charge it up.
One other thing you could try, is the aspirin trick. Put half an aspirin in each cell before you charge it. Alternatively halfords sell Bat-aid tablets that work in the same way, the help clean the battery plates and allow the charge to be held. Worked on my old Mazda got another year out of the battery before I had to change it.
Even if you think you got away with it you reduced the life and capacity of the battery every time you let it get really flat. With sulphation caused by concentrated acid present in a flat battery you are covering part of the wrong plate of each cell with hard insulating stuff. What is left looks like a battery but with less capacity. A charged battery has weaker acid and the sulphate on the correct plate. A wet cell battery has space at the bottom for you to blow some of that bad sulphate off with gas from recharging. it falls off the plates so they get eaten away and eventually the cell shorts with all the odd bits of lead and junk fallen off the plates. The expensive AGM batteries have no way for the crap to fall away from the plates because the electrolyte is a gel in fibreglass mat so these can be knackered totally with just one or two good flattenings.
A lot of smart chargers will not charge a fully flat battery as they detect the battery, try using charging it a bit with some jump leads off a engine battery with the engine running should only be a few minutes they when the voltage is up a bit you can try the charger
^ This. A lot of "smart" chargers won't detect a battery if the terminal voltage is too low to begin with. If you have access to a "dumb" charger (old school ones with an ammeter needle on the front), use it to get the voltage up a bit, then put it on the smart charger and use the "Recondition" program if it has one. In the absence of a "dumb" charger, as above - you could try jump leads from a vehicle and run the engine a bit (at least 10-15 mins). I'm a bit wary of this method, because there's no limit on the charging current so if the battery has an internal fault or is short circuit it could give off a lot of hydrogen gas and potentially explode. Wear some safety goggles if you try this. I have a small petrol generator with a 12V charging facility of max 8Amps, which is basically the same as a "dumb" charger. I hook this up to dead batteries and let it charge them for a while, then use my CTEK smart charger. This has worked for me with several dead batteries. In particular my Mum had a habbit of leaving the radio on in her old car with the volume right down and flattening the battery.
Sorry to thread Jack, I charged my leisure with my ctek prior to Eastnor. It would get to 3/4 full mark and then flip across to the error light. I turned it off and on again, it carried on charging for a few hours then the error light comes on. Is my battery foofed? I've never tried the recon function on the ctek is that worth a go?
^ It's worth a punt. If the battery has removable vent caps check the fluid (electrolyte) level before you start - it might need a top up with distilled water. There's normally a plastic level indicator to show where the liquid should come up to. Shine a torch down the hole as even in bright daylight they can be difficult to see. I use a 5ml children's medicine syringe from the pharmacist to add distilled water. One "bad" battery I had just needed approx 40ml in each cell and a good charge. If the fluid level is too low, you're reducing the surface area of the lead plates which hold the charge, and hence reducing the capacity of the battery. The OP should check their battery fluid levels as well... If you still get an error from the CTEK it's probably because one of the cells has an internal short, and the battery will need replacement. A 12V lead/acid battery has six cells in series of approx 2.1V each. If one of them is short, the max you'll get out is about 10.5V (ie 2.1x5 instead of 2.1x6) @Gregg Scott - Because your battery errors straight away, you might have a short circuit cell. Check the fluid level and try a dumb charger to see if you can get the voltage up any more, then try your smart charger again. If no joy, you'll have to replace it. @chrisgooner - Because your battery charges for a bit and then errors, I suspect very low fluid level or heavily sulphated battery. Top up if possible and try the recondition program.
