Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I have a deep cycle type battery (I think it is an Exide 70A/hr) in my camper trailer. The camper was purchased brand new and is only 8 months old.

My question - how long should the battery hold charge for?

We last went out on a trip in January this year (the new baby has slowed our camping trips!) and the battery was fully charged before left. Only went for 2 nights, and I only run the water pump and some flouros off the battery (although, the flouros are only during cooking as we use lanterns the rest of the time). In other words, the battery was full before we left and really only had minimal use during the trip.

I just went and checked and the battery has no charge in it (it has a meter that starts at 9V and it wasn't even registering on the meter).

The camper has an inbuilt charger - one of the mutli-stage type chargers. Should I be leaving the camper on charge all the time? Surely it shouldn't lose charge that quickly.

Advice or thoughts welcome.

Hi gu4800, five to six months without a charge on this type of battery is a sure fire way to kill it.

You could try to charge it and see what happens.

If you are able to get it charged, I think you will find that it’s stored capacity will be severely diminished.

As to whether you should leave it on a charger all the time, that depends on the type of charger.

If it’s a multi stage charger with a float charge mode then you can leave it on all the time.

If your battery charger is a basic type then you should charge the battery fully and then disconnect the charger. You will then have to repeat this every week or so, depending on the battery’s state of charge, which you will have to check periodically. The battery’s voltage should not be allowed to drop bellow 75% of the full state of charge and you can get the exact state of charge figures for your battery from the battery’s manufactures web site.

If your battery is stuff, and I would imagine it is, and if you only have a basic battery charger, it may pay you to get a small AGM type battery as they can be left for long periods of time between charges, as long as they are fully charged in the first place.

Cheers and let us know how you get on.

As far as I know, the battery is supposed to be an AGM battery. Here is the guff from the Exide website:

DEEP CYCLE
Built strong to withstand the pounding and vibration of marine, 4WD or heavy vehicle, use Exide's Endurange Deep Cycle battery. It's developed for long-running power and low amperage drain.

No-Vibe™ anchor bonded plates in polyethylene envelopes provide superior vibration resistance for an extra long life. It's durable case design resists impact and rough water vibration - the leading cause of failure in marine batteries. Case-to-cover bond is tight, leakproof and impact resistance, whilst convenient carry handles ensure an easier and safer set up.

Thick absorbent glass-mat separators protect active material from vibration damage and shedding by holding electrolyte securely against the plates. Combinedd with robust plates and high density paste Exide's Deep Cycle battery provides continuous power, deep cycling, and can be recharged from a bench charger.

Get a long lasting power for operating extra accessories like driving lights, refrigerator or bilge pumps from Exide Endurance Deep Cycle battery.

I think this maybe just a play on words and not a true AGM battery!

I also run an AGM (FullRiver) in dual battery set-up in the Nissan, so I a more than familiar with the benefits of the AGM type battery.

Got the battery on charge now, and will se what happens.

A couple of quick questions:

1) How can I tell the state of the batteyr in terms of holding good stored charge as opposed ot just surface charge following this latest charge attempt?

2) If the battery is stuffed, surely it would be covered under warranty (12 months is usual isn't it)?

3) If I change this battery over to a FullRiver type AGM battery, then what is a good charginf routine when I don't go camping for a while?

P.S. The charger is a Xantrex TC10, it is a "smart charger" and provides the correct charge cycle for modern sealed or flooded lead-acid batteries. It has a switch for "sealed" and "flooded" to ensure the correct charge cycle. It is three stage - bulk, absorption and float.

Bascially, the book says that the charger can be connected indefinitely without the risk of overcharging.

Thanks for your help and advice.

gu4800 wrote:A couple of quick questions:

1) How can I tell the state of the batteyr in terms of holding good stored charge as opposed ot just surface charge following this latest charge attempt?

2) If the battery is stuffed, surely it would be covered under warranty (12 months is usual isn't it)?

3) If I change this battery over to a FullRiver type AGM battery, then what is a good charginf routine when I don't go camping for a while?

P.S. The charger is a Xantrex TC10, it is a "smart charger" and provides the correct charge cycle for modern sealed or flooded lead-acid batteries. It has a switch for "sealed" and "flooded" to ensure the correct charge cycle. It is three stage - bulk, absorption and float.

Bascially, the book says that the charger can be connected indefinitely without the risk of overcharging.

Hi again, the only reliable way to check the battery is to get a load test done on it.

As for the warranty, I wouldn’t let them know you hadn’t charged it 6 months.

With that charger, there is no reason to go to a more expensive battery, just leave the charger on all the time the battery is not in use.

Cheers

drivesafe wrote: As for the warranty, I wouldn’t let them know you hadn’t charged it 6 months.

That'd be my little secret. What they don't know won't hurt them.

As to my other question - is the Exide deep cycle a "true" AGM?

Hi gu4800, I could be wrong here so if anybody has different data jump in, but to my knowledge, Exide only make conventional flooded wet cell and sealed gel cell type batteries in both cranking and deep cycle type including a large range of marine deep cycle batteries, but you could check their web site.

Cheers.

gu4800 wrote:

drivesafe wrote: As for the warranty, I wouldn’t let them know you hadn’t charged it 6 months.

That'd be my little secret. What they don't know won't hurt them.

As to my other question - is the Exide deep cycle a "true" AGM?

I think the only "true" AGM they've ever had was the Orbital range but from what I've heard they have discontinued that line.

This is only my own researched knowledge so I could be wrong ...

if ya want warranty dont tell em what happened let them decide, also the orbital is still a lead acid battery but a different design.