Is my leisure finished

[Travis]

I have a CF9 Zig Unit with a leisure battery that was in the bongo when I got it two years ago.

I have not used the bongo much without a hook up and therefore have usually left the leisure alone.

I am planning a festival at the end of the month and have been trying to get the battery charged up. I did 50 miles on Saturday and got the battery to 13 volts (on a cheap battery meter) anyhow the fridge only lasted 5 hours. So on Sunday I charged it off the mains via the hook up for about 6 hours and got it up to 13.9 volts. How ever yet again it only lasted about 5 hours.

What shall I do, charge it for longer? go on a longer run? or is it finished and get a new one?

Many thanks

Cant do a festival with warm beer

[Colin H F]

Hi yes for the best results it would be better to leave it on charge for a whole day even longer wont do any harm if your using the correct charger it cant over charge hope this helps

[missfixit70]

Sounds like it needs at least a 24 hour charge with a conditioning type/intelligent charger.

[haydn callow]

It can depend on how many amps your fridge is using...If your starting each time with a warm fridge the battery will be working very hard to get it cold....It's also not a good idea to run the fridge until the battery is flat....when it gets to 11 volts you should using it.
If you have been running it flat it is probably goosed...but if you fit a new battery bare the above in mind....11volts min

[MountainGoat]

Why don't you go round to your local Auto Electrical place to get your battery tested before you spend hours charging it up. Last week I had both my starter battery and my leisure battery tested ready for my holidays, it did not cost me a penny. Result was that my leisure battery was fine but my starter battery was on its way out. New one ordered from Tanya which arrived next day.

Tony

[Travis]

Cheers everyone

Have left it plugged in all night with the fridge on. Going to see how it goes around town today.

I am suprised that the zig unit doesnt have an auto cut off when the battery gets below a certain voltage. It just keep going until the lights go out, you wouldnt know how many volts were in it unless you constantly popped the bonnet and checked it

[MountainGoat]

I have posted this before. I always use to assumed that when you turned off the power at the zig / power management control unit then everything bar the clock and lights etc were turned off (if they have been transfered to the leisure battery). After flattening my leisure battery someone informed me that a lot of converters wired the fridge directly to the leisure battery and not via the zig unit. So leaving my fridge on flattened my leisure battery. These days I make sure that the fridge is turned off inside the fridge when I turn everything else off.

Now I use a battery disconnector switch on my leisure battery when my Bongo is not being used for a few weeks. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Battery-Disconnec ... 53e72e4dbb

Tony

[maxi_77]

Whether 5 hours is good or not depends on how big the LB is, and how much your fridge draws. I assume you have some form of low voltage cut out to protect the battery, if you haven't then you will kill your LB quite quickly by continuously discharging to zero, they don't like that and should only be normally taken to 50%. Once again depending on the siz of your LB and the capacity of the charger even overnight may not be enough to get it fully topped up, and if it has been left and flattened I would suggest at least 48 hours to get some condition back into it. Do not leave the fridge, or any thing else on whilst doing a proper charge, all the power the fridge etc consume is being wasted rather than forced into the battery.

Battery voltages as a measure of state of charge are only valid when the battery has been standing disconeected for some 12 hours. Note, if the battery is knackered it will still show 12.8 volts when charged so voltage is not a capacity indicator.

[Travis]

Just an update

Charged it foe 12 hours last night. The fridge worked for about 8 hours (after I had got it cold hooked up to the mains) and cut out. The lights still work but every time the fridge trys to come on it cuts out so I guess either there is not enough power in the battery or there is a cut off switch in the zig. Going to charge it for 36 hours now without the fridge on and see how it goes.

[g8dhe]

Do the lights dim when the fridge tries to turn on ? If they don't then I would suspect a bad joint somewhere in the fridge +12v feed which is causing the voltage to drop and the fridge to shutdown. Check all the cabling and fuses from the fridge to the battery and clean any connections. Also check that the earth connection is solid and clean as well, both at the battery and the fridge.

[Travis]

Charged for 48 hours. Running well now for almost 24 hours. Hopefully its recovered