Leisure battery question

[ywouldi]

A friend of mine has gone abroad for a few months and lent me his home converted transit camper, its rough around the edges but otherwise quite fun.

I went camping in march and ran the 12v light system from the battery for an evening or two and found the lights dimmed and died after a few hours.

The next trip involved several hours driving and the lights barely worked after that.

Yesterday the battery measured about 8v so I've taken it out and stuck it on the mains charger to see what happens but I suspect it's knackered.

Plan is to leave it on charge for a few days, take it off then measure the voltage.

The question is how much water should be in there, it has a magic eye indicator which appears to just rely on the water level.

Otherwise I'll buy another battery or two to wire in so that I can operate the 12v fridge in the summer between campsites.

[SimesJH]

Does sound like a new leisure battery is required.

They can be bought relatively cheaply, depending on your budget, but buy one with a good Ah rating.

[crikey]

I've recently bought one of these and would recommend it.

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Numax-CXV31MF-P3694.html

If you do get a new battery bear in mind the size and which way round the terminals are, in some vans the wiring will only fit one way round.

[SpeckledJim]

Quick electric test please:

My electric cool box is apparently consuming 47 watts at 12 volts.

Does that mean it is about 4 amps, and so will run for over whole day on a 110 AH leisure battery?

[GlenMH]

SpeckledJim said:

Quick electric test please:

My electric cool box is apparently consuming 47 watts at 12 volts.

Does that mean it is about 4 amps, and so will run for over whole day on a 110 AH leisure battery?

Just about.... Mind you, I know that leisure batteries are designed for deep discharge cycles but I am not sure that would do it any good.