Charger upgrade

[wildebus]

Hmm... just been advised that the Yuassa YBX5019 is not a leisure battery... damn!

Both batteries were fitted new about 3 months before I bought the van, so less than a year old. I'm hoping that as we mainly use ehu pitches and don't drain the battery too deeply, it will suffice for now?

K

Yuasa are a funny company. They make excellent batteries but if you compare the quoted specifications with other brands they come out very middling. I think they are a brand that tends to over-deliver rather than over-promise

 

[Geek]

If the van is being trickle-charged over winter, it is worth considering connecting the starter and habitation batteries together with a wire (assuming they are similar battery chemistry).

You want them both to be charged and you don't need to keep the starter battery as a reserve for getting going.

The only proviso is that they ought to be at about the same voltage when you connect them.

 

[Geek]

Yuasa are a funny company. They make excellent batteries but if you compare the quoted specifications with other brands they come out very middling. I think they are a brand that tends to over-deliver rather than over-promise

I think they are just plain honest. An increasingly rare trait in a world dominated by Chinese specifications.

 

[Vanterrier]

So in practical real life terms what would be the difference between this YBX5019 100AH battery and a good quality lead acid 100 ah proper leisure battery if I went off grid for a couple of nights with no ehu, using lights, 2 showers each morning, TV for a couple of hours each night plus bits and bobs like phone charging, igniting gas hob/oven and fridge, water heater and diesel space heater.
What would I notice?
K

 

[Geek]

You should not notice any difference. Your batteries are better than most leisure batteries in any case.

A 100Ah battery should be a 100Ah battery.

However batteries sold as leisure batteries are rated at a 20 hour rate, meaning that's the capacity if totally discharged* at a rate that takes 20 hours to empty them.

A more normal battery is tested at a 10 hour rate.

The difference is between 5% and 10%. So a 100Ah leisure battery is probably the same capacity as a 90Ah to 95Ah starter battery.

Your batteries are from a more honest maker, so they probably deliver what it says on the label, or a bit more.

If you were comparing yours to a deep cycle battery, there is a bigger difference.

Deep cycle battery plates are thicker and designed to cope with deeper cycling.

* Don't do this at home: you can probably discharge a leisure battery to 0% two or three times before it is scrap.

A normal 'leisure' battery will probably manage 100 deep cycles (discharging to 40% full) whereas a proper deep cycle one should manage 500 to 1000 or more.

There should be a published cycle life specification for every model of battery, but they tend to be well hidden because the numbers are so poor.

 

[Vanterrier]

Just to finish this thread and with thanks to all who offered advice and suggestions but in particular to Wildebus who also provided the b2b charger and made up cables which made the job so much easier.
I have installed the Victron IP22 30AMP charger connected directly to the hab battery terminals, leaving the original cables to the panel just tied off.
I installed a CBE CSB3 B2B charger with in line fuses each end.
So now my hab battery is smart charged and my van battery trickle charged and I don't have to manually switch charger.
Result!
Thanks all
K

 

[nabsim]

Yuasa are a good brand of battery. I have never bought one for a car or van that I recall but I think that's the only brand I ever bought for my motorbikes