note
I have just read over this and it is much longer than I expected it to be. I don’t expect everyone to read it but if you are a person who doesn’t use EHU much and is in the market for new leisure batteries it may help.
Over the last couple of months we have noticed our leisure batteries were not performing as well as they had in the past. We accepted they were coming to the end of their usable life and decided to buy a new pair.
We usually use the van for about 80 – 90 nights per year and are hardly ever on EHU (hook up)(maybe 10 of those nights) We are heavy users on power drawing about 5amp per hour for around 12 hours per day I winter and less in summer.
The batteries were 2 x 100ah Banner Energy Bull (95751) which had come with our van from new 2 years previously. They had performed fairly well and I considered replacing with the same again but found them difficult to find locally. I wasn’t in any hurry to replace the batteries until this week. Last weekend we were away for 4 nights and on the afternoon of day 3 we were showing 11.5 volts. I decided to see how far I could push them before they failed. They did give up at 10PM on the evening of day 4.
I had read many thoughts on leisure batteries but was never able to find a satisfactory conclusion as to what I should buy when the occasion arose. The Banner batteries were ruled out due to local availability. I started reading in detail including referring the NCC leisure battery classification and discovered the following. These are Class A, B and C.
Batteries are also rated at different rates. We use the at the 20hour rate as we discharge at a higher current than other uses. This means many batteries are advertised as a higher amper hour than they actually are for our use. E.G. my banner is a 110ah but 100 at the 20hour rate.
Batteries are designed have a life which is measured in the number of cycles they will survive. This is connected in some cases to the depth of discharge (DoD). Some battery technology has a greater DoD ability than others. Simply put, the better the battery the further you can discharge it and it will have the ability to recover.
Our Banner 95715 batteries are Class 2 and designed to live for about 200 cycles which we accepted wasn’t bad.
I looked at which batteries were in the various NCC Classes and noticed the Class A batteries were expected to have many more cycles than those in the other groups. Some were ever listed as up to 20 times more.
I discovered there were almost all deep cycle batteries so I started looking into what they were. A deep cycle battery is designed to discharge to between 45 and 75% of its capacity. I thought this could be ideal for my job. The name Trojan kept coming up although not listed on the NCC list. I added a couple of Trojan models to my now growing list of possibilities.
There are also traction batteries but I didn’t go into them in any detail as most seemed too tall for the space I had available.
I also noticed that (Absorbent Glass Mat) AGM AND Gel batteries were available within the leisure range from a few manufacturers. These were usually claiming a higher cycle number. I knew I was probably wanting either an AGM Leisure battery or a deep cycle battery but two things were at the back of my mind.
1-Leisure batteries are generally designed to be discharged to 75 – 80% of their capacity.
2-Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged to anything up to 45% of their capacity.
So, I phoned around for info and prices. Here are few.
CARAVAN DEALER
110ah Platinum Leisure battery LB6110 for £117.50 (it was a 100ah at the 20 hr rate, was Class C and listed as 70 cycles)
MOTOR FACTORS
115ah Yuasa L35-115 Leisure battery for £135 (it was 115ah but Class C and listed as 85 cycles)
BATTERY DEALER ONE
110ah Leoch Adverturer 110SFL Leisure battery FOR £100 (it was 110ah, was Class C and listed as 200 cycles)
BATTERY DEALER TWO
100 Platinum PAGM Leisure battery for £165 (it was 110ah, was Class A and listed as 500 cycles)
I decided to go for the last one on the list above for Class and Cycles ability.
I arrived at the battery only retailer and discovered (from a poster on the wall) they sold Trojan Deep cycle batteries. I couldn’t believe my luck. I then interrogated the poor man working there. He was very helpful, answered all my questions and provided more info than I could imagine. I enquired about the Trojan 27TMX which was on my list. He said hang on a minute and went into the warehouse coming back a minute later with one to show me. He explained that using these for leisure use was ideal as that hold their voltage for much longer than any leisure battery including AGM and Gel. He suggested we could get up to 7 days without any charge and should expect around 2000 cycles. (we will see)
Basically he confirmed that deep cycle was much better for our use and Trojan was as good as you could get. All for the price of £168. This was only £3 more (per battery) than I was planning on spending on the AGM.
Total difference in price between buying a leisure battery from a caravan dealer and the Trojans was £101.
Batteries have now been fitted to our van without much bother and the testing begins this weekend.
So, if you are on EHU 90% of the time you might as well go for the cheaper option as it will give you a couple of days without it occasionally. If you are a heavy user like us consider paying a bit more or at least asking an expert.
Over the last couple of months we have noticed our leisure batteries were not performing as well as they had in the past. We accepted they were coming to the end of their usable life and decided to buy a new pair.
We usually use the van for about 80 – 90 nights per year and are hardly ever on EHU (hook up)(maybe 10 of those nights) We are heavy users on power drawing about 5amp per hour for around 12 hours per day I winter and less in summer.
The batteries were 2 x 100ah Banner Energy Bull (95751) which had come with our van from new 2 years previously. They had performed fairly well and I considered replacing with the same again but found them difficult to find locally. I wasn’t in any hurry to replace the batteries until this week. Last weekend we were away for 4 nights and on the afternoon of day 3 we were showing 11.5 volts. I decided to see how far I could push them before they failed. They did give up at 10PM on the evening of day 4.
I had read many thoughts on leisure batteries but was never able to find a satisfactory conclusion as to what I should buy when the occasion arose. The Banner batteries were ruled out due to local availability. I started reading in detail including referring the NCC leisure battery classification and discovered the following. These are Class A, B and C.
Batteries are also rated at different rates. We use the at the 20hour rate as we discharge at a higher current than other uses. This means many batteries are advertised as a higher amper hour than they actually are for our use. E.G. my banner is a 110ah but 100 at the 20hour rate.
Batteries are designed have a life which is measured in the number of cycles they will survive. This is connected in some cases to the depth of discharge (DoD). Some battery technology has a greater DoD ability than others. Simply put, the better the battery the further you can discharge it and it will have the ability to recover.
Our Banner 95715 batteries are Class 2 and designed to live for about 200 cycles which we accepted wasn’t bad.
I looked at which batteries were in the various NCC Classes and noticed the Class A batteries were expected to have many more cycles than those in the other groups. Some were ever listed as up to 20 times more.
I discovered there were almost all deep cycle batteries so I started looking into what they were. A deep cycle battery is designed to discharge to between 45 and 75% of its capacity. I thought this could be ideal for my job. The name Trojan kept coming up although not listed on the NCC list. I added a couple of Trojan models to my now growing list of possibilities.
There are also traction batteries but I didn’t go into them in any detail as most seemed too tall for the space I had available.
I also noticed that (Absorbent Glass Mat) AGM AND Gel batteries were available within the leisure range from a few manufacturers. These were usually claiming a higher cycle number. I knew I was probably wanting either an AGM Leisure battery or a deep cycle battery but two things were at the back of my mind.
1-Leisure batteries are generally designed to be discharged to 75 – 80% of their capacity.
2-Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged to anything up to 45% of their capacity.
So, I phoned around for info and prices. Here are few.
CARAVAN DEALER
110ah Platinum Leisure battery LB6110 for £117.50 (it was a 100ah at the 20 hr rate, was Class C and listed as 70 cycles)
MOTOR FACTORS
115ah Yuasa L35-115 Leisure battery for £135 (it was 115ah but Class C and listed as 85 cycles)
BATTERY DEALER ONE
110ah Leoch Adverturer 110SFL Leisure battery FOR £100 (it was 110ah, was Class C and listed as 200 cycles)
BATTERY DEALER TWO
100 Platinum PAGM Leisure battery for £165 (it was 110ah, was Class A and listed as 500 cycles)
I decided to go for the last one on the list above for Class and Cycles ability.
I arrived at the battery only retailer and discovered (from a poster on the wall) they sold Trojan Deep cycle batteries. I couldn’t believe my luck. I then interrogated the poor man working there. He was very helpful, answered all my questions and provided more info than I could imagine. I enquired about the Trojan 27TMX which was on my list. He said hang on a minute and went into the warehouse coming back a minute later with one to show me. He explained that using these for leisure use was ideal as that hold their voltage for much longer than any leisure battery including AGM and Gel. He suggested we could get up to 7 days without any charge and should expect around 2000 cycles. (we will see)
Basically he confirmed that deep cycle was much better for our use and Trojan was as good as you could get. All for the price of £168. This was only £3 more (per battery) than I was planning on spending on the AGM.
Total difference in price between buying a leisure battery from a caravan dealer and the Trojans was £101.
Batteries have now been fitted to our van without much bother and the testing begins this weekend.
So, if you are on EHU 90% of the time you might as well go for the cheaper option as it will give you a couple of days without it occasionally. If you are a heavy user like us consider paying a bit more or at least asking an expert.
