[TomCrowther]

I have a split relay set up and it's worked fine until today. First job water just trickling out, not enough flow to work with. Started the engine and then the flow was pretty much back to normal. Worked half the day with the engine running most of the time and then put the battery on charge {never taken out of van before}. After only a couple of hours on charge the charger shows the battery is fully charged?
Almost all my journeys are local, ten minutes at a time max. Could this be running the battery down? I don't want to lose any more time.
Does anyone use battery testers and are they a useful thing to have?
Cheers for any advice.

[Roy Harding]

There was a window cleaner on the site that knew every thing about batteries.

And he recommended to bench charge a battery once a month.

Roy

[jarvy]

Sounds like the batt is fubar. If running the van maked the flow normal then the split charge is probably fine. I hadthe same issue's with my set up,leisure batt was a couple of years old,changed the batt,problem solved.

[Tom White]

Do you use a flow controller, Tom?  I had this sort of problem with two different flow controllers and once I binned them the pump and battery work just fine and I love the high flow the pump provides without the flow controller.

The only other thing I can suggest, if you do use a flow controller and wish to keep working with one, is that you buy a new battery.

Hopefully someone else can help you a bit better.

[Ian Sheppard]

The Leisure battery will only be trickled charged by the alternator. This will only happen while the engine is running It is likely that the 10 minutes journeys are not long enough to recharge your battery.

Your Pump is drawing between 5 and 7 amps an hour while in use. The alternator trickle charging is maybe going to replace 10% of that depending on the efficiency of the battery.

Spruce has put a very good explanation on here I will try locate the post.

[Ian Sheppard]

I have a split relay set up and it's worked fine until today. First job water just trickling out, not enough flow to work with. Started the engine and then the flow was pretty much back to normal. Worked half the day with the engine running most of the time and then put the battery on charge {never taken out of van before}. After only a couple of hours on charge the charger shows the battery is fully charged?
Almost all my journeys are local, ten minutes at a time max. Could this be running the battery down? I don't want to lose any more time.
Does anyone use battery testers and are they a useful thing to have?
Cheers for any advice.

This post has a lot of useful information.
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=152671.0

[TomCrowther]

Many thanks guys.
I do use a flow controller Tosh, can't work without one. On full chat it's way too much for me. Tried it once when the flow controller bust and it was laughable, like using a pressure washer, water everywhere. Had to fit a new one before going back to work.
I will leave it on charge for the night and see what it's like tomorrow. It might have just run a little low but I thought the idea was it would feed of the van battery if that was the case. If it happens again it's probably a new battery required if it's not holding the charge, especially with the winter fas approaching.
Thanks again.

[rosskesava]

I use a 55amp battery for a golf trolley thing what ever it's called.

Every night I take it indoors and charge it with a Ctek charger that de-sulphates the battery before it charges it. In 11 months I've never had any battery problems at all.

Also, like Tosh I no longer use a flow controller.

[david thomas]

I use 125 amp carbon fibre battery this is the best battery on the market