[Dan marsh]

Hi all as most off you no I'm new to this and I'm just trying to work out how to go about working the battery for the pump.  I've seen some people saying they just plug the pump wire straight to the sig lighter an run straight from van bat an others saying the use a leisure bat an take home an recharge every few days and most saying they use a leisure bat with a split realay . Wot set up do you guys use , if leisure bat which one is best , How long dose it last untill needing a full recharge and dose the pump come with all the attachments to connect up to the bat . Cheers all . Soz for the spelling .

[paul alan]

I have an 85ah leisure battery, you can get bigger or smaller batteries. Something like 110ah(amp hour) will last longer between charges. I charge mine each day as they last longer if you dont use up more than half battery.

Its best to wire pump into a switch or controller, then wire your battery to the other side of the switch or controller so you can trun the power on and off.

I dont use a split relay as l dont spend enough time on the road to charge it up.

I wouldnt recommend just plugging your pump into van battery, you could end up with a flat van battery.

[W.booler]

Halfords do a good guarantee on their leisure battery. (2 years)  I paid £95 for mine recently, (on offer) and some guys on here have said they've had no problem if they had to take them back. Just don't say you use it for window cleaning. I had mine wired up to my alternator via a split relay, but it let me down, so I'm now independent of the alternator, and recharge every couple of days using a battery charger. I have another pump and battery set up just encase of any problems.  There should be some videos on YouTube showing the different options..

[Dan marsh]

Thanks guys I think I'll forget about connecting straght to the van bat I did think that sounded a bit risky . Getting i switch fitted ...... Great idea as I'm sure I won't be doing to many miles to start with. I'll have a look in Halfords then and see wot they've got at mo . I've looked at quiet a few vids on this and seen the one from Mark munro which was helpful . Unfortunately in not a diy guy and don't trust me self fitting all this stuff up so will need to get Somone in to help me out . So got to try an keep costs down as much as pos .

[Don Kee]

Get a 110ah leisure battery, it'll be more than enough for you on your own and future proof you if you end up with two pumps running at some point.
Prevents the van battery ever getting too low

SCR wise, it depends on if your van has regen braking (how old is the van you're using?) for the price you can get a SCR for cheap.
I'd defo get one fitted and the intelligent SCR's are very easy to fit on your own and dont run off the alternator

I bought a Numax 110ah bat from ebay and intelligent SCR both from ebay when I had a 06 transit and it worked great with two of us working 5 days a week (bench charged once a month)

[Dan marsh]

Cheers Don kee I've not got a van yet just planing and preparing at mo . Plan to start buying everything next month and the van in looking at is a 10/11 plate trannsit.

[nathankaye]

When you get all the equipment to hand, you will see more easily what we talk about as you dont really need to be DIY savvy to get it up and running..........unless your that bad and actually risk harm to yourself whilst doing so and then yes call in the help.
But by working out how things go together, the better you will be in the long run

[Ian Sheppard]

A leisure Battery (Deep cycle) is better for long slow discharge associated with running a pump several hours a day. A Leisure battery has ticker lead plates in the cell which make it better suited to the task. A leisure battery has thin lead plates because it is designed discharge high current very quickly to start the engine. Then recharge from the alternator. As such a separate battery for the system is the way to go.

As for Amp hour size the bigger the better. with most lead acid batteries you can discharge to around 50% of the capacity (Amps) so for example a 110 AH would have 55 amps of usable current before it needs charging.  If your running a pump direct from the battery the pump will draw 7 - 8 amps per hour So you would give you about 8 hours running time. Using a controller will reduce the current drawn by the pump by about half with out impacting on water flow rates. So the sane 55 amps would give you 16 hours when used with a pump controller.

Bench charging is best for lead acid as it ensures they get long slow charge at low continuous volts. Split relays can also be useful as they will trickle charge the battery while the engine is running, But how much current gets put back will vary depending on how long the engine is running. Lots of short journeys may not put back very much so a bench charge every couple days will still be needed.

This blog goes into a bit more detail http://springltd.co/blog/60/power-to-you-battery-types

Also this link to Progressive Dyn is useful  http://www.progressivedyn.com/battery_basics.html

[Dan marsh]

Thanks Ian 👍