[Jonny 87]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

[Spruce]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

The problem is that over time batteries loose their capacity.  So your 110 amp becomes 50 amps. You won't notice it until its capacity drops below your daily current draw. If it recharges quicker at night than it did then your battery is loosing capacity.

If you are drawing 30 amps an hour then you are using some serious current.

If each pump under load runs for a full hour it will probably consume 4 to 5 amps. I used to believe that we ran our pumps for 50% of the time each hour. I'm now thinking its much less. The other day I thought I was really getting stuck in and used 3 amps of current over 2 hours.

Your diesel heater will draw a maximum of 20 amps on starting up and that's not 20 amps for a full 3 minutes. If it draws 20 amps for 3 minutes that Webasto has only drawn 1amp over the hour.
When the Webasto runs it won't draw much more than 3 amps an hour.

Your hose reels will draw around 30 amps for what, about 30 to 40 seconds twice an hour each.

IMHO you aren't drawing much current over a day. What you are doing is drawing a lot of current in short bursts. Most leisure batteries aren't designed to have 50 or 60 amps drawn from them over 30 secs when reeling in 2 hose reels at the same time.

I would be pretty certain that this is what is killing your batteries.  I would be looking for something that is a combination battery; something showing a CCA rating. A battery that can be used as a starter and leisure battery is probably a better choice for you. But as always, there is no perfect solution as a combo battery is neither an excellent leisure battery or an excellent starter battery. Its a compromise.

The battery you have linked to says it can be used with a motor mover but it doesn't give a CCA value (cold cranking amps.) The specs also tell us that it has a recharge cycle of 70 charges.  They are telling you how poor it is. 70 charge cycles is poor and on that alone I wouldn't look at it any further. What they don't tell you is what figure they have based the depth of discharge on to get to this 70 recharges. Most leisure battery manufacturers say we shouldn't discharge our batteries below 50%. If they have used this bench mark then you could well have to replace that battery within 2 to 3 months.

What batteries are Grippa selling is a question you could ask yourself.

What ever you choose, its also important to remember that there aren't any battery manufacturers that will give a battery warranty to window cleaners, so forget the advertised 2, 3 or 5 year warranty.

I would also re-look at your leisure battery charger. Is it putting out enough current to recharge both batteries overnight? Grippa fitted a diesel heater to Daz's van (in case you haven't heard) and added another 115 amp Numax battery. They supplied him with a 20 amp charger.  CTEK are good battery chargers but as they are expensive 5amp charges seem to be what most have. It doesn't matter if it takes 3 days to fully recharge the batteries in the motor home as it will only be used next weekend again if the weather is right.

I'm not recommending these batteries but have linked them so you can compare the difference between the Alpha battery and this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120ah-Dual-Purpose-Dual-Terminal-Leisure-Battery-LXD120-1000-Mca/173814450937?_trkparms=aid%3D333200%26algo%3DCOMP.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D60097%26meid%3D2574d6b5fc3a454fa6940b4ed8bab7b6%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D171945324452%26itm%3D173814450937%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

[Spotfree]

I just replaced my battery, its a 150ah trojan beast of a battery, cost £230.

I had it for 20 months, it died seemingly all of a sudden on Monday. I took it back where I got it from and bought the same one again.

I told them my charger is only 4 amps but it does the job when left on overnight, they said that a 4 amp only charge is not enough and will be detrimental as it's not enough for the acid to circulate fully around the plates.

I now need to upgrade my charger, we'll see in another 20 months if a new charger is beneficial.

[Spruce]

I just replaced my battery, its a 150ah trojan beast of a battery, cost £230.

I had it for 20 months, it died seemingly all of a sudden on Monday. I took it back where I got it from and bought the same one again.

I told them my charger is only 4 amps but it does the job when left on overnight, they said that a 4 amp only charge is not enough and will be detrimental as it's not enough for the acid to circulate fully around the plates.

I now need to upgrade my charger, we'll see in another 20 months if a new charger is beneficial.

Trojan used to be the battery that sailing yachts would use as they were the most reliable.  Not any more.

Nowadays Lithium is the battery of choice because it can happily be discharged to 20% and can provide large amounts of power when needed. But they also bring a new set of problems. They are very expensive for one.  Because these batteries can be recharged very quickly they now have to have additional electronics to protect the alternator from over heating and burning out.

Lithium is good for warm climates but a lithium battery stored in conditions below freezing becomes a recharging issue.

[zesty]

I always read you should charge leiesure battery’s with the lowest setting on a smart charger spruce?

I’ve always set my ring smart charger to 2 amps, (it can charge at 4, 6 or 8 amps as well) it always seems to fully charge overnight?

Should I be using the 8 amp mode?

My battery is 115ah


Edit - just read some more info, and it does seem the advice for charging a leisure battery is slow and long charging...

So maybe 2-4 amps is ideal...

[Kev Martin]

I always read you should charge leiesure battery’s with the lowest setting on a smart charger spruce?

I’ve always set my ring smart charger to 2 amps, (it can charge at 4, 6 or 8 amps as well) it always seems to fully charge overnight?

Should I be using the 8 amp mode?

My battery is 115ah


Edit - just read some more info, and it does seem the advice for charging a leisure battery is slow and long charging...

So maybe 2-4 amps is ideal...

I have a huge leisure battery on my Caravan and a small solar panel keeps it charged

[zesty]

I have a solar panel on the roof of my van, but still needs bench charging every few nights, and even more in winter.

[Spruce]

I always read you should charge leiesure battery’s with the lowest setting on a smart charger spruce?

I’ve always set my ring smart charger to 2 amps, (it can charge at 4, 6 or 8 amps as well) it always seems to fully charge overnight?

Should I be using the 8 amp mode?

My battery is 115ah


Edit - just read some more info, and it does seem the advice for charging a leisure battery is slow and long charging...

So maybe 2-4 amps is ideal...

If you are happy with the performance and durability of your battery then you don't need to change anything.

Numax did tell me once that its best to charge a leisure battery at no more than 10% of its capacity.

As a battery on charge gets more full the rate at which is absorbs charge reduces. If you take 5 amps out of a fully charged leisure battery in an hour, it will likely take a charger longer than an hour to replace that charge.

If you battery is down 20 amps that day and you are recharging at a maximum of 2 amps its going to take longer than 10 hours to replace that.
But if solar is putting something back in then every little helps.

I've mentioned before that my leisure battery is nearly 5 years old. Over 4 years of it's life has been a boost with a split charge relay, charged every night, all night in winter and every second night in summer with my 10 amp charger.
I don't know what its capacity is like now but still gets both of us through a hard day without faltering.

[windowswashed]

I always read you should charge leiesure battery’s with the lowest setting on a smart charger spruce?

I’ve always set my ring smart charger to 2 amps, (it can charge at 4, 6 or 8 amps as well) it always seems to fully charge overnight?

Should I be using the 8 amp mode?

My battery is 115ah


Edit - just read some more info, and it does seem the advice for charging a leisure battery is slow and long charging...

So maybe 2-4 amps is ideal...

I always charge on the lowest amps overnight 2A. If I was pushed for time with a flat battery obviously would put in a fast charge of 8-16A but not so kind in the long life of the battery

[dazmond]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

do you not have a smart split charge relay wired up to your batteries as well jonny?you need one........,a decent 20amp charger like the numax "connect and forget" charger and charge it up overnight every night.....

mine are nearly 2 years old and still working fine(2 x 105ah numax starter/leisure batteries)

i only have one pump and a one electric reel.....why do you have 2?i thought you worked on your own?

i leave my engine running at lunchtime too to put a bit of extra charge into the batteries ....

[Jonny 87]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

The problem is that over time batteries loose their capacity.  So your 110 amp becomes 50 amps. You won't notice it until its capacity drops below your daily current draw. If it recharges quicker at night than it did then your battery is loosing capacity.

If you are drawing 30 amps an hour then you are using some serious current.

If each pump under load runs for a full hour it will probably consume 4 to 5 amps. I used to believe that we ran our pumps for 50% of the time each hour. I'm now thinking its much less. The other day I thought I was really getting stuck in and used 3 amps of current over 2 hours.

Your diesel heater will draw a maximum of 20 amps on starting up and that's not 20 amps for a full 3 minutes. If it draws 20 amps for 3 minutes that Webasto has only drawn 1amp over the hour.
When the Webasto runs it won't draw much more than 3 amps an hour.

Your hose reels will draw around 30 amps for what, about 30 to 40 seconds twice an hour each.

IMHO you aren't drawing much current over a day. What you are doing is drawing a lot of current in short bursts. Most leisure batteries aren't designed to have 50 or 60 amps drawn from them over 30 secs when reeling in 2 hose reels at the same time.

I would be pretty certain that this is what is killing your batteries.  I would be looking for something that is a combination battery; something showing a CCA rating. A battery that can be used as a starter and leisure battery is probably a better choice for you. But as always, there is no perfect solution as a combo battery is neither an excellent leisure battery or an excellent starter battery. Its a compromise.

The battery you have linked to says it can be used with a motor mover but it doesn't give a CCA value (cold cranking amps.) The specs also tell us that it has a recharge cycle of 70 charges.  They are telling you how poor it is. 70 charge cycles is poor and on that alone I wouldn't look at it any further. What they don't tell you is what figure they have based the depth of discharge on to get to this 70 recharges. Most leisure battery manufacturers say we shouldn't discharge our batteries below 50%. If they have used this bench mark then you could well have to replace that battery within 2 to 3 months.

What batteries are Grippa selling is a question you could ask yourself.

What ever you choose, its also important to remember that there aren't any battery manufacturers that will give a battery warranty to window cleaners, so forget the advertised 2, 3 or 5 year warranty.

I would also re-look at your leisure battery charger. Is it putting out enough current to recharge both batteries overnight? Grippa fitted a diesel heater to Daz's van (in case you haven't heard) and added another 115 amp Numax battery. They supplied him with a 20 amp charger.  CTEK are good battery chargers but as they are expensive 5amp charges seem to be what most have. It doesn't matter if it takes 3 days to fully recharge the batteries in the motor home as it will only be used next weekend again if the weather is right.

I'm not recommending these batteries but have linked them so you can compare the difference between the Alpha battery and this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120ah-Dual-Purpose-Dual-Terminal-Leisure-Battery-LXD120-1000-Mca/173814450937?_trkparms=aid%3D333200%26algo%3DCOMP.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D60097%26meid%3D2574d6b5fc3a454fa6940b4ed8bab7b6%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D171945324452%26itm%3D173814450937%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

Thanks for the reply spruce. Really appreciate your knowledge and in depth answer. You’ve fit me thinking now if I’ve just had a bad battery and would be better spending the money on 2 quality 115 amp batteries.

On a side note...... this is the charger I use....

https://www.onnsports.co.uk/battery-charger-mxs-25-eu-bd87/


Do you think it could be overkill and charging too fast? Theres talk that a charger works best by slow charging. This charger was expensive and pumps out a fair bit of power.

[Jonny 87]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

do you not have a smart split charge relay wired up to your batteries as well jonny?you need one........,a decent 20amp charger like the numax "connect and forget" charger and charge it up overnight every night.....

mine are nearly 2 years old and still working fine(2 x 105ah numax starter/leisure batteries)

i only have one pump and a one electric reel.....why do you have 2?i thought you worked on your own?

i leave my engine running at lunchtime too to put a bit of extra charge into the batteries ....

Yeah I’ve got the battery to battery charger too, and a 25 amp Charger. I think it’s the fact I do hardly any miles some days, and those days are where the battery drops too low by lunch time.

Also the wife works with me now too.  that’s why I’ve got a 2 man set up.

[P @ F]

You need one of my heaters Jonny , 4 amps per hour for pump and heater 

[Spruce]

So I think I need more power captain. (Star trek reference)

Currently have about 200amps in the van, but my power is draining too quick. By lunch time the heater shuts down.

I’ve got a ctek smart charger, and the batteries charge up fine, they are just not holding the charge.  One battery was added a year ago with my grippa heater, and the other battery was from
The year previous.

Adding up my usage though and I think 2x 115 amps batteries isn’t enough.

I’ve got 2 pumps, 2 powered reels, and a grippa heater.

Potentially 30amps an hour of power draw, and some days I move the van only a
Couple Of times. I also connect the batteries to to the mains every night.

So I’m thinking..... 300 amps would be better for me.

What about 2 of these.......

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/180-ah-ultra-plus-leisure-battery/

They look decent, but am I missing anything? I must admit, batteries I don’t know much about.

Thanks chaps.

Jonny.

The problem is that over time batteries loose their capacity.  So your 110 amp becomes 50 amps. You won't notice it until its capacity drops below your daily current draw. If it recharges quicker at night than it did then your battery is loosing capacity.

If you are drawing 30 amps an hour then you are using some serious current.

If each pump under load runs for a full hour it will probably consume 4 to 5 amps. I used to believe that we ran our pumps for 50% of the time each hour. I'm now thinking its much less. The other day I thought I was really getting stuck in and used 3 amps of current over 2 hours.

Your diesel heater will draw a maximum of 20 amps on starting up and that's not 20 amps for a full 3 minutes. If it draws 20 amps for 3 minutes that Webasto has only drawn 1amp over the hour.
When the Webasto runs it won't draw much more than 3 amps an hour.

Your hose reels will draw around 30 amps for what, about 30 to 40 seconds twice an hour each.

IMHO you aren't drawing much current over a day. What you are doing is drawing a lot of current in short bursts. Most leisure batteries aren't designed to have 50 or 60 amps drawn from them over 30 secs when reeling in 2 hose reels at the same time.

I would be pretty certain that this is what is killing your batteries.  I would be looking for something that is a combination battery; something showing a CCA rating. A battery that can be used as a starter and leisure battery is probably a better choice for you. But as always, there is no perfect solution as a combo battery is neither an excellent leisure battery or an excellent starter battery. Its a compromise.

The battery you have linked to says it can be used with a motor mover but it doesn't give a CCA value (cold cranking amps.) The specs also tell us that it has a recharge cycle of 70 charges.  They are telling you how poor it is. 70 charge cycles is poor and on that alone I wouldn't look at it any further. What they don't tell you is what figure they have based the depth of discharge on to get to this 70 recharges. Most leisure battery manufacturers say we shouldn't discharge our batteries below 50%. If they have used this bench mark then you could well have to replace that battery within 2 to 3 months.

What batteries are Grippa selling is a question you could ask yourself.

What ever you choose, its also important to remember that there aren't any battery manufacturers that will give a battery warranty to window cleaners, so forget the advertised 2, 3 or 5 year warranty.

I would also re-look at your leisure battery charger. Is it putting out enough current to recharge both batteries overnight? Grippa fitted a diesel heater to Daz's van (in case you haven't heard) and added another 115 amp Numax battery. They supplied him with a 20 amp charger.  CTEK are good battery chargers but as they are expensive 5amp charges seem to be what most have. It doesn't matter if it takes 3 days to fully recharge the batteries in the motor home as it will only be used next weekend again if the weather is right.

I'm not recommending these batteries but have linked them so you can compare the difference between the Alpha battery and this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120ah-Dual-Purpose-Dual-Terminal-Leisure-Battery-LXD120-1000-Mca/173814450937?_trkparms=aid%3D333200%26algo%3DCOMP.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D60097%26meid%3D2574d6b5fc3a454fa6940b4ed8bab7b6%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D171945324452%26itm%3D173814450937%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

Thanks for the reply spruce. Really appreciate your knowledge and in depth answer. You’ve fit me thinking now if I’ve just had a bad battery and would be better spending the money on 2 quality 115 amp batteries.

On a side note...... this is the charger I use....

https://www.onnsports.co.uk/battery-charger-mxs-25-eu-bd87/


Do you think it could be overkill and charging too fast? Theres talk that a charger works best by slow charging. This charger was expensive and pumps out a fair bit of power.

Your charger shouldn't be a problem as it is more than sufficient to charge up 2 battery banks.  A leisure battery will only accept the current it can absorb. If you are charging 2 x 115amph leisure batteries together then the maximum output of the charger of 25amps divided between 2 batteries is 12.5 amps each. That's no problem. The charger won't be pushing a charge of 25 amps into both batteries for long either as it will quickly drop down.

If you go for a combination starter and leisure battery, then the battery will accept a higher current charge anyway.

The other consideration is how your 2 leisure batteries are connected together.
If one battery is bad (as the Americans say) then the good leisure battery will just be pumping charge into the bad battery and they will both end up flat.

The manufacturers always recommend you have 2 batteries the same and the same age if you are going to link them together.   

[Jonny 87]

Thanks spruce. That makes sense! The batteries are conected in parallel but one is a year older than the other. That could be the issue with one failed battery.

Thanks for your help and that info. Really appreciate it. Your like The oracle of electrics. 

[Jonny 87]

You need one of my heaters Jonny , 4 amps per hour for pump and heater 

I’ve got a jeep that gets used for work a couple days a week too so don’t worry, I’ll probably be buying one off you too. 

[a900]

I always read you should charge leiesure battery’s with the lowest setting on a smart charger spruce?

I’ve always set my ring smart charger to 2 amps, (it can charge at 4, 6 or 8 amps as well) it always seems to fully charge overnight?

Should I be using the 8 amp mode?

My battery is 115ah


Edit - just read some more info, and it does seem the advice for charging a leisure battery is slow and long charging...

So maybe 2-4 amps is ideal...

If you are happy with the performance and durability of your battery then you don't need to change anything.

Numax did tell me once that its best to charge a leisure battery at no more than 10% of its capacity.

As a battery on charge gets more full the rate at which is absorbs charge reduces. If you take 5 amps out of a fully charged leisure battery in an hour, it will likely take a charger longer than an hour to replace that charge.

If you battery is down 20 amps that day and you are recharging at a maximum of 2 amps its going to take longer than 10 hours to replace that.
But if solar is putting something back in then every little helps.

I've mentioned before that my leisure battery is nearly 5 years old. Over 4 years of it's life has been a boost with a split charge relay, charged every night, all night in winter and every second night in summer with my 10 amp charger.
I don't know what its capacity is like now but still gets both of us through a hard day without faltering.

Have to agree with spruce.

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery

One of the most damaging things we can do to led acid batteries is to leave them in a discharged state. So if you want them to last get them on charge as soon as your home and set it around 10% charge. The bulk of the energy going in is only the first stage and the rest takes much longer. So as said if your putting it on only a 2a charge it may not  get fully charged by the morning.

As pointed out a 115ah battery can take 11-12 amp charge no trouble and 2 of those batteries in parallel can take 24 amps.

I moved away from lead acid and to a lithium battery I built myself. It’s around 115 ah and charge it at 22amps, as lithium can be charged at its equivalent ah rating, and that’s as fast as my charger goes.  Like others using 2 pumps, electric reel and diesel heater.

Keep those lead acids topped up every night. Not letting them drop below 50 of the rating and charge around 10% or its AH rating.

[tompoole]

do you have CTEK  dc to dc split charger?
if yes do you have the smart pass or standard 20amp?
if standard you will need a CTEK smart pass to link to it.

as for batteries , if you take 40amps out you need to replace amps as soon as poss, if you deplete the 115amp deep cycle past half way it may not accept a charge quickly enough to replenish what's been used, this type of use will kill a battery very quickly.

so if you use loads of amps then either buy a 200 amp deep cycle AGM or lithium 100amp plus. and upgrade your CTEK to dc to dc  with smart pass or red arc dc to dc split charger and throw a 2-300watt solar panel on the van too for good measure.

another thing to note is that if you have a new van then the alternator works slightly differently to older types and your dc dc split charge system needs to be compatible to new alternator type.

[P @ F]

One question I have is about when to charge , we are told to get them back on charge as soon as possible but I thought they had to sit dormant for about 4 hours so they can settle and give the charger a true reading of state of charge ?

Which is it ? 

Having just got a Numax 105 that will be charged every night I am starting to question my chargers , both smart , one is an Avon 8 Amp and the other a Halfords with 2 settings , standard at 5 Amp and sealed at 3.7 Amp , out of the two I trust the Halfords one more on sealed setting but am wondering if it will put a charge in fast enough ?

I have power analysers on the van so know what comes out daily , I am just about to fit an identical analyser inline on my charger to see if the charger puts in what I know has come out at the time it switches to float and maintain

[mac74]

Maybe a sml quiet generator may help power all your gear?
Something like this maybe? Clarke IG2200 2.2kW Inverter Generator???
Ive not looked into your power draw, but just a idea. Good luck.