[Crystal-clear]

Bought a Halfords Leisure Battery it's quite big
My leisure charger doesn't charge it very well as when it's charged the green indicator light does not come on the battery ( those who have a Halfords battery will know what I mean)
Took it down to Halfords they charged it for me and the green light came on and the battery is fine.

Put on the split relay and after about 10 days it needs to be charged again.... In the past my split relay has always trickle charged every battery that I didn't need to take it out and charge it on the bench. In fact the other van has A trickle charge and battery hasn't moved (it's the bull battery)

What's a good leisure battery charger and should I just buy another battery?
they won't accept it as a refund because they're saying it's a good battery.
Cheers.

[Michael Peterson]

cteck or the halfords smart one

[Simon Trapani]

You must know this has been discussed many times on here previously?

It’s very doubtful your Scr is putting enough amps back in compared to what you’ve taken out. You still need to bench charge, maybe once a week or so to keep your battery fully charged & prolong it’s life. You can still bench charge with the leisure battery & charger in the situ in the vehicle.

[Stoots]

Sounds like it's a charging issue and not a battery issue so why do you need a new battery?

Just bench charge it more often. I charge mine every night to keep it topped up.

[Shrek]

Sounds like you’ve bought a cheap cr@p charger. Like the great dazmondo once said ‘ buy cheap, buy twice!’

[Crystal-clear]

https://www.halfords.com/camping/electrical-and-power/halfords-leisure-battery-hlb681-957217.html

This is the battery above.
In the the past I have purchased newMax for example and I didn't need to bench charge it for more than 6 years. Why is it so I need to keep Bench charging this one ??

This particular one when I try and then charge it my smart charger doesn't charge it enough.
There is a green light indicator on the battery when I take it to Halfords they fully charged it with theirs and the green light comes on.
Basically I need a new bank charger to continue to use this battery or try another battery.
The Other van has a battery with the bull symbol and I have not bench charged it for a year and a half.

So two things one my smart charger obviously doesn't want to charge it correctly the Halfords one so which one should I buy ? And two why is it the other battery even in the other van works totally fine not needing a bench

[Simon Trapani]

You probably wouldn’t have known you were damaging your battery by not keeping it fully charged. You were only ever keeping it’s head above water with the scr. It’s capacity is probably reduced permanently now.

You could try a new charger such as a ctek mxs10 like we use but you need to bench charge more often.
We also use a sterling battery to battery charger instead of a scr.

Hopefully Spruce or Ian Sheppard will be along to explain better soon.

[Spruce]

https://www.halfords.com/camping/electrical-and-power/halfords-leisure-battery-hlb681-957217.html

This is the battery above.
In the the past I have purchased newMax for example and I didn't need to bench charge it for more than 6 years. Why is it so I need to keep Bench charging this one ??

This particular one when I try and then charge it my smart charger doesn't charge it enough.
There is a green light indicator on the battery when I take it to Halfords they fully charged it with theirs and the green light comes on.
Basically I need a new bank charger to continue to use this battery or try another battery.
The Other van has a battery with the bull symbol and I have not bench charged it for a year and a half.

So two things one my smart charger obviously doesn't want to charge it correctly the Halfords one so which one should I buy ? And two why is it the other battery even in the other van works totally fine not needing a bench

The first thing is that this battery you have linked to is a class C battery.  It has a poor NCC rating.

https://www.thencc.org.uk/downloads/Leisure_Battery_Register_Website_November_2019.pdf
see Yuasa Halfords battery specs. 85 discharge cycles to 50%! That's poor. I see they also give a "start-up" rating of 750 amps. What's that?  Its not a starter battery.

The other battery sounds like a Banner Battery. If its a starter battery then it will probably accept a faster recharge that the Halfords leisure battery will.
Leisure batteries don't charge quickly so running it off a SCR isn't usually the answer as we don't do enough mileage and vehicle alternator are poor battery chargers.

The only way you can test to see if any battery is fully charged is to let it settle for 4 hours before taking a volt reading across the terminals.  12.8v or higher is a fully charged battery.

If your leisure battery is flat then its going to take a long time to recharge a 115amp battery. A 10 amp charger will take much more than 11.5 hours as the charge rate the battery will accept diminishes as the battery gets a fuller charge. Expect 24 hours at least.

The battery chargers we used in the workshop were large heavy duty brutes that would just force a charge into a flat battery without any thought of battery care.  A starter battery will tolerate this occasionally. Your leisure battery won't.
 
Another thing is that some battery chargers will show a green fully charged light when connected up but without 230v power. The led will only change to orange or red when the battery charger is switch on.

The magic eye in the battery is an indicator of battery charge, water level and discharge. Its basically a crude battery hydrometer which tests electrolyte level density and the battery acid specific gravity which translates into battery charge and state. Its also only an indicator of 1 cell of 6 so doesn't tell you much anyway.

The only way to accurately test the current state of charge is to test the battery voltage across the terminals after it has rested for 4 hours.

[Richard Groves]

Up until this weekend I'd used a Ring smart charger and 115 ah battery from Halfords.
Both have been rubbish.
My fault with the battery , early days I used to just auto charge it rather than mess about with the settings that had to be manually set every time I used it. Big and bulky. The re con feature didnt make a difference to it and never completed the cycle. Never charged it to more than 90 %.

It took 2 weeks to arrive due to pandemic supply issues but just received a Ctek mxs5.0 from Demon Tweeks and a new 105 ah battery from Tanya batteries ( thank you P@F and Lee GLS for recommendations ).

Chargers now permanently wired in and much simpler to use. Its even re conditioned the old Halfords battery better than the ring smart charger over the weekend so keeping it as a back up.

I'd recommend the Ctek, just make sure you get the one suitable for your battery. I went with the cheaper mxs5.0 because its rated up to 110 ah ( I'm using a 105 ) and I park on my drive overnight and plug an extension lead in every day from now on.

[Crystal-clear]

Thank you spruce for the very detailed message and thanks a lot so looks like I have a pile of crap I'm going to buy another banner battery. I'm not joking in the last 18 months I've not even had to bench once

I tried taking the Halfords battery back but they told me there's nothing wrong with it is there anything I can tell them to try to initiate a refund
No one likes getting ripped off and sold crap

[Crystal-clear]

Bruce can you please recommend me a battery I suppose the banner bull one I've got must be good yeah? Will the trickle charge charge it just like the one in the other van this one uses two pumps occasionally

[dazmond]

1.always charge your battery(s) up overnight every night.theyll last longer.....
2.buy a numax commercial charger or a c-tec charger
3.split charge relays only top your batteries up a little (esp if your hardly driving around during your workday)
4.if your using a diesel heater and/or an electric reel its essential to charge your batteries up every day....

i use 2 x numax 105ah batteries(1000CCA)in tandem which are both a starter/leisure battery combined which is ideal for my set up(9kw diesel heater,pump and electric reel).i also have a b to b charger wired up to my batteries too so their getting some charge into them when driving to and from jobs...

[Crystal-clear]

I just spoke to John at alpha batteries he told me the Halfords battery is basically more for caravans when you're Hooked Up somewhere he said it only has 70 Cycles and the banner battery has 200 Cycles apples and oranges.

Daz. I have never removed any of the other battery I had new Max before it literally stayed in the van for 6 years after about 2 years I started to Bench it every six months.
I'm going to buy another banner battery I think it's going to be fine and I'm I have to learn my lesson and have a spare Halfords battery

[dazmond]

I just spoke to John at alpha batteries he told me the Halfords battery is basically more for caravans when you're Hooked Up somewhere he said it only has 70 Cycles and the banner battery has 200 Cycles apples and oranges.

Daz. I have never removed any of the other battery I had new Max before it literally stayed in the van for 6 years after about 2 years I started to Bench it every six months.
I'm going to buy another banner battery I think it's going to be fine and I'm I have to learn my lesson and have a spare Halfords battery

if your numax battery was that good why didnt you just buy another one exactly the same?

[P @ F]

Exactly what I was about to say Daz !
I won’t buy anything else now  .

[Crystal-clear]

Exactly what I was about to say Daz !
I won’t buy anything else now  .

 I was silly Convenience
..

[david mark]

Banner battery are very reliable

[Spruce]

Banner battery are very reliable

Its been recommended before. There is a window cleaner locally who swears by them and told me who his local supplier is. I went in and asked but was told they no longer stock them because they have had too many comebacks.
I don't know.

We have always had good service from Numax batteries. So the ones with a CCA rating is what I recommend. I have an 85 amp one in the garage which is 9 years old and still works fine.
Someone else might have a different experience.

For me a standard leisure battery is fine if you are running a couple of pumps. But the moment you start to run electric hose reels and diesel heaters you need a leisure/starter battery combo that will deliver current when you demand it. This is where the CCA rating comes in.

[Spruce]

Up until this weekend I'd used a Ring smart charger and 115 ah battery from Halfords.
Both have been rubbish.
My fault with the battery , early days I used to just auto charge it rather than mess about with the settings that had to be manually set every time I used it. Big and bulky. The re con feature didnt make a difference to it and never completed the cycle. Never charged it to more than 90 %.

It took 2 weeks to arrive due to pandemic supply issues but just received a Ctek mxs5.0 from Demon Tweeks and a new 105 ah battery from Tanya batteries ( thank you P@F and Lee GLS for recommendations ).

Chargers now permanently wired in and much simpler to use. Its even re conditioned the old Halfords battery better than the ring smart charger over the weekend so keeping it as a back up.

I'd recommend the Ctek, just make sure you get the one suitable for your battery. I went with the cheaper mxs5.0 because its rated up to 110 ah ( I'm using a 105 ) and I park on my drive overnight and plug an extension lead in every day from now on.

Just a point. Your charger is rated at an output of 5 amps. If your leisure battery is flat that will also take a long time to recharge it. Again the same applies. Theoretically it will take 21 hours to fully recharge the battery. But as the battery gets fuller the charge rate reduces. So if the charger is putting in 2.5 amps this will increase a charging hour at this rate by another hour.

If you put the charger on every night then recharging will be much quicker.
I usually leave my charger on all night.

[Richard Groves]

Thanks Spruce. I considered this and nearly bought the mxs10. 0  but thought it sufficient and to get me in to the good habit of just sticking it on charge every night.