Its been a month now since my last trip and this is the first year with a battery in the van (mover fitted) I have been wondering about maintenance of leisure batteries? is it frost proof? should I remove it for the winter?

Sure my old battery charger for cars will not be any good (about 25 years old) the c-tec for the puck is not big enough for a 110 ah battery.

What's the best option? remove it to the conservatory and get a bigger c-tec?

I'm hoping to cover the van soon and may not be able to plug it into the mains and my extension lead from the house is not waterproof anyway

Removed mine last year and used an Aldi charger once a month to keep it topped up.

I leave my battery in the van Nev, I don't want to risk damaging my back as its a big heavy lump in an awkward position. All I do is have the van connected to the mains and give the battery a blast with the inbuilt charger every couple of weeks for two days, all I am doing is replicating using the van all year round.

Edit.
Just seen you can't plug your van in ...doh!

We never had a mover, but in all the years we have been using caravans we gave NEVER charged our battery when off site, our Eriba and prior to that our Burstner sat at the end of our garden uncovered in all weathers and everything worked fine, we only had 3 new batteries in over 30 years of vanning, up until recently I had the original receipts to hand.

Personally, if I was not going to be connected to the mains during the winter I would remove the battery to the house and put it on charge with a c-tec charger throughout the winter. Batteries do not like extreme cold.

Stewart

Unless you have the smallest C-tek charger I think you'll find that It will be OK, the battery ratings they give are based on you wanting to charge a battery relatively quickly, most will maintain a 110ah battery. I have an MXS5, I take my battery out and stick the c-tek on it in my porch, After a few days the final green led lights to say it's on pulse charge.

Hi Hob,

Electronics is something that I know a fair amount about
Which model of Ctek do you have? ChrisCM (above) is right, although the smaller ones will struggle to charge a large battery quickly they should all be fine for maintaining a battery during storage.
If your caravan is outside and subject to the very cold winter nights then I would take the battery indoors and connect the Ctek permanently across it - if you don't fancy removing and carrying the heavy battery then the next best thing is to run some mains to the caravan and leave the Ctek connected and switched on in situ until you next use the caravan.
Leaving a good quality charger like the Ctek to look after the battery whilst in storage is definitely the very best way to protect your investment and ensure the longest possible life from the battery. The Ctek is specifically designed for this type of use, not all chargers are suitable for this purpose, an 'ordinary' charger will overcharge the battery (causing it to 'gas' and lose electrolyte) if left connected for any length of time once the battery has reached full charge.

Cheers,
Steve.

PS How about getting a new extension lead - one that's waterproof???

CTEK have a few chargers, not all are suitable for a leisure battery, I emailed CTEK a couple of years ago and they recommended the model below:

CTEK reply:

The charger that I recommend is our MXS 5.0
Best regards
Pierre

Edit:
CTEK may have updated their range of chargers since last time I asked, I would assume it's best to bear in mind that the leisure battery can come in three modes, wet acid, gel and AGM.

http://ctek.com/gb/en/page/whycharge/caravan-battery-charger

Nev,

Which Ctek do you have??? Let's see if it's suitable for maintaining your 110Ah battery.

Steve.

I have one called a MULTI XS 3600 which I bought second hand from ebay about 3 years ago.

This is the same cteck charger that I have, It charges and maintains my 90 amp battery very well. I remove my battery from the van and keep it in the garage for the winter. Last battery that I had was treated in this way and I had it for four years before selling It on in my motorhome.


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Quote: Angie and Steve wrote in post #7

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Hi Hob,

PS How about getting a new extension lead - one that's waterproof???

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Hi Hob,

According to the C-Tek site your charger is suitable for batteries from 1.2Ah to 120Ah so you don't need to buy another!

Could be real problems doing that if we have a bad winter with snow and frost, probably get the wheel barrow out tomorrow and wheel it to the conservatory, I heat that to + 5 deg c to protect the plants and there are spare power sockets in there too. I can keep an eye on it in there.