Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Innocence & Experience on June 09, 2025, 07:01:17 pm
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
In the past, I found we had the best results using Numax leisure batteries.
With an electric reel and diesel heater you need to be looking at a battery with a CCA rating. It's a combination battery which will take the extra current demand from your equipment. These batteries are designed for the caravan leisure industry where owners use caravan motor movers.
But as always, manufacturers are now giving very limited warranties on these batteries used by window cleaners as we are classed as battery abusers.
After many years of using leisure batteries, I now have a Fogstar lithium battery in my van. I also have a Fogstar 20amp mains lithium battery charger as well as a battery to battery 12v charger set the the necessary lithium charging profile.
So far so good.
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I use 2 of these in tandem
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1749540050_Screenshot_20250610_081958_Photos.jpg)
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Thank you both, very useful info :)
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Ive had one of these 3 years now which is by far the longest ive had one last. Used to buy cheap ones off eaby that lasted a year
https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/leisure-batteries/yuasa-active-leisure-battery-l36-agm-466926.html?cm_mmc=Google+PLA-_-Motoring%3EMotoring+Products%3EBatteries%3ELeisure+Batteries-_-Motoring%3EMotoring+Products%3EBatteries%3ELeisure+Batteries-_-466926&&_$ja=tsid:%7Ccid:17145159354%7Cagid:%7Ctid:%7Ccrid:%7Cnw:x%7Crnd:14129139087199376784%7Cdvc:c%7Cadp:%7Cmt:%7Cloc:9045979&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17149814071&gbraid=0AAAAADrJx6yhKgyTePR5eUpPrAIPrkYwp&gclid=CjwKCAjwr5_CBhBlEiwAzfwYuCZdabKv09aZHmwe4LkW73fBEphbxfVrgKsa3E2IbnVLbhlkXURd3hoCitUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
prices have gone up a bit mind :o i paid £170 now nearly £250
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I use a battery to battery charger on my leisure battery drawing 20amps instead of 30 amps so it doesn't run my van battery down but keeps the leisure battery fully charged all the time so it never runs the battery down below 14 volts, worth it's weight in gold on big commercial jobs.
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https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/product/advanced-agm-lpx110-leisure-battery-120ah-12v-copy/
Think I have 2 of these deep cell. I try and charge every time I use them.
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What battery charger do you use to charge your AGM batteries?
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What battery charger do you use to charge your AGM batteries?
https://www.gobatteries.co.uk/product/battery-chargers/leisure-battery-chargers/numax-12v-10a-leisure-battery-charger/
Think its one of these but 20amp one. Been charging the batteries for years now as its screwed into vans side panel. Permanently fixed onto a battery and all I do is plug in my extension at night.
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Halfords Advanced 6A Smart Charger
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What battery charger do you use to charge your AGM batteries?
https://www.gobatteries.co.uk/product/battery-chargers/leisure-battery-chargers/numax-12v-10a-leisure-battery-charger/
Think its one of these but 20amp one. Been charging the batteries for years now as its screwed into vans side panel. Permanently fixed onto a battery and all I do is plug in my extension at night.
The reason why I ask is that AGM batteries require a charger especially rated to charge AGM batteries.
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
In the past, I found we had the best results using Numax leisure batteries.
With an electric reel and diesel heater you need to be looking at a battery with a CCA rating. It's a combination battery which will take the extra current demand from your equipment. These batteries are designed for the caravan leisure industry where owners use caravan motor movers.
But as always, manufacturers are now giving very limited warranties on these batteries used by window cleaners as we are classed as battery abusers.
After many years of using leisure batteries, I now have a Fogstar lithium battery in my van. I also have a Fogstar 20amp mains lithium battery charger as well as a battery to battery 12v charger set the the necessary lithium charging profile.
So far so good.
Spruce ,
What amp hours is your batterry and which chargers domyou reccomend? Thinking of going lithium, as my two leisure batterries are on the way out
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Robert,
My Li-ion experience, from another thread:
"I've mentioned that we're not using an onboard charger. Instead we have a Sterling 100Ah Li-ion (LFP) battery (AL12100) at £279 ( I think). Chosen because they have a vid on YouTube where they drained it completely and fully recharged it hundreds of times without it losing capacity. Also LFP is by far the safest chemistry along with being able to run 100% to 0% without damage. So we use it all week and bench charge at the weekend.
The lowest state of charge after two of us working with cold water at high flow with one PF electric reel for four days was 53% and it sat the whole week at 13.4v. The battery weighs less than my wife's handbag so it's not a real hassle given that it's saved us a fairly complex wiring problem. I'd use this solution in future regardless of the type of van. Note that you need a charger with a Li-ion charging profile, but these start at about £15-£20."
Last bit's wrong, the one we bought was £33, ECO-WORTHY 5A 12V LiFePO4 Battery charger
Battery at https://sterling-power.com/products/12v-100ah-lifepo4-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-w-bluetooth?srsltid=AfmBOorvFG99sHkonoaXVmPrsSDWXqGf5aEYkcpvzUk4wFPSUb51MomO
Depending on connections, you'll need battery posts at £10
Video I mention is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR34QF3xcCc
Vin
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
In the past, I found we had the best results using Numax leisure batteries.
With an electric reel and diesel heater you need to be looking at a battery with a CCA rating. It's a combination battery which will take the extra current demand from your equipment. These batteries are designed for the caravan leisure industry where owners use caravan motor movers.
But as always, manufacturers are now giving very limited warranties on these batteries used by window cleaners as we are classed as battery abusers.
After many years of using leisure batteries, I now have a Fogstar lithium battery in my van. I also have a Fogstar 20amp mains lithium battery charger as well as a battery to battery 12v charger set the the necessary lithium charging profile.
So far so good.
Spruce ,
What amp hours is your batterry and which chargers domyou reccomend? Thinking of going lithium, as my two leisure batterries are on the way out
I went with a Fogstar 105amp Lithium battery from Fogstar. It has an internal heating blanket controlled by the battery's BMS. There is also an app which connects to my Android phone so I can see exactly what is happening, ie. state of charge etc.
I also ordered the Fogstar Lithium 20 amp battery charger.
What I like is I can let the battery drop to 30% state of charge and still see the battery at 13.1v.
Fogstar offered a 5 year warranty, and it was much cheaper that Sterling were selling their equivalent at, at the time. In fact, it was about 1/2 the price.
I've had the battery for a year and a half and have done 25 cycles with it.
I already had a Sterling BB1260 battery 2 battery charger on board so it was just a matter of setting the charging profile from lead acid to lithium. I also reset the charging output from 60 amps to 30 amps. During summer I mostly switch the b2b charger off as it more than meets our daily current demand. (Fogstar recommend that a fully charged battery should be discharged to 30% before recharging as this is good for the battery.
In winter I do have to supplement the charge with the 230v charger. The battery will not accept a charge if the battery is below 5 degrees C. The BMS directs 10 amps of current to the heating blanket. I often see 10 amps going into the battery. The majority of charge the battery receives in winter on our short trips it to warm the battery.
Our power demand from the battery is less in summer as we are just running 2 x Shurflo pumps. I never need to use the 230v battery charger in summer. In winter, we use the diesel heater much more, so our power demand increases. It's during winter that I need to supplementary charge the battery.
With my system, the battery is being charged at 27 amps via my b2b charger right up to virtually when the battery is 100% charged.
My 230v 20 amp charger recharges at 16 amps.
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Robert,
My Li-ion experience, from another thread:
"I've mentioned that we're not using an onboard charger. Instead we have a Sterling 100Ah Li-ion (LFP) battery (AL12100) at £279 ( I think). Chosen because they have a vid on YouTube where they drained it completely and fully recharged it hundreds of times without it losing capacity. Also LFP is by far the safest chemistry along with being able to run 100% to 0% without damage. So we use it all week and bench charge at the weekend.
The lowest state of charge after two of us working with cold water at high flow with one PF electric reel for four days was 53% and it sat the whole week at 13.4v. The battery weighs less than my wife's handbag so it's not a real hassle given that it's saved us a fairly complex wiring problem. I'd use this solution in future regardless of the type of van. Note that you need a charger with a Li-ion charging profile, but these start at about £15-£20."
Last bit's wrong, the one we bought was £33, ECO-WORTHY 5A 12V LiFePO4 Battery charger
Battery at https://sterling-power.com/products/12v-100ah-lifepo4-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-w-bluetooth?srsltid=AfmBOorvFG99sHkonoaXVmPrsSDWXqGf5aEYkcpvzUk4wFPSUb51MomO
Depending on connections, you'll need battery posts at £10
Video I mention is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR34QF3xcCc
Vin
Cheers Vin , very helpful , i think between you and spruce im convinced to go for it , i could get away with one batterry instead of two lead acid batteries.
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
In the past, I found we had the best results using Numax leisure batteries.
With an electric reel and diesel heater you need to be looking at a battery with a CCA rating. It's a combination battery which will take the extra current demand from your equipment. These batteries are designed for the caravan leisure industry where owners use caravan motor movers.
But as always, manufacturers are now giving very limited warranties on these batteries used by window cleaners as we are classed as battery abusers.
After many years of using leisure batteries, I now have a Fogstar lithium battery in my van. I also have a Fogstar 20amp mains lithium battery charger as well as a battery to battery 12v charger set the the necessary lithium charging profile.
So far so good.
Spruce ,
What amp hours is your batterry and which chargers domyou reccomend? Thinking of going lithium, as my two leisure batterries are on the way out
I went with a Fogstar 105amp Lithium battery from Fogstar. It has an internal heating blanket controlled by the battery's BMS. There is also an app which connects to my Android phone so I can see exactly what is happening, ie. state of charge etc.
I also ordered the Fogstar Lithium 20 amp battery charger.
What I like is I can let the battery drop to 30% state of charge and still see the battery at 13.1v.
Fogstar offered a 5 year warranty, and it was much cheaper that Sterling were selling their equivalent at, at the time. In fact, it was about 1/2 the price.
I've had the battery for a year and a half and have done 25 cycles with it.
I already had a Sterling BB1260 battery 2 battery charger on board so it was just a matter of setting the charging profile from lead acid to lithium. I also reset the charging output from 60 amps to 30 amps. During summer I mostly switch the b2b charger off as it more than meets our daily current demand. (Fogstar recommend that a fully charged battery should be discharged to 30% before recharging as this is good for the battery.
In winter I do have to supplement the charge with the 230v charger. The battery will not accept a charge if the battery is below 5 degrees C. The BMS directs 10 amps of current to the heating blanket. I often see 10 amps going into the battery. The majority of charge the battery receives in winter on our short trips it to warm the battery.
Our power demand from the battery is less in summer as we are just running 2 x Shurflo pumps. I never need to use the 230v battery charger in summer. In winter, we use the diesel heater much more, so our power demand increases. It's during winter that I need to supplementary charge the battery.
With my system, the battery is being charged at 27 amps via my b2b charger right up to virtually when the battery is 100% charged.
My 230v 20 amp charger recharges at 16 amps.
Thank you Spruce for the detailed info , i use hot all the time and my pump runs all day as it recirculates as soon as i switch off the univalve , so would probably need a higher capapcity but it sounds like a 30amp B-B charger would keep it quite well topped up through the day .
Thanks for your help .
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I need a new leisure battery to run my system (Hot Water) and electric reel, can anyone advise on size/brand required.
Cheers
In the past, I found we had the best results using Numax leisure batteries.
With an electric reel and diesel heater you need to be looking at a battery with a CCA rating. It's a combination battery which will take the extra current demand from your equipment. These batteries are designed for the caravan leisure industry where owners use caravan motor movers.
But as always, manufacturers are now giving very limited warranties on these batteries used by window cleaners as we are classed as battery abusers.
After many years of using leisure batteries, I now have a Fogstar lithium battery in my van. I also have a Fogstar 20amp mains lithium battery charger as well as a battery to battery 12v charger set the the necessary lithium charging profile.
So far so good.
Spruce ,
What amp hours is your batterry and which chargers domyou reccomend? Thinking of going lithium, as my two leisure batterries are on the way out
I went with a Fogstar 105amp Lithium battery from Fogstar. It has an internal heating blanket controlled by the battery's BMS. There is also an app which connects to my Android phone so I can see exactly what is happening, ie. state of charge etc.
I also ordered the Fogstar Lithium 20 amp battery charger.
What I like is I can let the battery drop to 30% state of charge and still see the battery at 13.1v.
Fogstar offered a 5 year warranty, and it was much cheaper that Sterling were selling their equivalent at, at the time. In fact, it was about 1/2 the price.
I've had the battery for a year and a half and have done 25 cycles with it.
I already had a Sterling BB1260 battery 2 battery charger on board so it was just a matter of setting the charging profile from lead acid to lithium. I also reset the charging output from 60 amps to 30 amps. During summer I mostly switch the b2b charger off as it more than meets our daily current demand. (Fogstar recommend that a fully charged battery should be discharged to 30% before recharging as this is good for the battery.
In winter I do have to supplement the charge with the 230v charger. The battery will not accept a charge if the battery is below 5 degrees C. The BMS directs 10 amps of current to the heating blanket. I often see 10 amps going into the battery. The majority of charge the battery receives in winter on our short trips it to warm the battery.
Our power demand from the battery is less in summer as we are just running 2 x Shurflo pumps. I never need to use the 230v battery charger in summer. In winter, we use the diesel heater much more, so our power demand increases. It's during winter that I need to supplementary charge the battery.
With my system, the battery is being charged at 27 amps via my b2b charger right up to virtually when the battery is 100% charged.
My 230v 20 amp charger recharges at 16 amps.
Thank you Spruce for the detailed info , i use hot all the time and my pump runs all day as it recirculates as soon as i switch off the univalve , so would probably need a higher capapcity but it sounds like a 30amp B-B charger would keep it quite well topped up through the day .
Thanks for your help .
What I enjoy about this lithium battery is that we can let its state of charge drop to 30% before fully recharging it. (Fogstar's recommendations.) So we have this tolerance spread we didn't have with a lead acid battery. We also need to occasionally fully charge the battery to 100%, so the BMS can balance the cells.
If my battery is at 50% charge, then I don't have to stress about depth of discharge I did with my old lead acid battery. The other day my battery was at 29% and I started the diesel heater. The voltage dropped under starting load to 12.8v from 13.1v. You just can't knock that. I put about 20 amps back in the battery for the next day with my 230v charger and switched my b2b charger back on. My lithium battery was fully charged on Friday night when I came back from collecting, which I still do sometimes.
Fogstar advised I recharge the battery at a maximum of 50 amps. My Sterling BB1260 is a 60 amp charger but can be dropped down to 30 amps where I have it now. It only has these two settings. There are some suppliers who tell us that we can recharge our 100 amp lithium batteries with a charge of 100 amps. I did see a YouTube channel saying that a high charge rate can cause internal stress damage, so I will stick to 30 amps.
If I ran my diesel heater in the summer, then I could well have to top up the charge occasionally with my 230v 20 amp charger, which is permanently fitted into my van.
If I had the 50 amp Victron b2b charger, I would probably only have to top up the charge occasionally during the cold of winter.
Judging from my experience these 18 months, a 100/105 amp lithium will do you just fine. What is important is having a BMS with bluetooth so you can see whats going on inside your battery at any given time and an internal heating blanket.
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Spruce,
Do you really think I will get away with 100ah ?
Bearing in mind my pump runs full bore for around 8 hours in a day , plus heater and electric reel ? My lead acid batteries were both 95ah each .
I have ordered a 40amp dc to dc charger . Ecoworthy do a Bluetooth 150ah for £350 but no heating blanket , back of my van is normally pretty warm , even in winter while I’m out working due to heat from heater / tank .
Sorry for all the questions !
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https://uk.eco-worthy.com/products/lifepo4-12v-150ah-lithium-battery-with-bluetooth-and-low-temperature-protection?variant=47290421117168
This is the battery I was thinking of getting but 100ah is £150 cheaper .
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Spruce,
Do you really think I will get away with 100ah ?
Bearing in mind my pump runs full bore for around 8 hours in a day , plus heater and electric reel ? My lead acid batteries were both 95ah each .
I have ordered a 40amp dc to dc charger . Ecoworthy do a Bluetooth 150ah for £350 but no heating blanket , back of my van is normally pretty warm , even in winter while I’m out working due to heat from heater / tank .
Sorry for all the questions !
I have a 150 amp lithium one without heating and have 9 kw boiler 2x pumps and 2 x electric reels used 8 hours a day on average when we get home the battery is still showing around 60% capacity . Ime no electrician but thing the 150 would give you peace of mind .
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Do your pumps run constantly recirculating to tank when you switch off the univalve ? Mine does as it’s Ionics .
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Do your pumps run constantly recirculating to tank when you switch off the univalve ? Mine does as it’s Ionics .
Let's say you work 8 hours a day. Your Webasto boiler will consume around 6 amps per hour once it's up to heat. Your pump will draw around 4.5 amps an hour.
That totals approx 85 amps. I would probably consider a bigger lithium battery, tbh.
These running amp values are based on my heater's draw and my Shurflo pumps with Varistream controllers.
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Do your pumps run constantly recirculating to tank when you switch off the univalve ? Mine does as it’s Ionics .
Yes both pumps are running all the time
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Thanks spruce ,
Maximum draw of my aquatec is either 7 or 9 amps , hard to find accurate info .
I will go for the 150ah I think 👍
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Do your pumps run constantly recirculating to tank when you switch off the univalve ? Mine does as it’s Ionics .
Yes both pumps are running all the time
I’m guessing you have a dc to dc charger on the van ?
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(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1751208253_IMG_4322.jpeg)
Do your pumps run constantly recirculating to tank when you switch off the univalve ? Mine does as it’s Ionics .
Yes both pumps are running all the time
I’m guessing you have a dc to dc charger on the van ?
We have chargers in the van but they are mains only the battery’s aren’t charged from the van alternator
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Thanks spruce ,
Maximum draw of my aquatec is either 7 or 9 amps , hard to find accurate info .
I will go for the 150ah I think 👍
Probably a good decision. The thing is that Splash and Dash also has a couple of electric reels and two operators on his van. So a bigger battery will be more than ample for you. He doesn't have a battery with a heat blanket, so in winter his battery charging has to be done when he gets home as is van and battery are still warm. I do the majority of my battery charging with my van's alternator. This means that I get very little battery charge in the winter morning commute as my battery is below 5 degrees and that initial charge is going into warming the battery up.
When I purchased my Sterling B2B charger, I also purchased a Victron Battery monitor. I used that live data to understand which equipment was drawing what current.
(I purchased the Sterling unit as I believed the sales hype that this would charge my leisure battery up to 5 times faster that an ordinary Durite 140 amp clone split charge relay. It didn't make any noticeable difference. A leisure battery has a high internal resistance. The fuller the state of charge, the higher the resistance. Because of this increasing resistance with the increasing state of charge, the battery accepts less and less charge. I found a 110 amp leisure battery would only accept a charge of 2 amps with a 95% state of charge.)
I also found that the same pump and controller used less current pumping water through 100 meters of minibore when compared to the same pump and controller pumping water through 100 meters of microbore.
The pumps also draw a little less current when the diesel heater is working and the water is hot, but this is more difficult to put a figure on.
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Another thing regarding my Fogstar Battery is that I have a BMS with Bluetooth communications.
So I know from the app on my Android phone exactly what the state of play is at any one moment.
Here is a screenshot of my battery taken through my bedroom window this morning.
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Engine running with Sterling B2B charger switched on this morning. I'll switch it back off today, as I will let my battery drop to about a 30% state of charge before switching it back on.
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Here is my battery situation at the end of day today.
We have done 17 miles from the start of the day at home till the end of the day at home. We moved the van once during our working day - I wouldn't say it was more than 200 meters.
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Looking at that spruce i may well get away with 100Ah ! Thank you for that .
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Thanks for all the advice lads , i have ordered the fogstar 105Ah battery, i think i will be ok as i will put some back into the battery with dc charger during the working day. Will let you know how i get on once i have fitted it all .
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I'm sure you've checked but does your charger have a Lithium battery setting? Important as it can damage the battery if not.
Vin
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(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1755528344_IMG_8474.jpeg)
I'm sure you've checked but does your charger have a Lithium battery setting? Important as it can damage the battery if not.
Vin
My mains charger doesnt but i have just fitted a 40 amp dc-dc charger , i will be ordering a mains charger too.
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Not sure if i said before but i recommend "Snappy Batteries" , you can get them on Ebay very cheap ;D