Clean It Up

UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: billozz on October 11, 2007, 05:24:08 pm

Title: tale of battery woe
Post by: billozz on October 11, 2007, 05:24:08 pm
ok here goes,
recently bought a 110 amp leisure battery to power our wfp pump also bought a split charge relay,what a complete waste of time that was, as far as i can see it has no affect on the battery and certainly would not charge up the leaisure battery. so we bought a battery charger this doesnt charge the battery fully overnight consequently we didnt even manage to get a days work out of it today, on querying the situation with the company we bought the cherger off we were told that it would take about 27 hrs to charge up fully,......... is this right, apparently you cannot charge them any faster because a leisure battery is slow to charge and slow to discharge.
it was suggested that we buy another battery and use one whilst charging the other, i can see that this would work but i thought guys on here had said they were able to use and charge one battery on a daily basis
any help greatfully recd thanks
bill
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: Roy Harding on October 11, 2007, 05:42:17 pm
I think Jeff will put you right on this, but I have a 110amp battery and split charge relay and it does the job fine. However I do as jeff said charge it with an speacial auto charger every month, but this still takes overnight.

Roy
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: Captain Scarlet on October 11, 2007, 05:43:02 pm
Heres my setup and it works perfectly

a Green power 85 amp leisure battery

take it off once a week to charge on a halford charger

solar panel trickle charger in van to keep it topped up, Luke
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: windowwashers on October 11, 2007, 05:48:39 pm
Heres my setup and it works perfectly

a Green power 85 amp leisure battery

take it off once a week to charge on a halford charger

solar panel trickle charger in van to keep it topped up, Luke
Solar panel charger? Luck, where do you get them from and is it easy to install also what does it cost.
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: Village Gleam on October 11, 2007, 06:02:01 pm
ww you want a split charge relay fitted to your van, a 110ah battery, and the £39 halfords charger.
Put the charger on every night if possible.
The battery will go for two days without any charge ( but it's unhealthy)

A spare battery is a good idea, but not essential. A spare pump and a reel are also handy, as is more than one 17'xtel. You will use all these things, and having them to hand will enusre you don't lose a days work (your lads will lose £300 per day when they don't work)

Nothing you buy will be wasted. I want to say something sarcastic about the solar charger, but I am mindfull that you said you were begining to find my digs depressing.
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: windowwashers on October 11, 2007, 06:04:30 pm
ww you want a split charge relay fitted to your van, a 110ah battery, and the £39 halfords charger.
Put the charger on every night if possible.
The battery will go for two days without any charge ( but it's unhealthy)

A spare battery is a good idea, but not essential. A spare pump and a reel are also handy, as is more than one 17'xtel. You will use all these things, and having them to hand will enusre you don't lose a days work (your lads will lose £300 per day when they don't work)

Nothing you buy will be wasted. I want to say something sarcastic about the solar charger, but I am mindfull that you said you were begining to find my digs depressing.
VG I love your digs m8 they make me laugh, was having a bad day ( have to have one a couple of times a vear as being positive all the time is draining  ;D

I am getting 2 of everything  ;D
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: jeff1 on October 11, 2007, 08:33:29 pm
ok here goes,
recently bought a 110 amp leisure battery to power our wfp pump also bought a split charge relay,what a complete waste of time that was, as far as i can see it has no affect on the battery and certainly would not charge up the leaisure battery. so we bought a battery charger this doesnt charge the battery fully overnight consequently we didnt even manage to get a days work out of it today, on querying the situation with the company we bought the cherger off we were told that it would take about 27 hrs to charge up fully,......... is this right, apparently you cannot charge them any faster because a leisure battery is slow to charge and slow to discharge.
it was suggested that we buy another battery and use one whilst charging the other, i can see that this would work but i thought guys on here had said they were able to use and charge one battery on a daily basis
any help greatfully recd thanks
bill
I don't care what anyone says, a split charge relay is a complete waste of time and money, if you travel a short distance to work, during work and back home,

The first thing you have to check is that your alternator is capable of suppyling both batteries at the same time, if its not the thats one very expensive mistake.

Secondly the relay will only charge your battery on the move, if you just leave your engine ticking over the alternator does not give out its full charge rate.
Let me give you a rough example?
You start your car/van the current to start the vehicle can be anything up to 500 cranking amps, now to return this charge alone to the battery you would have to travel at least 7 miles in your van, Ok so you don't travel 7 miles to work? then the split charge relay won't even be charging your leisure battery until its topped up your car/van battery first.

I charge my 8 year old leisure battery every night, and If I don't use it for a weekend it stays on charge and doesn't come off charge until its needed, use the halfords charger as Roy said and this charger will look after your battery for you.

As for solar panels, you would need one the size of a transit van with a high capacity out-put costing many hundreds of pounds just to charge a battery to a decent level, providing you didn't give it to much hard use.
Title: Re: tale of battery woe
Post by: macmac on October 12, 2007, 12:02:02 am
better idea- buy a ready made pump box from cleantech, plug it into your cig' lighter socket & away you go.
I changed the battery from the original renault one which was 6 years old at the start of this year (as you would expect after 6 years). i just got a cheap 35 quid one from partco & this, again, is still going strong & has never let me down.
The pump box is over 3&1/2 years old & again has never let me down once.

It does make me giggle though when i see people over-engineer & complicate such simple things. :D

tony