[wipe clean]

have had varistreams from williamson pumps from the first time they brought them on the market. we have 3 vans with a total of 7 varistreams. got a system from facelift and they put 2 streamline controllers in a new van with a split charged relayand 2 flojet pumps. we had problems no end ,then found out the split charge was wired up to the main battery with the wrong gauge wire .
anyway after many phone calls and lots of down time i decided to change and replace the streamline units and pumps with the ones i have been using for ever.
i bought 3 varistreams and 2 shurflo pumps got somebody to change pumps and units and it was then that we realised that the wiring was not from main battery was not suffice. i thought well ive got the varistreams tha i swear by it will be ok
well we had down time again the units would go to show L for low battery then one would go to U which meant there was not enough charge in the battery but the other unit was still working.
after many phone calls to jim at williamson pumps (who i must say was very patient and exceptionally helpful) i got an auto electrician to change the thickness of wire from battery to battery and spent over£100 on a split charge relay that i have in my other 2 vans.  we thought this was the end to our problems as with the wiring system we had now 2 hours of running arround would charge a 110 leisure battery . the problems have not gone away . last night i put the battery on charge ,lads went to work today after half our one unit stopped working again and other went to low battery.
jim did tell me that they have upgraded the units and they have more diagnostic checks on them and also the manufactrer has changed. i hve also installed one of the 3 new varisteams along siide 2 older models in my van. the old ones work no problem the new won eventually goes to L then sometimes U.
i have 2 110 batteries linked up in the main van and a hotbox.
has anybody had or is having problems with the new varistream

look forward to reading your feedback

martin

[dd]

Have you tested the batteries to make sure they are holding a charge effectively (i.e. they are not knackered)?

I have 2 110amp leisure batteries linked and connected to a split charge relay. Not sure if it is supposed to, but I find they drain the van battery and I now charge the van battery in-situ over the weekend which also (because all 3 batteries are connected) charges up the leisure batteries.

I use an intellgent 4 stage charger for the van battery as it is supposed to charge it more effectively.

[gto]

the van battery should be isolated, if its draining somethings wrong there.

[dd]

It only started doing it since I had a hot retro-fit from Pure Freedom and they added another battery, but I don't see how this has changed it as the split relay system was already in place.

[wipe clean]

i have been running varistreams off split charge relay . same system and split charge has been swapped when i have replaced van every 3 years this is my 3rd van. so the system i use is well tested and i have never had a problem. i water fed pole all day and have never had to put my batteries on any sort of charge. i do know that all the controllers even the ones from streamline will not work when the battery get down to round about 11.9 volts. well we do a hell of a lot of poling every day and with these new type of controllers they will not work all day where as the old type did.

[Spruce]

I had a similar problem you are describing with a 120amp leisure battery. The leisure battery would record the right voltage identifying it as fully charged but would only last a couple of hours at best. I also found that 1 pump would stop working before the other did.

Eventually changed the battery and the problem is solved. I also have a split charge relay to help supplement the battery usage. But as we don't do many miles the van alternator will never charge it fully.

I haven't an amp meter to test what amperage the van alternator is charging the leisure battery at and I am considering wiring one in. But I do have the charging circuit protected with a 15amp fuse, so as this has never blown in 4 years, I presume that the charging amperage is less than 15amps. I have a 10amp Intelligent Charger on the battery at the moment. I recon since the last battery charge, I have used the Shurflo pumps and digital varistreams for about 8 working hours. I also recon that the van's engine has run for about an hour and a half at the most.

I put the battery charger on at about 4pm this afternoon. Its 7.30pm and the charger is still charging the battery. Its 7.36pm and the battery charger has just gone off charge. If the pump/pumps have drawn 5 to 6 amps over that estimate of runing time, ie 48amps max, then the alternator has only supplemented the leisure battery by 10 to 15 amps. (There is nothing scientific about this - its a feeling I have had for a while that the van's split charge relay doesn't supplement the leisure battery usage by very much. Before I changed the leisure battery, the van's alternator with the engine idling, would provide enough of a charge to keep 2 Shurflo pumps running whilst we finished off cleaning a couple of blocks of flats we do).

Oh, the van I have is a Citroen Relay hdi so doesn't have a small alternator. The other van my son uses is a Peugeot Partner Hdi and a 40 mile trip doesn't fully charge his leisure battery either.

The Varistreams we have are the first digital units supplied by Williamson's. We have also had a couple of the earlier non digital ones and have never had any problems with any of them.

Would be interesting to hear of anyone else's experience on this topic.

Spruce

[david thomas]

I use caravan liesure battery with the special tricle charger 1 for each van charge overnight varistream on 3 sometimes on 4 don't have any problems.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

Not had the latest digital variatream, I only have the old varistream 3 non digital and a liquid logic. Over the years though I have had problems of the batteries not lasting long enough. Running 2 pumps seems to knock out a battery a lot  more than twice as fast as 1 pump alone. a diesel water heater will also drain the battery.

Another point is that for every degree below 20c you loose 2% of the battery capacity so at 0c the battery will have lost 40% of it's capacity, so a 100amp/h battery will only be 60amp/h.

I have solved the problem of having a 135 amp/h agm (absorbed glass matt) battery, these style are much more heavy duty and can be drained to a much lower capacity.  I also make sure the battery is kept warm.

It might be worth swapping at least one of the variatream units to the older ones to see how these perform side by side.

Simon.

[Spruce]

Not had the latest digital variatream, I only have the old varistream 3 non digital and a liquid logic. Over the years though I have had problems of the batteries not lasting long enough. Running 2 pumps seems to knock out a battery a lot  more than twice as fast as 1 pump alone. a diesel water heater will also drain the battery.

Another point is that for every degree below 20c you loose 2% of the battery capacity so at 0c the battery will have lost 40% of it's capacity, so a 100amp/h battery will only be 60amp/h.

I have solved the problem of having a 135 amp/h agm (absorbed glass matt) battery, these style are much more heavy duty and can be drained to a much lower capacity.  I also make sure the battery is kept warm.

It might be worth swapping at least one of the variatream units to the older ones to see how these perform side by side.

Simon.

Hi Simon,

The new digital Varistream sounds interesting, but I can't see any info on it on their website. It just the standard info that applies to the first digital model Varistream that I have 2 of.

I'm sure that there was some thread a while back about someone having a thermopure unit fitted to his existing tank which started a whole lot of conflict issues with his existing setup. There is a company that deals with the NHS Ambulances and they have a complicated split charge relay unit that will allow several auxillary batteries to be charged from the ambulance's alternator, but the alternator needs to be upgraded as part of the refit.

I'm not sure whether our standard alternators on our vehicles will cope with the demands of charging 2 leisure batteries as well as the van's own battery. Ford Transits with factory supply and fit optional second battery extra always had a larger capacity alternator fiited as part of that option.

You make an interesting point about the battery's performance in cold weather and one we all tend to over look. Our priority is the van not freezing, so give very little thought to the battery.
If wipe clean's problem has started with the changing to new equipment but works fine with the old, then the problem points to the new equipment.
But I still would change at least 1 battery (Numax, Lucas or other quality product - the Orange Juice leisures batteries when got from the local caravan dealer are rubbish). Make sure it's fully charged and go from there.

One issue I did experience in the early days was that the supplier of my tailer system used crocodile clips in place of battery terminals for some unknown reason. Once these were replaced with proper battery terminals that problem ceased to exist.

I have 2 separately fused cables wired from the van battery through to the leisure battery. 1 supplies the split charge relay and the other is an auxilary power supply. If I was in his position, I would wire one of these new controllers into the van battery and see how that performs.

Problem is I don't know what his Hotbox is all about. Someone did suggest that they not link the 2 leisure batteries together through the split charge relay, but to charge the hotbox battery overnight separately. I also remember him saying to throw the charger away that was supplied with the kit and get a decent one.

Spruce