Leisure Batterys

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landy-lee

Well-Known Member
Posts
700
Location
derby
Hello guys n gals.

I'm looking to fit a leisure battery into my Defender and was wondering who is using what Ah and what brands of battery's. I'm looking to run a fridge and charge phones ect

Cheers landy-lee
 
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Its a bit of a can o worms is leisure batteries.
The problem is a starter battery is governed by all sorts of BS numbers and codes that have to be loosely stuck to.
Leisure batteries dont have the same numbers and even if they give all the data the chances are its not very accurate.
The caravan club did a test on a hand full but due to the risk of upsetting prospective advertisers they didnt publish the crappy ones. They did recommend three of the best but it seems its mostly price dependent.
Im in the market for one but it has to be a low height and the ones most people rave about are the fork lift truck ones but they are very tall.
 
Anything with a 'Leisure' tag is overpriced, and at the end of the day all batteries except for some specialist stuff like Nickel-Cadmium are Lead-Acid in some form or other.

Vented or wet lead-acid are generally the cheapest and can be the most robust.

Sealed VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid) types, such as AGM, GEL etc are more vulnerable to overdischarge.

A cheap wet lead-acid battery if properly looked after will serve very well indeed, while an expensive AGM battery can be destroyed very easily if abused.

I use AGM batteries where I can as I get them from customers at very good prices, but I also install decent charging facilities such as solar and mains chargers.

Peter
 
Anything with a 'Leisure' tag is overpriced, and at the end of the day all batteries except for some specialist stuff like Nickel-Cadmium are Lead-Acid in some form or other.

Vented or wet lead-acid are generally the cheapest and can be the most robust.

Sealed VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid) types, such as AGM, GEL etc are more vulnerable to overdischarge.

A cheap wet lead-acid battery if properly looked after will serve very well indeed, while an expensive AGM battery can be destroyed very easily if abused.

I use AGM batteries where I can as I get them from customers at very good prices, but I also install decent charging facilities such as solar and mains chargers.

Peter

Reckon that's about right. The lead acids we use on the boat actually say they are dual purpose, and can be used for starting as well. And I have found the key to battery life is having sufficient charging capacity to cover the actual drain the batteries will experience.
 
9.5KVA 230v genny, twin 12v alternators on the propulsion engine, 600w of solar. Keeps my five lead acid leisure and two starters in good nick.:)
That'll be the space under the passenger seat full then................:D

I'm going cheap and cheerful with mi leisure battery with few expectations. That way I can change it every couple of years without it driving me to drink.
 
I'm a fan of Odyssey PC1500. They can act as a starter battery and a deep cycle battery. Expensive but they've done me well over the last 5yrs or so
 
I've 24, 2V lead acid traction batteries, kept going by a 48V 3kw generator on the boat, topped up by solar panels when I'm not there. I know some one who has the same system, but with odyssey pc 2150's. The only problem with AGMs leisures is they prefer a 14.7V charging level rather than the standard 14.2V.
Starter Optima red top batteries have an off Charge level of about 12.8 volts but the leisure blue top have an off Charge level of 13.2 V

He has modified his boat generator and solar panel system to provide that the 14.7 V, but whether you could do that with a landrover system I don't know.
 
I just buy fairly cheap dual purpose ones for the caravan, but use a Ctek smart charger to maintain them. The Ctek also has a setting for AGM batteries. Probably the smartest charger in the world.
 
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