The leisure battery in our van was pretty shot, it doesn’t really hold a charge anymore and is most likely due to me not knowing much about leisure batteries, how to maintain them and discharging it beyond repair.

It also didn’t help that the split charge system installed wasn’t really fit for purpose due to the crappy cables used to install it so i’m happy to blame that too.

You see, it’s not enough to rely on your split charge system to charge your battery and the PMS3 installed will top it up when connected to 240v but the battery has to be a decent level of voltage in the first place, it will never charge it sufficiently from below 12v.

Below is a chart that gives you an idea of what different voltages mean in relation to the condition of the battery, was an eye opener for me!

To keep a leisure battery in good health it’s advised to charge it using a decent mains charger on a monthly basis, by a decent mains charger I mean a multi stage charger.

I opted for a Powerline 7 stage 12v battery charger from Tayna Batteries, you can view the exact item here

I also bought a 12v 110a leaisure battery from them too, this one.

Delivery wasn’t the best but the courier company got their act together in the end and I had both my items fairly quickly.

I swapped out the leisure battery for my old one, put that on charge overnight using the new charger, when I woke in the morning the charger said the battery was fully charged, I wasn’t sure how long the old battery would last so I left the new one in and gave the old battery to my mate who’s leisure battery is definitely toast, our old battery still working to my knowledge!

The new battery is a chunky piece of kit and powered the Weaco fridge and lighting for a couple of days, better than the old one!

All in all a worthwhile hundred or so quid spent and I now have a charger to keep my leisure battery healthy, winner…

As a side note, for a good explantion about leisure batteries and , charging systems then stop by the travelvolts site and have a read of this very helpful article.