Eleven year old battery!

[Hebridean]

I went for an overnight trip last Friday night and on start up the next morning turnover was scarily sluggish but fortunately we had ignition. The previous night the only drain from that battery was listening to the radio for about three hours, and a couple of weeks previously we had difficulty getting the roof down as I also did on Saturday morning. Anyway it's a 68ah Varta that's in there, and could I make sense of figuring out it's age? No chance, until I discovered that after 2014 the month and year is stamped on the negative terminal. 11/15, so it's been in there since new.
A new Varta agm 80ah is on it's way from Tayna at a very reasonable price including the edge of the world shipping fee.

 

[TripleBee]

11 years? Mine only lasted 14 years.
Regularly charging through EHU expanded the lifespan of mine for about 2 years.

 

[Hebridean]

11 years? Mine only lasted 14 years.
Regularly charging through EHU expanded the lifespan of mine for about 2 years.

EHU is for the leisure batteries only I'm sure. I was referring to the engine bay battery.

 

[TripleBee]

Yes, I was referring to the starter battery.
A battery at ease is about 12,5V. With the engine running it's 14,2V.
The picture above is the van on EHU.

 

[Sad]

EHU is for the leisure batteries only I'm sure. I was referring to the engine bay battery.

EHU will also charge the starter...

 

[WelshGas]

I went for an overnight trip last Friday night and on start up the next morning turnover was scarily sluggish but fortunately we had ignition. The previous night the only drain from that battery was listening to the radio for about three hours, and a couple of weeks previously we had difficulty getting the roof down as I also did on Saturday morning. Anyway it's a 68ah Varta that's in there, and could I make sense of figuring out it's age? No chance, until I discovered that after 2014 the month and year is stamped on the negative terminal. 11/15, so it's been in there since new.
A new Varta agm 80ah is on it's way from Tayna at a very reasonable price including the edge of the world shipping fee.

You listened to the radio for 3 hrs. I bet it was switching off after about 20 minutes and you overrode that to continue listening.?
It switches off after 20 minutes to protect the engine starter battery because modern Infotainment systems are power hungry computers not simple radios as they were in the past. If you had listened to the radio for 4 hrs it probably wouldn't have started the following morning.

 

[2into1]

As @WelshGas says, listening to the 'radio' is a killer. It's not like the old days when car radios were just that, and used a very nominal amount of power. These big units activate mission control, screens, sat nav, and wake up most of the van electronics.

 

[sdes]

You mention in the original post you “had trouble getting the roof down”, which sort of implied you were doing that on battery alone, I always do that with the engine running so most of the power is coming from the alternator, not the starter battery. I thought that was as instructed “in the manual”, but perhaps I imagined it.

 

[WelshGas]

You mention in the original post you “had trouble getting the roof down”, which sort of implied you were doing that on battery alone, I always do that with the engine running so most of the power is coming from the alternator, not the starter battery. I thought that was as instructed “in the manual”, but perhaps I imagined it.

Only the Leisure Batteries are used to power the roof hydraulic pump. The Ignition On is a safety requirement to stop accidental roof lowering etc. NO power comes from the engine battery.

 

[sdes]

Only the Leisure Batteries are used to power the roof hydraulic pump. The Ignition On is a safety requirement to stop accidental roof lowering etc. NO power comes from the engine battery.

I stand corrected, yes, roof lift motor is from the leisure batteries only, probably a good idea to run the engine whilst activating the roof motor or not then?

 

[WelshGas]

I stand corrected, yes, roof lift motor is from the leisure batteries only, probably a good idea to run the engine whilst activating the roof motor or not then?

Useful if off grid, no EHU, when you put the roof up to conserve Leisure battery power for your Off Grid stay. No need when leaving and lowering roof.

 

[hirsty]

hats off to the original battery then - I think that’s pretty good going. mine just gave up the ghost around 10-year anniversary, but likely could’ve lasted a little longer if the van got used more.