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Batteries for camping

There are three types that can be considerd for camping use

Car and lorry batteries are not designed for the slow discharge required for camping and should not be used. The standerd leisure battery designed for a slow discharge of up to 50% of the batteries capacity and should not be disharged beyond, check the battery with a volt meter recommended maximum discharge voltage is 11.8 volts .

Deep cycle battery is normaly designed for wheelchair, golf cart ,forklift trucks, and solar battery storage These batteries can be discharge down to 20% of their capacity after a few cycles,maximum discharge voltage 10.5 volts.

With the top two types of batteries every dicharge adds a sulphate covering to the plates effectively reducing the storage capacity of the battery and after say 50 recharges your batteries storage capacity given in amp hour could be reduced to 30% IE 100amp hour battery down to 30 amp hour.

The latest development in leisure batteries is the Elecsol battery.This battery is a highbrid and can be used to start your vehicle and also as a leisure battery for slow discarge. the reason is that the plates are made from carbon fibre and don't sulphate like lead plates.the bateries are also much lighter in weight.

Which should we use. This really depends how many times a year you will use them and how well you look after the battery. If you go camping less than ten times a year then a basic lead acid leisure battery will be fine and last you a good five years, provided you don't dichare it beyond the 11.8 volts and expect that it will loose storage (this is a guess) around 1 amp hours per charge.

If you think you may forget to check the voltage then I recommend you pay 40% more and buy an Elesol they will stand much more abuse and give you double the amount of recharges.

All modern household battery chargers stop charging when the battery has reached 12.8 volts 12.6 is considerd fully charged ,if you continue to charge beyond 12.8 volts the battery will start to burn off the suphate buildup on the plates and give off a flamablel poisness gas.If this over charge is done in a well ventelated area this will rejuvinate your battery and it will regain some of its lost storage capacity You may get a battery shop or garage that may do it on their big expensive chargers for you??.

Rex.