Battery Conditioners & Maintainers
A long standing issue with campervans and motorhomes is the state of their batteries. In an ideal world a car or van battery lasts best when the vehicle is started every day or two. Let’s be realistic, even in summer that probably doesn’t happen with your camper does it. Never mind in winter where it can potentially go months between being used.
This lack of use over time with prolonged spells of inactivity can cause internal components and chemicals to degrade. This will the battery’s overall lifespan and performance.
If you can’t drive your campervan or motorhome regularly, a battery conditioner can provide a low, steady charge to keep the battery topped up and prevent degradation.
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What does a battery conditioner do?
Also known as smart chargers or battery maintainers depending on loaction and product. The cost of one is much lower than that of having to replace a prematurely dead battery from lack of use. They perform a number of important functions;
- Prevents or reverses ‘sulfation’ in lead-acid batteries. This is where batteries build up lead sulfate crystals on their plates due to periods of inactivity. Over time, this reduces the capacity of the battery, weakens it’s starting power, and also shortens lifespan of the unit.
- Optimises the charge levels of the battery. Keeping the battery at an ideal voltage when not in use but plugged into the conditioner or maintainer.
- Some models depending on their specification can run recovery cycles to bring “dead” batteries back to usable condition. They do this by equalising cell voltages for better performance.
Why use one?
As above, it is important to try and maintain battery health in your van. A tired and degraded battery may not start when the time comes to leave on your adventure. Or worse still, it might start ok when you go to leave on your adventure, but you run the risk of being stranded and needing recovery if it doesn’t perform as it should during the trip. Also with newer vehicles, low battery voltage can lead to all sorts of strange and worrying warning lights on the dashboard. As well as causing non essential electrical systems to not function as the vehicle isolates them to protect itself.
Smart chargers and battery maintainers start from around £30 these days. And you can buy them online or from most hardware or automotive stores. That as you can see is far cheaper than having to replace the battery unnecessarily if you have damaged it from lack of use.
A basic battery replacement in a campervan with no stop start technology will typically be from £90 upwards. If your motorhome or campervan has a newer engine complete with stop start technology, you have a much more complex battery. Don’t be surprised in this case if a new battery is in excess of £200
Could I change the battery myself?
Yes, you probably could. As a general rule batteries tend to be more accessible in campers than they are in cars. However that is not always the case as they can also be tucked in under the wig or similar and hard to get to. We are lucky with Bertha that her battery is in a well in the cab floor. This makes it very easy to access for us.
However… Be warned, batteries are very big and heavy, the last one I changed weighed 28kg so was not an easy lift even with it’s handles.