Leisure battery needed?

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

I use leisure batteries in my tourer caravan for decades, which have

13.8v regulated as the charging supply. The caravan is parked up in my drive and I would just leave it powered on mains, to keep the battery charged. I have twice had sealed batteries fail, in just a few years, maintained on that 13.8v supply. Basically, the batteries had dried out.

Since then and changing my regime to just giving them a boost every one or two months, my present battery has lasted 10 years and my battery tester suggests it has 90% of it's original capacity.

[Fredxx]

I have read that 13.0V is considered a maintenance charge. A gel VRLA should have a catalyst to return any gases back to water. I guess some are better than others.

I have a starter battery that is 9 years old and still holds a good charge. If treated well and never discharged to less than 50%

[Fredxx]

[Animal]

Batteries with catalyst are a big extra cost, and seldom worth it

[Martin Brown]

That is a terrible thing to do to a lead acid battery.

Using 13.8v is *instead* of the battery is fine but applying 13.8v continuously to the battery will have the effect that you describe.

You would probably get away with it if there was a silicon diode in series with the 13.8v regulated supply to drop 0.6v.

Never a good idea to overcharge or totally discharge batteries - it shortens their working lifetime.

[Fredxx]

This article gives a good overview: