Everything in the living space of my van (fridge, computer, lights pump etc.) is powered by 2 big leisure batteries that are charged from the 200W of solar panels on the roof.
But batteries don’t last forever and these batteries are now completely dead. If you live full time in a van, changing the batteries is something you’ll probably have to do at some point. But which ones do you get?
In this post I’ll show you how I chose a new set of leisure batteries and how the more expensive battery might work out to be the cheapest option in the long run.
My old batteries
I have 2x 12V (230Ah each) lead acid maintenance-free Alphaline batteries. I got them second hand (not very good condition) when I converted the van and they’ve hung on all this time.
They’re dead
How do I know they’re dead? As soon as a load is put on them (like the water pump turning on) the voltage drops right down to 10V. A voltage drop is normal when 12V batteries like this are in use but it shouldn’t go below 12V with such a small load. As with all batteries it’s a gradual death from the day you buy them. Mine slowly got worse over the months and I tried to keep them running for as long as possible. But now they are totally unusable.
New battery Options
I decided to stick with the same battery technology: flooded lead acid (FLA). That rules out AGM and gel batteries which are out of my price range anyway, plus my charger is primarily designed for lead acid and a slightly different charge voltage and curve is needed.
- Cheap one: Ultra Plus. Cost for 440Ah (2 batteries): £290 – Ebay link
- mid range one: Varta LDF. Cost for 460Ah (2 batteries): £360 – Ebay link
- more expensive one: Trojan T105. Cost for 450Ah (4 batteries): £397 – Ebay link
*The prices seem to vary from month to month
I narrowed it down to two batteries
I ruled the cheap one out straight away just from looking at its weight. It was considerably lighter in weight than the other two which probably means it has a lot less lead inside – thick lead plates are essential for constant cycle use like in a campervan. Cheap batteries are usually cheap for a reason. So I narrowed down my search to two batteries: the mid range Varta LDF230 and the more expensive Trojan 105.
Cost per cycle
Instead of just looking at the base cost of the battery it’s better to calculate the cost per cycle to give you an idea of how much useable life you’ll get for your money.
I divided the amount of expected cycles (taken from the manufactures websites) by the price to get a cost per price. See below
- Option 1: Varta LDF230. 200 cycles @ 50% discharge depth. Cost for 460Ah (x2 units at 230Ah each) = £360. Cost per cycle = 360/200 = £1.80
- Option 2: Trojan 105 225Ah. 1200 @ 50% discharge depth cost for 450Ah (x4 units at 225Ah each) = £397 Cost per cycle = 397/1200 = £0.33
The winner
The Trojan battery is a clear winner. I’d be mad not to spend an extra £40 for something that will last me 5 times longer.
So I bought 4 new Trojan T105 from the Megabatteryuk store on Ebay (link here). I paid £397 including postage. They arrived the next day on a pallet. Great service. Although the price has since gone up – if you voted to leave the EU, it’s your fault.
Wire batteries for 12V
The new batteries are 6V each with 225Ah capacity. No need to be put off by 6V batteries. Just wire them as I’ve shown below (in series pairs) and treat a pair as one normal 12V battery. You can have more pairs for more capacity, or just have one pair. The drawing below will give me 12V and 450Ah capacity.
Fitting the batteries
I needed a bit of extra wire and some crimp terminals to make the extra series connections. It took about an hour for the whole battery replacement.
Fitted under the sofabed in my van
Why I think the Trojan 105 is one of the best FLA batteries
This is not an endorsement of any kind. If you’ve found a better battery let us know in the comments.
- Trojan has excellent customer support. Most batteries are rebranded and it can be really difficult to find the company who made it. I’ve contacted Trojan a couple of times with questions and they reply quickly and are very helpful.
- Batteries come with detailed datasheets giving you all the information you need. Most batteries don’t.
- They are designed to be used in golf buggies and can handle large depths of discharge on a regular basis making them much more resilient than most other batteries.
- Designed to be serviced and maintained. There is nothing special about maintenance-free batteries. It just means that you cannot top them up with water if they ever dry out, and so they’re not going to last as long. I’d rather have batteries I can service and have them last longer, like these Trojans.
- Some people report having had their T105 batteries last for over a decade of regular use. That’s impressive for this kind of battery.
Conclusion
200 cycles at 50% DOD (Varta) is just not enough for a leisure battery. For the amount of materials, the size and the cost of these batteries, I’d expect much more than just 200 cycles.
Has anyone else found any other good batteries? or really bad batteries to avoid? share tips and comments below. And please share if you think others might find this useful 🙂
Just bought the ebook. Epic stuff. Can’t wait to get started on my own van.
Nice one! good luck and thanks for supporting me, buying my ebook 🙂
more expensive one: Trojan T105. Cost for 225Ah
Needs amending as it’s 450ah at 12v as you say later.
Good choice though. Those things will keep you going for at least 5 years.
I’m not sure you will be able to charge them sufficiently off a single 200w panel?
200w @ 13.5v is 14amps
Those batteries would appreciate at least 45amps to charge properly and have the longest life.
Do you charge them from a split charger too?
Ahh thanks. Typo corrected. Yeah I guess 10% would be ideal to get the charge back in them if they were being heavily discharged – like most people would probably do. But most of the time my charger is on float and the batteries are fully charged. I probably only dip into no more than 20% of the battery capacity. It’s how I managed to run those knackered batteries for so long.
Yeah I also have a split charger but It’s turned off most the time because it’s not needed
Good choice. I just bought 2 Trojans too.
You have a typo:
“more expensive one: Trojan T105. Cost for 225Ah: £397 – Ebay link”
should be 450Ah.
Happy van travels!
Oh thanks. Corrected 🙂
The analysis using the factor cost per cycle is helped you choose a clear winner and people generally forget this factor at first instance seeing a cheaper stuff. Thanks for drilling data in our minds.
Great article, although you can buy much cheaper leisure batteries than the ultra plus you’ve quoted.
we bought cheap batteries , deep cycle 400Ah (2x 200Ah each) for £125 the pair! Simply because expensive batteries do require maintaining & I don’t remember often enough!
& we don’t live in our van, so it’s often left on the multistage 240v charger, for a month or more, when the solar panels aren’t giving enough….
Darren..
Are they vented to the outside? The old ones looked like they were in a box but these look like they’re just in the open. I wanted to keep away from AGM’s because of the cost but my van has almost no extra room under the hood and I didn’t want unsealed batteries inside with me. How are they vented?
No they’re not. For how I’m using them (very low current relative to the capacity) there’s no need to vent them to outside. The amount of gas vented is hardly anything. It would be very difficult (and it would take a very long time) to collect enough for it to be dangerous, even at double or triple my charge current.
But I guess it all depends how you use the batteries. If I was fully cycling these batteries and charging with a full +40A charger then I’d probably vent them.
If the batteries were producing a dangerous amount of hydrogen you’d have to be topping them up with water quite often – the loss of water is a direct indictor of how much hydrogen (and oxygen) has been vented (H2O etc.). Big industrial battery banks will have automatic watering systems because of this. But I’ve never had to top up a battery
Hi Mike – great post. Do make sure you ventilate the battery compartment cos LA batteries give of hydrogen when charged heavily. I had two Trojan LAs at the bottom of my wardrobe in my motorhome and they would give off loads of gas when being charged after a deep discharge. My wardrobe has an auto light switch so I was advised to change to agm. I had them for 3 years they were bloody marvelous batteries but I didn’t want to blow up the family! We’ve been full time for nine years. Love your blog.
Toff
No they’re not ventilated to outside. My solar panels are 200W (max ~ 14A) and it’s just not enough to make these batteries vent any considerable amount. Where you charging with a big mains charger?
Hi Mike, an interesting post, thank you. I had a12V lead acid battery literally explode whist charging at a very low current (under 1A), probably due to a build up of gas. It made a huge and ugly mess. I would very strongly recommend you ventilate to outside, no matter how low your charge current is.
Cheers. I don’t think venting to outside would have stopped your batteries exploding though. Batteries usually explode because they’re old and the electrolyte has dried out and the plates inside buckle causing a short and spark that ignites small bits of trapped hydrogen inside. The other massive danger that would cause explosion is the battery shorting out due to a wiring fault or a faulty charger or some metal tool landing on the terminals. In these situations of an exploding battery, venting tubes to outside would be irrelevant – the battery will still explode and you’ll still get the same big mess. Venting tubes to outside just diverts the very small amounts of hydrogen, that is given off when charging, to outside of an enclosed space – stopping the space exploding rather than batteries.
That’s why it’s so important to maintain your batteries, cover the terminals and fuse them. Did you find out what was wrong with your battery? No well looked after batteries that are used properly will ever explode, vented or not.
p.s. Venting is definitely good practice and I’d never tell anyone not to do it but it wont make unsafe batteries safe 🙂
You need to gas these batteries at a higher voltage than 14v to clean the plates Mike. I used to have some monsters on my narrowboat. If you go on Trojans website. They state the charging voltages.
Yeah I try and give a high charge at least once every couple of months to stop sulphating and to equalise the cells. Seems to be the main thing that kills a battery – undercharging
Yeah it good to buzz them every now and then. I think they gas at anything above 14v . But you really need to vent them. That shit can kill you. Anyway I’m off to Spain in late Nov moving into Portugal later on. You about ?.
Thanks for that info, I had never thought of calculating the cost per cycle. I have made all the mistakes and wising up now. I think the batteries really need a regular good charge up with a smart charger to keep them in good condition, the CTEK D250S Dual plus the Smartpass seems like the best solution I have come across. It’s an all in one unit and looks amazing on paper. Does anybody have one or got any other suggestions?
Yeah those chargers are really good. If the alternator was my main way of charging I’d get the smartpass
Out of curiousity, how much Ah you think you use per day?
Hi, I haven’t been on the site in a while so it’s nice to see some updates! Tarifa looks cool, I didn’t know there was such a community there! I actually live in Córdoba, not a million miles away.
I’ve been putting together my own list of things I want for my own van in the future and read this post with interest. I’d love to have 450Ah like you as it’s closer to achieving my distant dream of induction hob cooking, but I’m not sure I want to cart around 4x28kg of batteries! How much of the capacity do you use? Do you stay in one place long enough to need it? Many questions!
-Ed
Nice. Spain is such a brilliant country for vans and not.
Let us know about the induction hob. I just have a feeling that gas would be a lot more feasible unless you had a lot of solar power.
About my capacity use. It differs. When I was writing the book I was on the computer all day every day and sometimes I’d have to run the engine so I could keep writing – but that was in winter and with my old batteries.
I’d say about 70Ah a day. I’ve never ‘hooked up’ at a campsite. The good thing is you can always add batteries if it’s not enough 🙂
Hi Monsoir Dog,
I’m doing a project myself and bought your book. I didn’t notice in the book that you vented the battery area to outside of the van. Is that because you didn’t find it necessary or just wasn’t in there?
I am trying to decide on whether I need to vent the space or not. They will be living under my bed so not overly keen on an explosion or fire 🙂
Thanks
Did you ever figure out why the other batteries failed? FLA don’t just routinely ‘die’ after a few years, not if they’re maintained – the units I have are nearly 10 years old and still holder 95% of their rated capacity.
Do you know what voltage your batteries are charging at?
Also – you SERIOUSLY need to vent them – even at small charging currents they can gas a surprising amount. Can have long term effects on everything from terminal corrosion to your personal health.
Hi Mike, bought your Ebook so thanks for all the tips. Im about to start my 2nd self build so my Mrs’ and me can travel Europe from next July onwards. Just wondering if you have any updates on how the new Trojans are performing and have you had to do any maintenance on them, top up water etc and how often? Also have you read Handy Bobs blog on solar power? He uses trojans also, he seems to have to very good advice to share. Thanks again for sharing your experiences
Hey Dude, how are the new Trojan batteries doing? I am looking at batteries at the moment and just wondered if you were still happy with yours or if you would change your mind in hindsight?
Happy Vanning,
Cheers,
Josh
Hey josh, they’re doing great still and I still feel they were a good choice
The lead acid batteries provide 200-300 cycles as a standard – when trojan claim the batteries have 1200 cycles, they mean 4 batteries x300 cycles. When they are connected together, they are still only going to give 300 cycles. It’s still worth buying the more expensive battery in my opinion, but seems like Trojan have worked out a great marketing trick
Can you tell me what info you’ve read to lead you to believe this? Because I don’t think there is any marketing trick here.
The datasheet for the T105 gives the spec of a single battery, regardless of specific configurations. Take a look at this chart: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/afaba5253ad18d00842794545d07bb4278b04811a1264a1f15aa324c2abbb5fb.png
*image taken from the product info here: https://www.trojanbattery.com/products/deep-cycle-flooded/signature-line-flooded-2/
It shows around 1200 cycles when used at a depth of discharge of 50%. This is for one single battery
I spent a lot of time reading battery university website, so the impression I got from there is that a lead acid battery has 100-200 cycles, and no new innovations have been made. There is a lot of room for speculation though, like the depth of discharge affects how many life cycles the battery will have, so maybe 100-200 cycles are for 100% DOD, and if you only discharge your battery by 1%, it can have 3000 cycles. I just don’t think that this can be measured exactly, so a lot of misleading information can be produced by companies trying to increase their sales.
Yeah absolutely, the concept/technology is pretty much the same with all FLA batteries and manufacturers can always be misleading about their claims about cycles. Often though that’s all we can go by. I try to factor in other things like the general trustworthiness of the brand and who uses their products already. I’d say Trojan are a reputable company and their products are used in some pretty demanding applications. At least more reputable than some rebranded generic thing – like my old batteries. If Trojan do make false claims, it’s the Trojan brand that suffers, you can just rebrand it and start again. Also, Trojan actually make the batteries! that’s important to me and they really do know their stuff if you speak to their support.
But like you say, and like the graph I posted above says, it’s no good just saying a battery lasts for 200 cycles because it changes dramatically depending on depth of discharge. Even for these Trojan batteries, with a depth of discharge of 80% you are looking at a figure nearer to what you said (around 250 cycles).
The world of batteries is so full of myth and conflicting information though, especially on the internet – I think it’s both the marketer and consumer to blame. Here’s my philosophy on it: just get some good quality batteries, charge and maintain them properly and enjoy life off-grid 🙂
Hi I’m in the process of looking into Leisure batteries and I’m going along the same lines as you my question for you is what solar charger controller have you used I am looking at a 30amp as my solar panel is 315w but unsure if I need a dual battery charger with this set up? Your post has been really useful thanks
Hi, I’ve just bought my van after reading both your books!
Just wondering what your thoughts are on Lithium-Iron Phostphate batteries?
I’m looking at https://www.renogy.com/renogy-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-12-volt-170ah/
Very expensive but seems worth it for lower weight, longer life span etc.?
Oh congrats on the van. I don’t have any experience with Lithium batteries, at least in an off-grid like this. But, I think it’s a great idea. They are simply better than the traditional options but you just don’t see many about – although I think maybe we are now as they become more popular. If you’re prepared to spend the money, I’d say go for it.