Why your vehicle need battery capacity indicator?

2020-08-23

A consumer from United Kingdom sent the message to us:

"Hi Popsail team, I am wondering why my battery voltage drops so quickly even after 5 hours charge. It was only discharged for 10 minutes with a 12V roof vent."

The lead-acid battery is a sacrificial design, destined to eventually wear out even in ideal conditions, when abused; it will fail even sooner due to the following causes: 
 
-Expansion and corrosion of the positive grid structure due to oxidation of the grid and plate materials. This degradation mechanism is unavoidable and is the most common natural failure mode for lead-acid batteries maintained on a float charge. 
-Loss of active material from the positive plate. 
-Loss of capacity due to physical changes in the active material of the positive plate. 
- Overcharging. Excessively high float voltages cause a higher positive plate corrosion rate. Overcharging also causes excessive gassing.  Recharging after a discharge must be controlled to 10% of the discharge current to prevent damage to the cells. 
- Undercharging. A low float voltage reduces capacity because of self-discharge. Undercharging can also result in sulfation, which can damage the plates. 
- Improper storage. Storing wet cells beyond the manufacturer’s recommended duration promotes sulfation, and decreases cell capacity and life. 
- Misapplications. Batteries are commonly designed for a specific use. If the battery is not designed for a given application, it might not meet its life or performance expectations. 
 
Therefore as the energy storage center, the leisure battery works as the power source for the LED lights, fans, TV, etc. The camper life cannot be happy without a good battery. Battery maintenance is very important for your camper van!

A lot people install the battery and a battery voltage meter which only indicates the battery voltage. It is not enough to learn the battery real condition. Sometimes the long-time-used battery will fool you with the high DC voltage, but its real capacity is only 65% of its original. 

Also for the lithium battery, its output voltage is more stable than lead acid battery. The voltage drop from 40% discharge to 80% discharge is only 0.6V. You will hardly realize the capacity reducing without an accruate indicator.

The battery indicator becomes so useful to understand the battery capacity to avoid battery from being over discharged. Click this picture to see the product details. 

This indicator shows the charge/discharge voltage, amp, and its remaining capacity to help you know more about the battery condition.