How do you test a leisure battery?
Monitoring the condition of a leisure battery is important – after all, you don’t want to get to your destination to discover it’s giving you no power!
Leisure batteries should be tested for both voltage and state of health regularly. On many vehicles, the voltage can be checked using an onboard battery control panel. If not, you can also use either a multimeter or a voltmeter. Always ensure that all electrical appliances and consumers are switched off before checking the battery voltage. To use either appliance, place the probes on the correct battery terminals. A fully charged leisure battery will show a reading of 12.7V or more. Anything less than 12.4V is deemed as deeply discharged and the use of a smart charger is advisable.
State of health testing should be carried out using a suitable conductance type tester. This type of test will require the input of an amp rating into the device which cannot be found on most leisure batteries as they are not designed for starting vehicles. To get the amp rating, simply multiply the battery’s Ah rating by 4.