Leisure Batteries

As above title.
Been around cars and trucks since i was 11 so 50+ years but never looked into batteries.
Recently fitted a 12v diesel night heater to my shack best thing i have ever done and don't know why i didn't think of it before.
My question is.
Did have it powered off my 60amp power supply but bought a 120amp Leisure battery and running it from that for 3 or 4 days now.
I have a smart charger connected and was going to run that 24/7 but changed my mind and setup a smart plug thing to charge at night.
The battery was fully charged before fitting it and showing 12.6v when heater running and slowly dropping to 12.5v.
Now after a few days the voltage is getting better and up to 12.7 and staying there a lot longer.
So do these batteries get better after a few recharges as it looks that way but i don't know.
A bit long winded sorry.

Edit
Forgot to sat this charger shows the volts and stuff when not powered up as long as it is connected to a battery.
Even shows the room temp smart or what lol.

Hi Alan,

I know with my AGM battery backup it showed 12.5 Volt (75% charge) from new and jumped to 12.7 Volt (100% charge) after it's first charge. I then mucked about setting up my backup system so the battery sat stored for a while and when I got back to it again it was showing 12.5 Volt so appears to have discharged whilst stored.

On the first few cycles of trickle charging it would get to 12.7 Volts and the smart charger would standby kicking in again every time the voltage dropped which at first seemed quite frequently but after a few cycles seemed to be far less often. I can only presume this was due to some sort of chemical reaction occurring in the battery and never ventured into "knowing all there is to know".

Now the battery just sits around the shack useful for many projects and every so often I bung it on trickle charge but it never seems to drop below 12.5 Volts with such a sedentary lifestyle.

Unfortunately the other battery sat stored out in the cold workshop didn't fair better and has lost it's capacity which had me 'schooled'.


There's a ton of info out there Alan (especially on caravan sites and argumentative forums thereof) and you can dive right into it. I only found out enough to make sure it all 'works' and been happy about it.

Thanks for the reply Victor.
When i got it i left it on charge foe 24+ hours but the charger stopped when it was full screen showed full after a few hours.
It just seams to be getting better and better every day after the night time charge.
Not complaining just never had this type of battery or even watched the charging if that makes sense.
Others on here have mentioned they had this type just wondered if the same happened with there's.
Nice 24c in here getting a bit warm will have to turn it off again for a few hours.

No worries Alan just doing my best to help if I can.

Perhaps others more knowledgable or have some experience of leisure batteries can add some input.


Glad you're keeping yourself warm in your wonderful shack.

(24'C is a bit toasty! I'm comfortable at far less.)

Best thing about it Victor is it comes with a remote.
Press the button make a coffee walk out of the house and unlock a toasty warm shack.
What more could you want at 4.30/5am lol.

Hi Alan i have an optimate trickle charger that i use for my bike and it is on for most of the winter without a problem 

Lionel.
Thanks for the reply.
The battery getting better/stronger ??? is what i don't understand.
My smart charger does it's own thing and is fully charging the battery at night.
The heater once fired up draws very little power it's just the first 4 minutes when the glow plug is on that draws around 8 to 9 amps.
Never watched a battery meter before but as the days go by this battery is holding up better and better.
It all works and i am warm out here in the back garden and that is all that matters lol.
And it costs peanuts to run on kerosene happy day's.

not to worry summer is coming SLOWLY   and i also have a dehumidifier in the shed and that keeps everything nice and dry 

I am in the shack from silly o'clock in the morning 7 days a week.
Snug as a bug in a rug and dry as a bone as they say.

Temperature will affect the voltage reading on any battery.

For instance I have 50AH LIFEPO4 in the shack and during the very cold snap
before Christmas, -7C here, the fully charged battery dropped from 13.5volts to
12.9volts. At this voltage you would think it is at 20% charge but it is not.
Soon as the cold snap faded the battery was back at 13.5volts, fully charged.

Batteries are certainly affected by the weather it pays to keep them well charged during the winter months otherwise you can come unstuck 

It's the same today as yesterday so i think it needed a few charges to reach it's full potential sort of.
The battery is outside the shack in a wooden box lined with inch polystyrene or whatever it's called the stuff that makes a mess of white bits if you snap it.
This is of my own making as i was going to put the charger outside in the box with the heater in but changed my mind but if i had i would of never seen any of this voltage/amps stuff lol.  
Thanks for all the replies guy's appreciated.

Webasto car, truck heaters are used a lot over here in Finland, great to go to a nice warm car when its - 20, But allso Finland has been putting oil sump heating in car for many years, mains lead at the front of the car, one cable goes to the engine area, and one into the inside of the car, so you can plug in a car heating unit. Many car parks have mains power on posts at each bay, at work place, hospital and at your own home, the inside supply is great to power up the cb radio with your power supply,

Photo information

Hi Glenn
Yes i have the Webasto diesel heater in my bmw x5.
Unfortunately the remote doesn't work any more but on a cold morning it will fire up as soon as you get in the car and the heaters are blowing hot air in a minute.
I drove trucks many years ago and used night heaters many times just don't believe i never thought of fitting one in the shack well it's in a box on the outside but you know what i am saying.
A m8 video called me a couple of weeks ago when we had sone very cold well for us it was cold weather and he couldn't believe i was sat out here in a T-shirt lol.