external power supply California Beach

[jwk102]

hi,
I have a question for california beach users.
Will the car battery be charged after connecting the car to the 230V power supply?
I am worried about the battery in a situation where the extra heat will have to be used throughout the night (Webasto).

Or, if you connect the car to an external power supply, you can only use internal 230V sockets?
If so, does any of you have experience as long as you can use Webasto without additional battery charging?

 

[hirsty]

Hi - you'll need to do a search for threads about 'leisure battery', as this one is a quite complicated subject. Recommend to read the manual too, there is a lot of good information in there. Also appreciate English may not be your first language either.

• But the answer is yes, if you are on electric hook-up to external mains supply then your leisure battery (under the front left seat) will be charged-up fully & the parking heater (Webasto?) can also run forever off the mains / battery
  
  
• When not on electric hook-up a leisure battery in good condition will easily power the parking heater through the night, or run a fridge for two or three days etc. The battery is only powering the start-up of the heater & the fan, with the actual heating being done by diesel, so the draw is quite low. I do not know how long it will run without hook-up, there are a lot of variables. From experience it is better to keep the pop-top down (or at least the bed) if it is cold outside as a lot of heat goes out of the fabric

• The 240V mains socket inside the Beach (behind the front left seat) only works whilst you are connected to mains electricity hook-up

• When you are driving / running the van engine then the leisure battery is only charged to 80%, not 100%
  
  
• Recommended to plug-in the van to mains electricity overnight once a month to keep the battery charged & in best condition, but not everyone does it. Both the leisure battery and car battery will eventually need replacing after several years, but less often if you look after them better
  

All of this is separate to the 'normal' car battery under the bonnet. Even if you flatten the leisure battery with the heater / fridge / internal lights etc then the van will still start the engine off the car battery.

 

[MattBW]

That is great advice above.

If you want to be sure a beach is charging then a simple cheap 12v socket volt meter will give you an idea if the charger is working properly. When it is charging you will see the voltage increase above 13v.

 

[jwk102]

Great job, thank you for the comprehensive answer.

 

[WelshGas]

hi,
I have a question for california beach users.
Will the car battery be charged after connecting the car to the 230V power supply?
I am worried about the battery in a situation where the extra heat will have to be used throughout the night (Webasto).

Or, if you connect the car to an external power supply, you can only use internal 230V sockets?
If so, does any of you have experience as long as you can use Webasto without additional battery charging?

If it is a factory fitted Eberspacher Parking Heater then it will run using the Leisure Battery.

If it is the Webasto Coolant heater - to warm the Engine Coolant - which has been modified to heat the vehicle with Ignition OFF then this uses the Engine Battery and will flatten the battery with extended use - about 1-2 hours.

The Mains operated Battery Charger will charge the Leisure Battery fully but will only trickle charge the Engine Battery, so would not be able to keep up with the Webasto Coolant Heaters requirements.

All this presupposes that your Mains Charger is working. As suggested above a 12v Plug in Voltmeter is invaluable in the Beach.

 

[Billywizz]

If it is a factory fitted Eberspacher Parking Heater then it will run using the Leisure Battery.

If it is the Webasto Coolant heater - to warm the Engine Coolant - which has been modified to heat the vehicle with Ignition OFF then this uses the Engine Battery and will flatten the battery with extended use - about 1-2 hours.

The Mains operated Battery Charger will charge the Leisure Battery fully but will only trickle charge the Engine Battery, so would not be able to keep up with the Webasto Coolant Heaters requirements.

All this presupposes that your Mains Charger is working. As suggested above a 12v Plug in Voltmeter is invaluable in the Beach.

Hello WelshGas, How easy is the Mod to use the coolant heater to heat the vehicle up? and what is the method they use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MattBW]

You can add a remote kit (I think it is T91) to the coolant heater, however it is restricted to 30 minutes of use as it uses the engine battery and the cab fans.

There are some good threads on the forum on the kit you need.

 

[WelshGas]

Hello WelshGas, How easy is the Mod to use the coolant heater to heat the vehicle up? and what is the method they use?

Thanks in advance.

As @MattBW has said above. Maybe useful to de-ice the vehicle, as that Coolant Heater is normally totally automatic, but it is a very inefficient way of heating the inside of the vehicle, and as has been said not good for the engine battery as in normal operation it only works with the engine running and hence the alternator charging.

https://www.t6forum.com/threads/webasto-auxiliary-heater-customizing.4933/

 

[Amarillo]

or run a fridge for two or three days etc.

or run a compressor fridge for two or three days

A thermo-electric fridge will drain the leisure battery very quickly, quite possibly within as many hours as a compressor fridge would take in days.

 

[hirsty]

Great job, thank you for the comprehensive answer.

You're welcome - we don't get the 4WD Beach model in UK, so please do post some pictures!

As above there is often confusion about coolant heaters on the forum too (in the engine compartment, pre-heats the coolant to get the engine up to temp more quickly), but to me most times people mean "heater" to be the parking heater for keeping the van interior warm. It's a chargeable optional extra on the UK Beach but standard on Ocean.