Batteries

We have known for a few months now that our batteries are on their way out. They have started to become unreliable and have increasingly have been letting us down.

Last weekend the leisure batteries let us down completely. No power come morning and boy was it cold with no heating. So we have no choice now but to buy a new set.

We only have two leisure batteries on Naughty-Cal as compared to a typical narrowboat there are few large power drains aboard. The largest consumer of power being the fridge during the summer and the heating through the winter. So we are to replace out two 85AH batteries with a pair of 105AH maintenance free Varta Leisure Batteries. We have opted for the more expensive Varta batteries as we have used their batteries on our cars for years and they are excellent and ultra reliable. That said we have been quoted a bargain price of £75 each which doesnt make them expensive as leisure batteries go.

The next problem is the starter battery. This is a little more complicated than we had bargained for. The Volvo Penta manual states that the engine needs a 140AH 1000CCA battery. This has our battery supplier confused as the only ones he can find are commercial truck batteries with different terminals that are super expensive. A little more research is needed on this one methinks but we dont have much time. The starter has "dropped" a cell and is now only holding 10.4V of charge. Luckily the engine is somehow still firing from this but with the onset of colder weather it wont do for long.