A'van Battery Life

We aren't really qualified to answer this one Murray as our own battery isn't old enough. But nevertheless we have had ours out on numerous occasions so here we go. We would appreciate others writing in if they have first hand experience. We have heard of failures from A'vanners who didn't realise they didn't have a maintenance free battery. First up have you got the "big" or normal battery? This is A'van terminology by the way!! A'van seem to change makes a bit for reasons unknown. Lots of us have the
FANTASTIC AC DELCO wet cell which is in my view at least, is the best wet cell battery money can buy - even has a built in hydrometer. To check your battery you will have to take the lid off the box and take a peek. Be warned though it is an absolute pig of a job getting the lid off. Because we have all moaned so much A'van now make it easily removable as per the Chalet. There is a chance that you may NOT have a maintenance free battery and it has simply run out of water. No amount of charging will bring it back to life. If this is the case you might like to try buying a "MegaPulse" ($90) as this usually fixes it. We have nothing but praise for this excellent product with money back guarantees etc. Suggest you plough through all the guff on batteries in the A-Clinic archives section. Lots of info in there on expected battery life. A'vans advice, with which we totally agree, is to ALWAYS store your van with the converter connected to 240 volt. Battery life is directly proportional to the extent of each discharge and how deep the discharge. Good deep cycle batteries only have a life of 300 deep discharges - below 70% discharge. We were a bit horrified on reading this and now NEVER go into the red! Nevertheless we have come across several club members who have replaced their batteries with normal car types at lower cost. If you just need lighting this really is all you need to do and they will last ages as as long as you don't flatten them every use.

Lets know how you get on. Could anyone with other advice please email us.

Bob Eustace

The following email was received from Battery World. Our reply follows and theirs concludes the exchange. Visitors can make their own conclusions. At the time of writing, we had purchased AC Delco batteries from our local Battery World store.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Drysdale [mailto:chrisd@batteryworld.net.au]
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2005 1:35 PM
To: webmaster@around-oz.com
Subject: Use of Battery World

Hello Sir
We note that you refer to Battery World stores within a section called clinic promoting AC Delco batteries.
The use of Battery World is not authorised.
AC Delco is not an approved product available at all Battery World Stores
Please delete any reference to association with this brand of product.
Please confirm receipt and acknowledge when these references have been deleted
Yours sincerely
Chris Drysdale
Product Support Office
Battery World Australia P/L
A.C.N. 0509 399 605
Ph 07 3373 1771 fax 07 3373 1770
Or Mobile 0407 757 460

Thanks for your email. We are sorry that you have taken offence at the FREE promotion of your business for the last THREE YEARS. Your terse attitude is very disappointing as our site is totally non profit with the aim to share the RV lifestyle with the hundreds of thousands of Australians touring this great country of ours. In fact it costs a considerable amount of time and money to do so.

We have dealt with your Slacks Creek office on many occasions including purchase of the above batteries and found them to be extremely helpful. Hence the reference to your business name. If you don't want free and positive publicity, then that is obviously your choice.

If you no longer stock this brand, then that is fine we will delete all reference accordingly. It might be best if we put your email on the bottom of the page as an update - that way the 8 million plus genuine hits we get to this site each year will know where the information came from.

0408 729 580

and their reply

Hello Chrissy

AC Delco is a product imported and has been sold at a particular store. It is not an authorised Battery World product and causes immense problems when warranty claims present in other stores. Battery World is 90 stores with national standards to uphold.

Sorry you felt my request was terse, all companies tend to be precious about brand and being connected with product that is not authorised. The web site was brought to our attention by a customer who demanded that the web site was ours and he wanted the AC Delco product immediately.

When our clients are confused upset or misled then we do require remedial action. sometimes even free advertising causes issues.

Chris Drysdale
Product Support Office
Battery World Australia P/L
A.C.N. 0509 399 605
Ph 07 3373 1771 fax 07 3373 1770
Or Mobile 0407 757 460