Campervan Leisure Batteries: Types, Charging and Care

Your leisure battery is the heart of van life — it powers the lights, water pump, fridge control, heating blower and any USB sockets while you're off-grid. Get the wrong type or treat it badly and you'll be sitting in the dark on a Saturday night, or forking out for a replacement far sooner than you should.

Types of leisure battery

• Flooded lead-acid: the budget option, around £80-£150. Reliable but must be kept upright and can vent gas; they need topping up in some designs.
• AGM (absorbent glass mat): sealed, no maintenance, works well in any position and handles charging better. Around £150-£300 for a decent 100Ah unit.
• Lithium (LiFePO4): light, fast-charging and lasts many times longer, but a 100Ah unit costs £500-£900. They also need a charger set to the lithium profile, so check compatibility before upgrading.

For most UK owners running a standard fridge, LED lights and a pump, a 100Ah AGM is the sensible sweet spot.

Charging and care

• Charge fully after every trip; a battery left partially charged sulphates and loses capacity permanently.
• Don't regularly discharge below 50% on lead-acid batteries — that roughly halves their life.
• If you're on EHU, the charger should switch to a maintenance or float stage once full; cheap chargers that keep pushing 14V+ will cook the battery.
• A small solar panel is the best way to keep a parked van topped up over UK winters.

Signs it's on its way out

Lights dimming quickly, the pump slowing, and voltage dropping below 12.0V under a modest load all point to a tired battery. A battery that reads 12.4V when "full" has already lost a chunk of its capacity.

Tip: if you park the van up for weeks, disconnect the leisure battery or fit a cheap battery master switch so parasitic loads can't drain it.

Treating the battery properly is part of the annual campervan maintenance checklist, and it protects one of the priciest components in the van. When you're buying, ask how old the leisure battery is — a fresh one is a solid reason to favour a listing on motorhomes for sale.