Batteries No good - Further information.

Thank you for the comments about the recent replacement of Caxton's batteries and in answer to some of the questions Joe offers the following;
Caxton has a Mastervolt Combi 12/2500 inverter (this boosts 12v electricity from the batteries up to 240volt so we can use domestic appliances, TV, laptops, etc.) this has a sophisticated charging system. We also have a 3.5kw Travelpower as part of the engine installation which provides 240volt power when the engine is running to run the white goods aboard Caxton.  The weakest link in the electrical supply was the lead acid(wet) batteries which have not survived heavy use, neglect and abuse. 

• heavy use -  the number of domestic appliances we want to operate
• neglect -  difficulty in checking the electrolyte levels in 30 battery cells, enclosed in a box, on top of the 'swim' in the engine compartment, with limited clearance didn't get done during this summer's hot weather.
• abuse - an overload which blew the main 250amp fuse to the inverter (hands up Lesley...) and caused irreparable damage.

We could have replaced 3 of the 5 batteries with new 'wet' batteries but we felt that this would have been a false economy because the older batteries could have failed at any time.  We have replaced the 5 110ah wet batteries with  5 120ah gel batteries.