The best caravan leisure battery will provide 12-volt power for your tourer, enabling, low voltage devices and appliances to be used when you don’t have 240-volt hook-up power. Typically this will include your lighting, 12V television and water pumps, while appliances that require more current, such as heating and hot water boilers will flatten a leisure battery in a relatively short time.
Certain devices are available in 12V formats for caravanning, such as the best caravan kettles and the best caravan toasters, though they aren’t as powerful as their domestic equivalents. A leisure battery charges when your caravan is being towed, and when it’s plugged into a hook-up post. You can also charge it with a trickle charger (see C-Tek) when it’s on your drive or in storage.
These products come in various guises, so to help you find the best caravan leisure battery for your needs, we’re sharing our favourite picks, including lead-acid batteries (which also come in various styles), and lithium options. Most people use lead-acid leisure batteries, but those who require more power for longer – like those who enjoy off-grid caravanning – may opt for the extra potency of a lithium battery. However, it’s worth noting that lithium batteries cost considerably more than standard ones.
In this guide, you’ll find our top picks, featuring brands such as Yuasa, Renogy and Halfords, so you can buy a good leisure battery with confidence.
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What is the best leisure battery for a caravan?
Lead-acid leisure batteries for caravans
Yuasa L36 AGM
Halfords HLB700
Numax XV31MF
Yuasa Active Leisure Battery L26-AGM
Lithium leisure batteries for caravans
MOSEWORTH LiFePO4 Leisure Battery
Renogy 300Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery (mini-sized)
The best caravan leisure battery:
Yuasa L36 AGM
- Output: 95Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 335 x 175 x 190mm
- NCC rating A
Reason to buy:
- Portable, spill-proof design, easy to fit in standard battery lockers
Reason to avoid:
- Fairly low output compared with some others here
This premium battery is an AGM (absorbed glass mat) design, in which the acid doesn’t float around freely, but is absorbed into fibreglass mats. We like how this improves performance and creates a spill-proof design that offers extra protection against severe bumps and knocks.
As a deep-cycle unit, that provides up to 1140 Watt/hours, we think the L36 will be ideal for high-consumption devices like the best caravan movers and auto levelling, and will deliver optimal output when repeatedly discharged and recharged (up to 400 charging cycles).
The L36 is maintenance-free and has carry handles, making it more portable. It comes with a two-year warranty and is sized to fit easily in all standard battery lockers.
Halfords HLB700
- Output: 100Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 353 x 175 x 190mm
- NCC rating: B
Reason to buy:
- Good safety features, comes ready to fit
Reason to avoid:
- May not fit smaller or older caravans, eats into payload
Capable of 200 charging cycles, this battery pumps out 100Ah and up to 1200 Watt/hours, making it a decent choice for those with larger power requirements. However, we should point out it isn’t NCC A-rated like the Yuasa battery above, so motor mover users might want to check its compatibility with their mover manufacturer.
Safety-wise it features an integrated flame arrestor, and each battery comes fully-charged from the store, ready to fit, something that we think is a useful feature. It’s also a sealed and maintenance-free design.
Be aware that the elongated design of this battery means it may not fit into all caravans, especially smaller and older ones. You’ll also have to allow 24kg of your payload to carry it. It comes with a two-year warranty.
Numax XV31MF
- Output: 105Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 330 x 172 x 242mm
- NCC rating: B
Reason to buy:
- Ideal for caravanners who store their tourer over winter
Reason to avoid:
- Not suitable for all motor movers
This wet/flooded, deep-cycle battery from top manufacturer, Numax, delivers 105Ah and is good for 500 recharge cycles. It features sealed-battery technology and has a handy, built-in state-of-charge indicator. The design offers low discharge rates when the battery’s not being used, making it a great choice for those who store their tourer over the winter.
Smaller in size than some high-output batteries, this Numax should slot easily into all caravan battery boxes. As some motor movers require a 110Ah output, we’d recommend checking before buying this battery.
Numax batteries come with a full three-year warranty, though 500 cycles should take even a prolific caravanner way beyond that.
Yuasa Active Leisure Battery L26-AGM
- Output: 90Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 259 x 168 x 232mm
- NCC rating: A
Reason to buy:
- Compact, NCC Class A product
Reason to avoid:
- Lowest output of all the options in our guide, fairly weighty
This is a sister model to the Yuasa L36 AGM featured above; although it offers less power (this one has an output of 90Ah, compared with the L36’s 95Ah), it’s also more compact, which you might prefer. It remains fairly weighty, though, at 27kg.
This is an NCC Class A battery, which means that it’s suitable for regular use when you’re away from electric hook-up; as such, we think it would be a good choice for those who like to tour off-grid.
You can expect that this deep-cycle battery would last a good amount of time, too: the manufacturer claims that it will provide up to 1080 watt hours and 420 charging cycles. A two-year guarantee is also included for additional peace of mind.
MOSEWORTH LiFePO4 Leisure Battery
- Output: 200Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 522 x 240 x 219mm
- NCC rating: N/A
Reason to buy:
- Excellent power, ideal for off-gridders and all-season touring
Reason to avoid:
- Caravan may need adapting to accommodate the battery
Another super-sized leisure battery that pumps out huge power. With this cell and the Renogy, check that they can be safely accommodated in your caravan. Serious off-gridders that love this sort of power reserve often adapt spaces in their vans to hold them.
This unit comes with a charger unit and a two-year warranty, the manufacturers also claim it delivers 90% efficiency even in cold weather. We like how this makes it ideal for all-season touring, and winter periods when solar panels are less effective.
The energy density of lithium batteries is exceptional, so they’re great for heavy draw appliances, like motor movers and AC units.
Renogy 300Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery (mini-sized)
- Output: 300Ah
- Size (LxWxH): 384 x 253 x 194mm
- NCC rating: N/A
Reason to buy:
- Compact dimensions, reasonably light in weight
Reason to avoid:
- Fairly expensive in comparison to others here
If you like the idea of having a more powerful leisure battery but aren’t keen on the larger dimensions that many of them come in, this could be the one for you. Despite its smaller size – it’s the most compact lithium battery in this round-up – it still promises an output of 300Ah.
Because it’s on the smaller side it also means that you could pair it with up to three other units, to give you a great amount of power when you’re touring away from electric hook-up. At 25kg it’s still not a lightweight, but it should be considerably easier to carry or move than its larger counterparts in this guide.
Like its sister model above, it has protection against over discharge, short circuits and more, to help protect both it and your caravan’s electrical systems. The manufacturers claim that this battery supports more than 5000 deep-charge cycles, and it comes with a five-year service plan.
Choosing the best leisure battery for a caravan
How do I choose the best caravan leisure battery?
There are lots of different models and types out there, so working out how to choose the best caravan leisure battery for your needs might seem like a difficult task. There are a few things to bear in mind, though, that will help you decide.
For starters, you need to decide how much power you need. Here, you need to look out for the ampere-hour (Ah) rating. As an example, a battery with an output of 120Ah should (technically) power a 5A product for 24 hours.
In general, you should go for the highest amount of power that you think you might need, keeping in mind your budget – the NCC rating for batteries (explained below) is a good guide to what application certain batteries are most suitable for.
In addition, you’ll need to check that the battery will fit in any dedicated space in your tourer – they do vary in size.
Bear in mind your caravan’s payload, too, and check that you won’t go over your limit when fitting a new battery – some of them are very heavy.
What are the NCC ratings about?
The three NCC ratings indicate the following:
- Class A – Ideal for frequent off-grid use, when hook-up isn’t available. These are powerful units that hold a lot of charge.
- Class B – Designed for use with electric hook-up connections, as they can only support minimal use of light, pumps and motor movers, etc.
- Class C – For hook-up use only, though they hold enough power to run low-draw items, such as LED lighting.
How long does a caravan leisure battery last?
This very much depends on the level of usage, your recharging regime and the quality of the battery you buy.
You can severely damage or even ruin leisure batteries by over-discharging them. Typically, you should not discharge a lead-acid battery below 50% (12.06V), though I would be wary of dropping below 60% (12.2V). NB: A full battery displays 12.6 or 12.7V.
A good quality, well-maintained standard leisure battery that is regularly used should last from four to five years. A lithium battery can last in excess of 10 years, though, as they are relatively new tech, we’re only finding out now how long they actually last in real-world caravanning scenarios.
Does a caravan leisure battery charge when towing?
With most caravans using modern 13-pin towbar electrics (standard since 2008), your leisure battery is charged from the tow-vehicle’s alternator while the caravan is being towed. The alternator charges the tow-vehicle starter battery and the leisure vehicle battery. The charge is delivered through pin No 9 in the electric connector socket. If you have issues with low-battery charge after a long tow, check that these connections are clean and not corroded.
Written with contributions from Sarah Wakely.
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