Battery problem

We have been in France for the past 6 days. During that time we have stayed on 3 different sites on mains hook up and driven around 600 miles. Despite regular warnings every day from Sargent about a low vehicle battery we have had no trouble starting the vehicle.
The control panel shows the vehicle volts as 0-3 or 13.4 depending on whether the smart charge is on the vehicle or leisure battery. 
Before coming away we always leave the vehicle with the ignition set to battery off, the solar panel to charge the leisure battery and the Sargent cpu switched off. However on the first day nothing worked off the leisure battery until we were on mains. Wife thinks the leisure battery failed.
Ant advice please?
Thanks, Tiggs

You don't say what happened with the habitation loads after the first day, and whether they then started to work Ok again. At simplest, it may just be a blown fuse on the connection from vehicle battery to Sargent. Exact location of that fuse depends on what model Sargent controller you have.

If the leisure battery had failed then you should be getting low voltage warnings from the Sargent control panel warning you of the fact.

Thanks for replying.Not sure what habitation loads are sorry. The leisure battery is showing 13.7 regardless of whether the active charge is on the leisure or vehicle battery. The vehicle battery is the one that varies. Not sure if that helps!

Ps it’s the EC500

Can you confirm a couple of things regarding the settings on the EC480 control panel and EC500 itself.

Are you leaving the main EC500 switched on permanently while away on your trip? What I mean is the main black shutdown switch, top left on the EC500.
Is Solar smart set to ‘smart’ or are you changing it yourself between vehicle/leisure?
Is the main EHU charging set to ‘smart’? I guess it is as all seems to function ok on EHU.

Tiggs wrote:Not sure what habitation loads are

You said "However on the first day nothing worked off the leisure battery until we were on mains".

Did this change on the second day and subsequently, or are you still in a position where the leisure battery shows 13.7V but nothing in the habitation area works unless you are on mains hookup?

Dbvwt wrote:Can you confirm a couple of things regarding the settings on the EC480 control panel and EC500 itself.

Are you leaving the main EC500 switched on permanently while away on your trip? What I mean is the main black shutdown switch, top left on the EC500.
Is Solar smart set to ‘smart’ or are you changing it yourself between vehicle/leisure?
Is the main EHU charging set to ‘smart’? I guess it is as all seems to function ok on EHU.

Yes, the EC500 is on permanently now while we are away. It's only when we put the van in storage we switch it off as outlined earlier.
Also yes, the solar is set to 'smart' while away, but to 'leisure' when in storage.
I think I read somewhere that setting the active charge to 'smart' means it changes back and forth from vehicle to leisure every four hours. 
It's when the active charge is on the leisure battery that the vehicle battery has been showing very low. However today it's on 11.6v and no alerts from Sargent as yet.
Hope that answers the question and thanks for replying.

Roopert wrote:

Tiggs wrote:Not sure what habitation loads are

You said "However on the first day nothing worked off the leisure battery until we were on mains".

Did this change on the second day and subsequently, or are you still in a position where the leisure battery shows 13.7V but nothing in the habitation area works unless you are on mains hookup?

We've not tried using lights when not on mains hook up but, while travelling and stopping in services, the step is now working (didn't on the first day).
We're moving on tomorrow so when we disconnect the mains I'll check the battery readings again and try some of the lights. Thank you.

check both batterys with a meter and compare with display ,would be my starting point

Molly3 wrote: check both batterys  with a meter  and compare with display  ,would be my starting point

I would agree with that, I never did trust the Sargent display completely as mine often throws up some interesting readings.