"Harry Collingwood" wrote in message
...
Basi question.Got a leisure battery,it's charged to full 12 volts
but
how can I tell how many amps it holds? thanks.

By "leisure" I presume you mean a lead-acid deep discharge type, not a
car
battery! Example: marine or traction types; these have a different
internal construction.
Anyway, none of all them hold amps (a flow measure); they hold "amps
x hours", a measure of energy stored, a quantity measure.
But all "amp x hours" are not equal! At a large discharge rate the
product of amperes x hours is smaller than that at a lower current.
The rating for "amp hours" at a given current may be on the battery
case. If not, and if you know the make and model number, you might be
able to look it up. But this capacity drops with age and usage so it
may not be very useful except when replacing the battery. It is
possible to set up an experiment to measure the capacity, i.e. fully
charge the battery, discharge as a known rate and measure the time
until the voltage drops below 12 volts, but you may find that time
consuming.
BTW, after charging, voltage should be about 12.6 volts (not 12
volts.) During charging it should read between about 13.6 and 14.5
volts depending on the charging rate.
There's more to lead acid batteries than this, I suggest you google
"lead-acid battery" and see what you find. Here's a good start:
http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html
Cheers,
Roger