Long term battery charging

antodeco · 27-10-2014 10:50am #1

Hi all,
Looking to get a trickle charger for one of the cars in storage. It doesn't get driven much, and especially during winter, it probably won't be driven for a while. The battery died very quickly on it, so if I haven't driven it for 2 or 3 days, it's dead.

Can anyone recommend a good trickle battery charger, that can be plugged in long term, so next time I get the car it's not dead?

Thanks

BrensBenz · 27-10-2014 11:58am

Mr. Halford has quite a good range of chargers, including a "SMART" charger which I use whenever the car goes into hibernation.

I used to use a solar panel (Maplins) which was quite successful, provided the car battery was pretty-well charged when you put the car away, i.e. the panel's output is too small to re-charge a battery but it can replace minor losses of charge during storage.

blackbox · 27-10-2014 11:59am

Lidl had chargers recently - might still have some in stock. I got one years ago and it is still great - they automatically step down to trickle when the battery is fully charged.

greasepalm · 27-10-2014 12:03pm

aye bought a solar powered one from factors e50 and can keep a 100amp battery topped up if shed is covered it wont work ,out in the open in bright place yes work well,solar power is the future its free.

antodeco · 27-10-2014 12:30pm

Thanks guys. I have a solar panel already, but the car is kept indoors in an offsite garage

visual · 27-10-2014 1:34pm

Lidi charger is cheap and has smart charging be ideal for what you want

my3cents · 27-10-2014 1:49pm

OP from your post it sounds like you want a new battery rather than a crutch to keep it going?

antodeco · 27-10-2014 2:56pm

Already replaced the battery! Put a larger diesel battery in it. Auto electrician can't figure out what's draining it. Just a small drain somewhere

greasepalm · 27-10-2014 3:28pm

2-3 days for a diesel battery to die must have a big drain,obvious not a clock drain.

my3cents · 27-10-2014 3:43pm

antodeco wrote: »

Already replaced the battery! Put a larger diesel battery in it. Auto electrician can't figure out what's draining it. Just a small drain somewhere

Why not just disconnect the earth, provided you know the radio key code?

Also pulling each accessory fuse and checking for any current drawn across the socket might show up something.

antodeco · 27-10-2014 4:51pm

I had been doing that with the old battery. And being honest, if I can get a smart charger, I've no problem disconnecting the terminals when it's charging, and only reconnect when I plan on driving it.

Buona Fortuna · 27-10-2014 4:59pm

I was going to go for that Lidl one until I got to talking on here to a few "battery" types.

The Lidl one is "OK", but I have a variety of batteries (Leisure, car, tractor, quad, blah)

I went for one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FC42HAA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01

Have to say its the Dogs Nutz

Very pleased with it.

Edit - Read the first review on the Amazon page - its three times more than I ever wanted to know about battery charging

antodeco · 27-10-2014 11:54pm

Just bought that off Amazon there! Thanks for the recommendation!

Buona Fortuna · 27-10-2014 11:56pm

antodeco wrote: »

Just bought that off Amazon there! Thanks for the recommendation!

You won't be sorry, great piece of kit.

Lucifer · 28-10-2014 12:29am

Also have one of the CTEK chargers and use it all the time in the garage. Can highly recommend it.

landmarkjohn · 01-11-2014 9:28am

I use a 7 day timer to keep a charge on a motorbike that is used infrequently. I leave the charger connected and set the timer to come on for an hour 3 days a week. Seems to work ok for me.

BrensBenz · 01-11-2014 12:29pm

antodeco wrote: »

Already replaced the battery! Put a larger diesel battery in it. Auto electrician can't figure out what's draining it. Just a small drain somewhere

I'm open to correction on this - feel free (but keep it gentle - I'm old) but I think charging circuitry in some cars are limited to the AmpHr capacity of the original battery, that is, if the original, factory-fitted battery was, say 60 AH, the car's charging circuitry cuts out at 60 or so.

A battery's discharge graph is not linear - it's slow at first and then drops off quite quickly. Your charging circuitry "might" not fully charge your new, bigger battery and cut out somewhere on the "steep slope" of the graph. This would mean that a small drain is enough to cause bigger problems.

My chariot does this - it took some research to discover that my new, bigger than original battery wasn't faulty after all.

Also, I see a post mentioning the use of a timer on the trickle charger. Me too! An hour a day or so works well for me.

antodeco · 02-11-2014 4:26pm

My CTEK battery charger arrived yesterday. Plugged it in yesterday morning, did a recon charge on it, started first thing this morning. Won't go near it now until probably February. One thing I have to say, it uses very little power. 1KW in 24 hours. Perfectly happy with that! (I know this because I have the car in a lockup with its own power supply).

my3cents · 02-11-2014 4:45pm

antodeco wrote: »

My CTEK battery charger arrived yesterday. Plugged it in yesterday morning, did a recon charge on it, started first thing this morning. Won't go near it now until probably February. One thing I have to say, it uses very little power. 1KW in 24 hours. Perfectly happy with that! (I know this because I have the car in a lockup with its own power supply).

1KW seems a lot of power to me I assume the battery wasn't fully charged?

What rating is it?

antodeco · 02-11-2014 5:55pm

my3cents wrote: »

1KW seems a lot of power to me I assume the battery wasn't fully charged?

What rating is it?

Was fully dead. So to bring it from empty up is pretty decent.

Long term battery charging

Comments