Girly question re battery chargers...

pinkteapot

After an incident last winter where our car battery died in that really cold weather (luckily we had Green Flag cover including Homestart), we're thinking about getting one of those car battery charger things from Halfords.

How easy are they to use? How do the attach to the car battery? Do you have to disassemble anything under the bonnet to use them?

My car maintenance knowledge is limited to checking the oil, filling the screenwash and checking the tyre pressure. :rotfl:

Azari

Very easy and straightforward to use.

You should not need to disassemble anything although you may need to remove the 'boot' that covers the live terminal.

You will very likely get your hands dirty, though.

The_Turner

One of these may suit you better. Not so much a charger but a jump starter. Easy to use, just clips on and you start the car.

Strider590

If you had a new battery last year, then your very unlikely to need a charger this year..... Unless you only ever use the car to drive half a mile down the road and back?

If you don't need it, don't waste your money.

Lum

They usually attach with just a pair of crocodile clips. The important think is to make sure they're the right way around. Red wire to the positive terminal of the battery and black to the negative.

The negative terminal is marked with a - symbol, and will have a black wire attached to it.
The positive terminal is marked with a + symbol and will have a red wire attached to it. Often it will have more than one wire attached.

Azari

The_Turner wrote: »

One of these may suit you better. Not so much a charger but a jump starter. Easy to use, just clips on and you start the car.

Yes, those are excellent and have the advantage that you can use them away from a power point. (Provided you make sure you keep it charged.)

pinkteapot

Strider590 wrote: »

If you had a new battery last year, then your very unlikely to need a charger this year..... Unless you only ever use the car to drive half a mile down the road and back?

If you don't need it, don't waste your money.

Didn't get a new battery - Green Flag jumped it and we drove it up and down the dual carriageway. That was the only time we've had a problem with the battery and the car had been sat under thick snow for about a fortnight with overnight temperatures around -10...

Someone above suggested a jump starter. Guessing that might be a better idea? If the battery is dead, how long will a charger take to get it going again?

We still have Green Flag membership so I guess we can just call them out to jump it again if need be. Downside is that takes an hour...

The car in question used to go all over the country but is now our second car so unfortunately only gets used around town. I do make sure to take it out for a good dual carriageway run at least once a month, but I figure if we get a cold winter we're likely to have the same problem. Come to think of it, now it only gets used around town I should really cancel the Green Flag and use the cash to buy a jump starter or charger!

Azari

pinkteapot wrote: »

Someone above suggested a jump starter. Guessing that might be a better idea? If the battery is dead, how long will a charger take to get it going again?

It's almost instantaneous.

It's like jump starting with a small, very high power, battery.

pinkteapot

Sorry, I know a jump starter would be instant. If we had a battery charger, how long would it take to provide enough charge to get going?

Although I am now thinking a jump starter would be the better idea anyway, so thanks for the suggestion.

Azari

pinkteapot wrote: »

Sorry, I know a jump starter would be instant. If we had a battery charger, how long would it take to provide enough charge to get going?

Although I am now thinking a jump starter would be the better idea anyway, so thanks for the suggestion.

It depends.

Usually an hour or so (although it will by no means be fully charged by then) - but it depends just how 'dead' the battery is and how easily the engine starts (which, will most likely be 'not very' if it's cold and has not been used for some time).

If the engine starts very easily you can sometimes get it going after a few minutes but if it needs repeated turning over before struggling into life it may need to be charged overnight.

Lum

Battery charger will take a few hours.

The jump start packs Halfords sell, are basically a spare battery which you can use to jump start your car. After doing this you need to charge up the jump start pack, which you can do from the cigarette lighter in your car, or from the mains in your house.

We have one, it works rather well.

Just make sure to charge up the jump start pack as soon as you buy it!