Battery charging

saintjanet

I have seen recommendations for loads of different types of battery chargers.Some are very expensive.

A few years ago,after having starting problems on one car that was only used at weekends,a mechanic friend suggested connecting the charger to the battery,while it was still on the car obviously,and putting a slow charge in for an hour or 2 before i went out.

This worked very well at the time and i am thinking of doing it again now,does anyone know of any downsides to this? i.e potential electrical problems ,resulting with everything thats fitted on modern cars.It is a pain removing the battery and messing about with radio codes ect.

I know some cars will start after being left for weeks while others go flat quite quickly with alarms ect on.Any thoughts appreciated.

marty12

yes its a pain to recode the radio so have the battery and charging system checked, if the batterys at fault replace it, if theres a drain on it get it repaired, if your charging your battery leave it in place and remove the earth lead marked with a minus sign, then connect the charger dont leave the charger on for to long without checking it, most batterys are sealed for life and if left unchecked get to hot then build up gas inside, in the wost case blow up
if your looking for a neat little charger consider the autocare 4amp one i got from wilkisons ive used it for a number of years now and has been no bother and didnt put a hole in my finances

saintjanet

marty12,thanks for your input.There is not a fault on this car,its just that i may have to leave it unused at times and while this may not prove to be a problem,i'm a belt and braces person so thought it may be worth giving it an extra charge at times.Won't matter soon when it gets warmer.

My main concern was damaging anything with the battery still connected.In the past i have not disconnected the earth lead,just connected the charger and plugged into the mains.

epninety

There won't be a problem with any of the car electronics with a modern battery charger, as long as it's a lowish rate (a few amps).

A better solution would be to look for a 'trickle' charger that you can leave connected all the time. Frost do one but its pricey at 31UKP. The reason is that every time your battery goes flat (or even nearly flat), the battery life is drastically shortened.

saintjanet

epninety wrote: »

There won't be a problem with any of the car electronics with a modern battery charger, as long as it's a lowish rate (a few amps).

A better solution would be to look for a 'trickle' charger that you can leave connected all the time. Frost do one but its pricey at 31UKP. The reason is that every time your battery goes flat (or even nearly flat), the battery life is drastically shortened.

This is something i have been considering too.However as i do not have an electric point in my garage,it would mean running a cable through the window.This would not really be convenient when i am out at work.

In the past as i have said,i simply connected the charger up and plugged it in to the mains, using an extention and left it for an hour or so prior to using the vehicle,i could still do this with my existing charger and i suppose i was just hoping for confirmation that this would not do any harm to the cars electrics,After reading various views on the subject,i am still confused ,this car was much more expensive than the one i used to charge up this way and i do not want it going up in flames!!

northern_munky

These look quite useful to keep the battery topped up, they appear on ebay cheaper than this too.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?detail=full&ModuleNo=98358&doy=10m3#more_info

gord115

Will this work through glass? such as left on top of the parcel shelf?

Jamp

Yes it will - I use one through my windscreen and it does the job for me in very similar circumstances to your own.

(your = OP)

saintjanet

Jamp wrote: »

Yes it will - I use one through my windscreen and it does the job for me in very similar circumstances to your own.

(your = OP)

This is very interesting,i have just returned to the thread and was about to ask if anyone had tried one after reading northern munky's posting,does it really work as good as a normal charger,sounds too good to be true at the price,not doubting you just really surprised.

anewman

Trickle charging a battery involves putting out about 3 to 4 amps to the battery. Looking at the specs of the solar panel I must admit I am a bit clueless about all the technical details. It says the cig lighter fuse rating is 0.5 amps, so if I understand correctly it will charge about 8 times slower than a standard charger, but the simplicity of this means you can just leave it on all the time and it will keep your battery topped up day after day assuming there is sunlight.

In fact I am considering getting one of these now. Only concern is someone seeing something left plugged in the cig lighter deciding to nick it. I wouldn't mind at this price but the window would cost the most

epninety

It will only charge the battery at about 0.1A, at best. (The spec says 1.5W output). However, you don't actually need it to charge the battery, just overcome the drain of devices in the car. If it managed 50% output power, 50% of the time (it gets dark at night!), it should still be just about enough to prevent a flat battery.

Make sure the cigarette lighter socket in your car works with the ignition off, otherwise you'll have to do some wiring to make it charge the battery.