'Micro Car Start' for flat battey, any good ?

judexx

forgotmyname wrote: »

Buy a battery charger and give it a good 8 hours+ with a decent 6 - 8amp smart battery charger.

If that starter you looked at only connects to the lighter socket it can only supply 15amps or so. The starter will need 200amps - 400amps.

It will just blow the fuse or burn the wiring out.

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mgdavid wrote: »

surely nobody pays to have a battery fitted do they?

If you're not able bodied - then yes - I couldn't lift a car battery

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Leaving a light on overnight may drain a battery enough to prevent the car starting but it will not ruin the battery. I've flattened the battery with the interior lights with no long term damage. You've got breakdown cover. Wait and see if there are any signs of a failing battery.

:eek:

Thanks everyone, sounds like i will give the MicroStart that a miss. Unfortunately I don't have a garage and can't remove the battery so can't see a way to conventionally charge it.

Hopefully, from what you say, the battery should last a while longer.

AdrianC

If you want to buy some "insurance", keep a set of decent jump leads in the boot and just blag a jump from somebody else if/when you do find yourself short of juice.

forgotmyname

You dont need to remove it or put it in a garage to charge it. Run an extension lead out to it.

Its always worth charging a battery every now and then. Unless you only do long journeys every day.

A battery will last much longer if kept charged.

arcon5

Okay in theory running it flat can cause problems. Realistically it will probably be okay, it's unlikely it would have damaged it. Taking it for a run in a low gear will charge it quickly!

wilkos do cheap chargers. Supposed to disconnect the battery at the very least, but many don't so you could get away with it

vikingaero

judexx wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies - the battery is only 18 months old, but unfortunately got totally drained when the courtesy light stayed on overnight !

Go onto eBay and buy LED bulbs. I sit in the car for hours waiting for the Vikingettes at gymnastics so I turn the lights on to read by,.

Joe_Horner

honestly don't worry about it. the scare stories of flattinging a battery once killing it are just that - scare stories. Any loss of capacity from a one-off like that will be so small that you couldn't measure it (assuming you didn't leave it sitting flat for a few months afterwards?)

To give you an idea, last December my partner's Daf threw a rod and was laid up from early December through to about March. The battery was flat for that time but, once charged up again, was fine until about 4 weeks ago.

And that was an old (about 5 years) Halfauds one that had spent its frst year being deep cycled (ie: run completely flat then recharged) twice a week running an inverter. So it had been completely drained - on a high load - someting like 100 times, then used for 4 years, then allowed to sit drained for 3 - 4 months, then worked fine for another 8 months.

As for the booster you linked, people are misunderstanding how they're designed to work. They don't provide the starting current (they couldn't through a lighter socket) but give a charging voltage of around 14v which is basically the same as connecting to a 4 amp or so battery charger. You connect them up for maybe 1/4 hour, in which time they give (hopefully) enough surface charge to the car's battery for it to start.

They work fine for things like slow cranking because of lights left on but are absolutely useless if the car's battery is to dead to turn it over at all, or if the car doesn't start well.

If you want an insurance policy then a set of jump leads and a small (around 10 Ah) sealed lead acid battery in your boot will do it. That's basically all the cheap jump packs are but lighter, doesn't have pointless "torches" and compressors, and a battery on its own is a lot less bulky to carry around.

judexx

Joe_Horner wrote: »

honestly don't worry about it. the scare stories of flattinging a battery once killing it are just that - scare stories. Any loss of capacity from a one-off like that will be so small that you couldn't measure it (assuming you didn't leave it sitting flat for a few months afterwards?)
.
.
As for the booster you linked, people are misunderstanding how they're designed to work. They don't provide the starting current (they couldn't through a lighter socket) but give a charging voltage of around 14v which is basically the same as connecting to a 4 amp or so battery charger. You connect them up for maybe 1/4 hour, in which time they give (hopefully) enough surface charge to the car's battery for it to start.

They work fine for things like slow cranking because of lights left on but are absolutely useless if the car's battery is to dead to turn it over at all, or if the car doesn't start well.

If you want an insurance policy then a set of jump leads and a small (around 10 Ah) sealed lead acid battery in your boot will do it. That's basically all the cheap jump packs are but lighter, doesn't have pointless "torches" and compressors, and a battery on its own is a lot less bulky to carry around.

Many thanks for explaining that - makes much more sense now :beer:

Ranger8

I can personally recommend one of these jump starters, it looks unlikely but really does do the job and very handy as a charger for many things
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-20000mAh-Portable-Car-Jump-Starter-Pack-Booster-Charger-Battery-Power-Bank-/231390696164?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item35dff5d2e4

forgotmyname

20Ah... Not a chance... I watched a yourtube clip of a guy taking a 16Ah backup battery apart and it had a pair of 1.8Ah cells.

I have some 4Ah Lipo packs and they are bigger than the device you linked to. How can they get 5x more amperage in a smaller space?

Ranger8

forgotmyname wrote: »

20Ah... Not a chance... I watched a yourtube clip of a guy taking a 16Ah backup battery apart and it had a pair of 1.8Ah cells.

I have some 4Ah Lipo packs and they are bigger than the device you linked to. How can they get 5x more amperage in a smaller space?

I`ve used it and hard as it is to believe it does work