How to stop your car battery from going flat - MSE Team Blog discussion

GDB2222

Incidentally, you have reminded me that I had better do exactly the above for our car. It has not been moved since before Xmas!

MattMattMattUK

kmcatherall said:

We had a flat battery too, so after ordering a new one online, we now make sure we start the car once a week!

You need to make you run the car for a reasonable amount of time, ideally take it for a driver, maybe to the supermarket for food. Starting the engine, depending on the battery can use a considerable amount of the energy stored in the battery, do then not give it enough time to fully recharge, whilst also leaving it to run down over time and in cold weather is a recipe to flatten the battery and perhaps damage it over time.

gwapenut

Be sure to run the air conditioning too, even in winter, the seals can be damaged if it is not run frequently enough.
Personally, I have disconnected my 10-year-old battery and just reconnect it every couple of months and fire the car up for 10 minutes. The battery still lasts well enough over winters (the car is in a garage, which helps) and still has enough life in it, especially if I charge it at the beginning of each winter, though it has not even needed that until I SORNed it in May.
If you do disconnect it, just make sure you have any necessary alarm codes etc

GrumpyDil

Alternatively buy yourself a charger which includes a battery maintain function which is designed both to charge and maintain a battery whilst connected to the car
Reason for that suggestion is that I have read of issues with charging a battery with a high capacity charger whilst leaving the battery connected to the car. So if using a normal charger consider disconnecting the battery and charging it not connected to the car. 

od244051

My Dad said to once or twice a week, go the long way round to work which is an additional 2 miles each way.

TheShape

od244051 said:

My Dad said to once or twice a week, go the long way round to work which is an additional 2 miles each way.

The issue now is that a lot of people aren't 'going' to work at all.  To eek out a little extra life from my last battery I did drive the long way round a couple of times.  It felt a bit painful to do so as the additional couple of miles doubled the length of the journey.

neilmcl

MattMattMattUK said:

kmcatherall said:

We had a flat battery too, so after ordering a new one online, we now make sure we start the car once a week!

You need to make you run the car for a reasonable amount of time, ideally take it for a driver, maybe to the supermarket for food. Starting the engine, depending on the battery can use a considerable amount of the energy stored in the battery, do then not give it enough time to fully recharge, whilst also leaving it to run down over time and in cold weather is a recipe to flatten the battery and perhaps damage it over time.

Even short journeys like that wont be enough to keep you battery topped up, especially newer cars with start/stop systems etc. I'm regularly getting a low battery warning on mine at the moment.

The battery on my dad's car, a VW Caddy WAV, under normal circumstances drains down quite quickly due to all the extra adaptions he has on it but he recently bought one of those solar power chargers and that seems to have done the trick for him.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-accessories/halfords-solar-power-240-battery-charger-196471.html

iwant2asave

Thanks all...charged my battery today.  Thankfully Started ok, guess it will be ok for now at least...just need to make sure it doesnt go flat again by either running every few days or maybe disconnecting.  Hoping it will hold it's charge. 

Is there any reliable way to test my battery every now and again at home (it's sorn) or is that something only garages can do?

GrumpyDil

The battery will go flat over a period of time because all cars use some power whilst sitting. Have you considered connecting up a battery maintainer like I suggested earlier. Failing that I'd consider disconnecting the battery while the car isn't being used. 

iwant2asave

GrumpyDil said:

The battery will go flat over a period of time because all cars use some power whilst sitting. Have you considered connecting up a battery maintainer like I suggested earlier. Failing that I'd consider disconnecting the battery while the car isn't being used. 

Thanks for the tip...I'm guessing I would need to leave it connected to the mains somehow on a regular basis.  Since mines on my drive I would find it a bit inconvenient so would prefer another option if there is one.