Battery Charger / Jump Starter Pack

happysellerbuyer

Hi All,
Is it necessary  to buy battery charger / jump starter pack. Which one would you recommend which is compatible with Stop Start. I have looked online but their are so many options.
Thanks

DiddyDavies

happysellerbuyer said:

Hi All,
Is it necessary  to buy battery charger / jump starter pack.

Providing that you are not having any starting problems at the moment, your battery is in reasonably good shape and you drive enough to keep it well charged then I would say not.
I've only needed to jump start my car once in about the past 20 years and that was because I left my lights on and ran down the battery.

Grumpy_chap

I use a solar battery maintainer with my car - kept it charged all through lockdown and beyond, even now with less sunlight it still does the job.

happysellerbuyer

Yes. I drive it daily. Around 25 miles per day. Just didn't want to be caught out. The garage told me the same. Just start the car once a day and I should be alright. Just wanted something in case.

forgotmyname

Your better off buying a new battery for the car and looking after that.  Know a few people that had battery issues and bought jump packs.
They should have just spent the money on a new battery which they did because the battery packs died due to them not keeping them
charged.

In 2 minds with these small lithium ones, starting a small petrol engine OK.  But starting a larger diesel ive seen them fail after
just one or two uses. 

The cheapest charger will work if you like to keep the battery topped up from doing short winter journeys.

Grumpy_chap

If it starts fine and you are doing 25 miles daily, then it should stay fine.  How old is the battery?  

happysellerbuyer

A year old.

Grumpy_chap

Unless you have some reason to suspect the battery will fail you, everything should be fine.  Save your pennies from jump start etc and do something more fun instead.

neilmcl

Grumpy_chap said:

I use a solar battery maintainer with my car - kept it charged all through lockdown and beyond, even now with less sunlight it still does the job.

Which one do you use. My dad has a VW Caddy WAV which are notorious for draining batteries and something like this might be useful, especially if it can be work via a 12v socket.

Grumpy_chap

Hi Neil,
I use the Halfords solar battery maintainer:
https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-accessories/12v-6-watt-solar-maintainer---upto-200ah-196489.html

I have the 'medium' size in our Fiesta and I have the 'large' size in our Focus.  The medium size is great for the Fiesta, but in the Focus it only just kept enough charge.  The Focus is a newer car with more load when not in use - alarm, keyless entry, etc. none of which the Fiesta has.

With the Fords, this is really easy to use as the cigarette lighter socket is live even when the ignition is switched off, so the solar panel just plugs in and out as required.  My Mum has a Honda which switches off the power to the cigarette lighter power socket when the ignition is off, so that would need to be connected to the battery using crocodile clips in that car.