Charger for a Calcium Car Battery

click86

Could anyone recommend a charger for a Calcium car battery, please?

The car is a 2012 Ford KA and the battery is from Halfords. It does't seem to hold the charge for long though (alternator is fine according to the garage).

It's not going on particularly short journeys so I'm betting the battery isn't right for the Stop/Start technology, or it's simply faulty.

Will be taking the car down to Halfords but could do with a charger just in case it doesn't start again.

The only ones I can find are for Lead Acid only, and not for Calcium or Stop/Start vehicles.

Homer_home

Any smart charger should be able to charge your battery
C-tek make smart chargers or Lidl/Aldi do their own version twice a year for around £14

neilmcl

I'd recommend the CTEK MXS5.0 charger but tbh, given the age of battery it'll be cheaper to get a new one. I wouldn't get a replacement  calcium battery but rather go for EFB or AGM for your car.

forgotmyname

Is it the correct EFB battery?

The alternator issue is a common one, get a plug in voltmeter and monitor the charge rate.  You will probably find

it fluctuates between 12v and 14v.   As you may have found when you get it tested its always working  fine

but then hours/days later it suddenly drops teh charge voltage again.  Dont know if there is a fix, sometimes a

new alternator works and sometimes it doesnt.

neilmcl

forgotmyname said:

Is it the correct EFB battery?

The alternator issue is a common one, get a plug in voltmeter and monitor the charge rate.  You will probably find

it fluctuates between 12v and 14v.   As you may have found when you get it tested its always working  fine

but then hours/days later it suddenly drops teh charge voltage again.  Dont know if there is a fix, sometimes a

new alternator works and sometimes it doesnt.

I think the point is it's not an EFB battery but one of those silver calcium batteries that's fitted. They are/were a kind of half-way house between a standard car battery and an EFB or AGM battery. You can still get them as a replacement but it may be better to replace it with an EFB battery instead.

neilmcl

click86 said:

Could anyone recommend a charger for a Calcium car battery, please?

The car is a 2012 Ford KA and the battery is from Halfords. It does't seem to hold the charge for long though (alternator is fine according to the garage).

It's not going on particularly short journeys so I'm betting the battery isn't right for the Stop/Start technology, or it's simply faulty.

Will be taking the car down to Halfords but could do with a charger just in case it doesn't start again.

The only ones I can find are for Lead Acid only, and not for Calcium or Stop/Start vehicles.

Well given that it's possibly the original battery then it's more than over 8 years is more than likely at the end of it's life.

Have a look for Calcium batteries at https://www.tayna.co.uk/

click86

Thanks all,

I did forget to mention. It's only 6 months since purchase and fitting (hence why I think it may be faulty).

It's actually a conventional battery but comes up as suitable for the vehicle when searching for the reg.

Lesson learned here I think...always read the full spec!

I'll be getting this swapped out for an EFB battery.

neilmcl

click86 said:

Thanks all,

I did forget to mention. It's only 6 months since purchase and fitting (hence why I think it may be faulty).

It's actually a conventional battery but comes up as suitable for the vehicle when searching for the reg.

Lesson learned here I think...always read the full spec!

I'll be getting this swapped out for an EFB battery.

Hang on, if the battery is only 6 months old then are you sure it isn't faulty, and if it is then why are you not getting it replaced under the warranty.

Do you have the 1.2 petrol or 1.3 diesel Ford Ka?

click86

Popped up to Halfords today to get it tested but our local branch had the shutters down. Phoned the number and it said they are only open Mon to Fri at the moment. Will be popping back in the week to get it tested.

I do have a question, if I turn stop/start off, would a conventional battery provide enough power still?

Edit - The start/stop shows as off, but I imagine this is due to incorrect conditions or battery.

In all honesty, the start/stop has never worked when stationary. It only ever helps if you stall, you just press the clutch and it kicks back in.

Edit - it's the 1.2L petrol.

greyteam1959

Get it replaced under warranty.
Even the worst cheapest battery will have a 1 year warranty.

neilmcl

click86 said:

Popped up to Halfords today to get it tested but our local branch had the shutters down. Phoned the number and it said they are only open Mon to Fri at the moment. Will be popping back in the week to get it tested.

I do have a question, if I turn stop/start off, would a conventional battery provide enough power still?

Edit - The start/stop shows as off, but I imagine this is due to incorrect conditions or battery.

In all honesty, the start/stop has never worked when stationary. It only ever helps if you stall, you just press the clutch and it kicks back in.

Edit - it's the 1.2L petrol.

Start/stop systems don't tend to work in low temp conditions so it doesn't surprise me if it's currently off, mine hasn't worked for months but then I haven't been going anywhere and the battery is too low at the moment. You can till run you car from a standard lead acid battery but things like stop/start wont work.

I'm not familiar with your car and the calcium batteries but with most cars that have start/stop systems and EFB/AGM batteries the batteries have to be coded and registered with the car's battery management system. It's possible that when you had your battery fitted by Halfords this wasn't done.

FYI, I saw 3 batteries for the 2012 Ford Ka 1.2 petrol on the Halfords battery, 2 were Calcium, a Yuasa battery and Halfords own brand (which is made by Yuasa anyway and cheaper), and an EFB type, although this was quite expensive.