BEST WAY TO KEEP A CAR BATTERY CHARGED UP?

sevenhills

TUVOK said:

Thanks for all replies.
My battery is about a year old, my car sit's in a real hard frost pocket so I'm always a bit worried.
Interested in the two devices posted, the one at £4-80 seems excellent for the price, almost too cheap.
Any one used one or the dearer tool? 

I bought this one. It has no buttons or anything to press, fully automatic.

I would prefer one that allowed you to set a slow or fast charge.

But I guess it is idiot-proof, although I have only had it a short time

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403936064109?hash=item5e0c77326d:g:aIgAAOSwcjtjQUS9

TUVOK

HillStreetBlues said:

TUVOK said:

Thanks for all replies.
My battery is about a year old, my car sit's in a real hard frost pocket so I'm always a bit worried.
Interested in the two devices posted, the one at £4-80 seems excellent for the price, almost too cheap.
Any one used one or the dearer tool? 

£3.60 is even better.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314958813452

Has any one bought and used one of the battery condition testers such as the £4-80 and £3-60 one's mentioned in replies, and most important, do they work satisfactory and are you happy with the product?
Thanks.

facade

They are a waste of money IMHO, they simply tell you what you already know (whether the battery is flat), except they give an indication of if the alternator is working.

You can get more information from a voltmeter, or for no cost put the sat nav/display unit into service mode and it will show the system voltage.

Aldi/Lidl sell them periodically. They work, I have one somewhere that I got as a stocking filler one Christmas.

Just buy a charger and top the battery up once a fortnight or so.

Mildly_Miffed

sevenhills said:

TUVOK said:

Thanks for all replies.
My battery is about a year old, my car sit's in a real hard frost pocket so I'm always a bit worried.
Interested in the two devices posted, the one at £4-80 seems excellent for the price, almost too cheap.
Any one used one or the dearer tool? 

I bought this one. It has no buttons or anything to press, fully automatic.

I would prefer one that allowed you to set a slow or fast charge.

But I guess it is idiot-proof, although I have only had it a short time

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403936064109?hash=item5e0c77326d:g:aIgAAOSwcjtjQUS9

It's only 6A. It's not exactly a fast-charger.

But even so, it's a smart charger - it'll automatically detect the state of the battery, and vary the charge current and voltage to best charge it. You don't need to switch it between fast and slow. 

TUVOK

It says on ebay it's a jump starter too, would you know if it is?
Thanks

Mildly_Miffed

TUVOK said:

It says on ebay it's a jump starter too, would you know if it is?
Thanks

It isn't.

It says it is in the headline, it then doesn't mention it anywhere else, and has a "Doesn't store electricity" footnote. "Storing electricity" is exactly what it'd need to do to jump-start.

sevenhills

facade said:

You can get more information from a voltmeter, or for no cost put the sat nav/display unit into service mode and it will show the system voltage.

I find it odd that you can buy a voltmeter for a couple of ££s that plug into your cigarette lighter, yet the car does not come from new with a voltage display on the dashboard.

Perhaps newer cars have this?

Mildly_Miffed

sevenhills said:

facade said:

You can get more information from a voltmeter, or for no cost put the sat nav/display unit into service mode and it will show the system voltage.

I find it odd that you can buy a voltmeter for a couple of ££s that plug into your cigarette lighter, yet the car does not come from new with a voltage display on the dashboard.

Perhaps newer cars have this?

There's a (lack of) charge warning light that tells you if the alternator's not working.

Anything more than that would either lie (like temperature gauges on all modern cars) or panic drivers.

Remember that almost everything built in the last decade or so has smart charging, where the alternator is only turned on by the ECU when needed. Put a voltmeter in the lighter socket, and you'll see it sit at 12.5v a lot of the time.