Battery Charging

[DaveA1]

I've not moved my motor for over three weeks now, this is not favouring the Battery. So I intend to put it on charge, for short periods.
Do you think it will do any harm to the electronics if I leave the battery connected or is it better to remove battery from my motor????

 

[Damian]

If by "motor" you mean your car then as long as the ignition is off, it will be fine to just hook up the charger.

 

[otherclive]

I've not moved my motor for over three weeks now, this is not favouring the Battery. So I intend to put it on charge, for short periods.
Do you think it will do any harm to the electronics if I leave the battery connected or is it better to remove battery from my motor????

The guy opposite us has a Nissan GTR with four massive dustbin exhausts. When it crackles into life at 0545-0600 it vibrates our bedroom windows. He hasn't used it for 2-3 weeks and this morning he went to start it; ZILCH. He couldn't get its going even with jump leads either. So there it stays, OH bliss. Modern cars systems will slowly drain the battery so either it needs removing or the car run. Disconnecting the battery can cause secondary issues sometimes when it is reconnected. Why not connect small CTEK type charger once a week with battery in situ.

 

[JezzerB]

As above-don't use an ordinary charger on the car-not ideal , but a CTEK or Optimiser are designed that way and won't harm the electrics-car or caravan. Modern cars don't take kindly to having their battery removed either -so get a decent maintenance charger and leave attached if you can!

 

[Bid]

If you cannot get the suggested chargers both Aldi and Lidl do there own which are good value for money and do the same (Aldi was about £13) and Aldi had them for sale a week or so ago and may still have them in store. I've had one for about four years to look after the battery on my Jag and Freelander always lets the battery connected and never had any issues in all that time.

Keep safe

 

[DaveA1]

I have a charger that claims it's fully automatic, had it years. Thanks all.

 

[Hutch]

I have an old Halfords charger, that's similar charges, then goes into maintaining mode.

 

[Hutch]

Two days ago, decided to drive to the Chemist to get the Bosses holdall of medication for the month, and the car took a few crank overs before churning into life. So had a half hours drive around the village to recharge it.
I decided that yesterday I would got to the caravan in storage, and get the battery out of that to bring it home and charge it. When getting it home I was nicley surprised to find that after 10 weeks, the battery was still at 12.7 volts. So its in the garage on charge for a 24 hour top up. Ready for the off in October maybe,

 

[DaveA1]

Hi
Car has sat in the garage for almost 8 weeks, I've put the charger on for a couple of times, for a couple of hours.
Been in lock down ,going for short walks, my lad has been great doing all our shopping.
Yesterday decided to go for a drive, went too the car and it started as always, didn't struggle at all.

 

[JezzerB]

Lots of batteries will struggle with this situation-I have a Ring (£22) smart charger and charge all our cars and the motorbikes weekly till it says full. (we have my daughter's car at home at the mo-her driving lessons are of course on hold and her test was cancelled-as we locked down she was due! Now July but if it happens then she'll be rusty! Letting a battery drain then giving it a drive for 30mins might do more harm than good-best left alone and charged weekly or left charging if you can ie it's in a garage and you have a smart charger. Not easy for everyone-someone down the road had put a little solar charger on the car dashboard-it all helps. My mother didn't heed my advice and her battery has given up the ghost-mind you it was due-just been tipped over the edge by this-9 years isn't bad!!!

 

[otherclive]

I’ve been taking the cars out periodically at no more than two week intervals. It keeps the battery charged but helps seals in brakes, drive shafts and air con etc to stay lubricated. The caravan battery is hooked up to its CTEK and once “ green” I give it a further 24 hours. But it’s been remarkable how little voltage it actually looses.

 

[Parksy]

I’ve been taking the cars out periodically at no more than two week intervals. It keeps the battery charged but helps seals in brakes, drive shafts and air con etc to stay lubricated. The caravan battery is hooked up to its CTEK and once “ green” I give it a further 24 hours. But it’s been remarkable how little voltage it actually looses.

I have my 2 leisure batteries in my shed at home and I use my smart charger to keep them charged on alternate months.
Normally one of them would have been on the caravan and in regular use by now, with the spare for when we go off grid.
With the cars I do the same as Clive.
I give each car a fortnightly run around the local area when we do our click and collect shopping.
I'm still using the same diesel fuel that I filled up with before this lockdown began, but now that we can travel a bit further I might do longer runs in both cars to get the engines properly up to normal operating temperature.

 

[Beachball]

My car sat on the drive for a good fortnight at present i am on bedrest i have a severe Back ache cannot hardly walk . our son coming up it started first time so i think the battery is ok .

 

[Beehpee]

I’ve got 2 cars on the drive that I haven’t driven in 7 weeks but have had a bit of movement, just a bit of forward and reverse to keep the rust at bay on the disks and make sure nothing is sticking, batteries have been both fine with starting up once every week or so, Like parksy both vehicles have same amount of fuel as 7 weeks ago, saved me a fortune as usually spend over £100 weekly on fuel, one thing I have noticed that’s funny, I don’t use cash very often preferring plastic even for minor purchases, when I was last at work 7 weeks ago I had £7.18 in my pocket and I keep swapping it to whatever trousers I’m wearing, it’s funny more so because there’s 2 x £2 coins amongst it and I’m keeping it away from her indoors because she saves them so they’d soon be gone.

BP

 

[CustardAvenger]

I purchased a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger as my (Tow) car had not done any significant mileage since December last year and had started throwing low-battery warnings on the dash, post-lockdown. Hopefully it has prolonged the life of the battery by performing the refresh programme.

As the car has a fully enclosed battery, only the + terminal can be quickly accessed, so charging the battery on the car is the best option. I do have to use a jumper cable to reach the grounding point on the engine mount as the CTEK lead is about 2" too short.