Charging battery not in use

[Marky007]

Bought a charger to give battery bit of a boost while cars not being used

https://i.postimg.cc/kgmSdJNT/20200409-164751.jpg

Was only 25 quid on amazon charges agm batteries

 

[Prodigium]

Smart thinking. I bet there will be a LOT of people buying new batteries when this ends and those start-stop batteries on new cars can get really pricey really fast.

 

[NHN]

Ctek, game over

 

[Marky007]

its this one

 

[Marky007]

Ctek, game over

?
Alot of owners over on the bmw forum have the ctek.

I have charged the fiat 500 / bmw 530d now am charging the audi so am getting my money's worth out of it

 

[Marky007]

Should be good for a while now ...

 

[Seantdi]

View attachment 200627

Should be good for a while now ...

How did you get that on the display if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Marky007]

How did you get that on the display if you don't mind me asking?

Carista app buddy

 

[Marky007]

BIT INFO ON CHARGERS IF YOU HAVE A AGM BATTERY.....

Can use your regular battery charger on AGM or gel cell batteries.

NO. These batteries like to be charged slow and low. Many AGM/gel cell battery chargers have microprocessors that collect information from the battery and adjust the current and voltage accordingly. Some have different settings for charging flooded, gel and AGM batteries. Overcharging can kill these batteries. Also, alternators are not chargers. Don’t rely on an alternator to do the work of a charger. If a battery is discharged to the point that it cannot start the vehicle, use a charger as soon as possible to make sure the battery gets fully charged.

 

[Gazwould]

Ctek, game over

Maypole MP7423 , game over .

£22.74 and EVERYTHING a C-Tek does.

 

[PenttisHSR]

+1 for the maypole

 

[yusuf7869]

@Gazwould would the maypole work for an S4 battery as it states only upto 2.5l cars?

@Marky007 do you have the link to that charger?

thanks

yusuf

 

[Gazwould]

Will just take longer as bigger Ah battery .

Think I've got a 100Ah battery , but it's fine

Crazy to use cc , reminds me of the distinction of EBC Redstuff with 200 BHP with no consideration to weight of vehicle .

 

[A4A4]

@Gazwould thanks
for the recommendation ordered 2 days ago on prime for £22.49 arrived today.

 

[CHEZ]

@Gazwould thanks
for the recommendation ordered 2 days ago on prime for £22.49 arrived today.

View attachment 200849

I am definitely getting one of them when I get paid my 80% pay in a few days

 

[Marky007]

@Gazwould would the maypole work for an S4 battery as it states only upto 2.5l cars?

@Marky007 do you have the link to that charger?


Cant seem to share link but if you type info on picture above into amazon it's there make sure to get agm one if your car has a agm battery

BUDDYGO Car Battery Charger, 12V/24V 8Amp Intelligent Automatic Battery Charger/Maintainer Delivers 3 Stage Charging, with LCD Screen And have 6 Charging Mode, Suitable for More Types of Batteries =amazon]id=B07ZNL3MC4;tld=uk

 

[rum4mo]

Ctek, game over

I even managed to get my older daughter to buy a 5Amp CTEK to look after her 2019 Leon Cupra - well her boy friend has an older one keeping his Esprite battery alive while it is in long term storage, so I suppose CTEK had a head start on her decision making.

I've had a 5Amp CTEK charger/tester for 6.5 years keeping my S4 battery happy, as well as a CTEK battery analyser - and, a 25Amp CTEK charger/support unit for playing with controllers - and giving wife's 2015 Polo's EFB a quick "jab" as it is not used much right now.

 

[CHEZ]

What is the best way to route a wire into the boot to power one of these?
I don't want to snip the wire closing the boot.
A5 coupe

 

[yusuf7869]

I ended up ordering the maypole. I connected it via the bonnet and closed the hood just about not fully using the croc clips. Ill take a photo later on.

 

[yusuf7869]

See photos

 

[CHEZ]

I ended up ordering the maypole. I connected it via the bonnet and closed the hood just about not fully using the croc clips. Ill take a photo later on.

It's ok mate I dragged my ar5e out to garage and pulled my boot apart to have a look so I can hard wire a permanent tail with plug on.
It turns out that 3 core flex can be fed into boot at the top left or right corner as the glass has section that is cut wider. ( But obviously only using 2 wires of the 3, the yellow being snipped out of play)
This can accommodate the flex, the rubber boot seal squashes and the flex can be pulled easily, not tight so, it's not being pinched.
Hope that makes sense.
It's all in the design process at the minute,and will get pics up when it's done.
But basically, decent wire soldered to crimp terminals, one on battery +, one on boot floor, around 60cm of flex, (maybe more) coming from here with a Tamiya style radio control car female battery connector soldered on, all wire tie wrapped so secure and out of the way should I need to get to space saver, and about 50mm of tail protruding from right hand side of hinged boot floor.
(This can be popped back inside when not required)

When the maypole arrives, I shall solder the other male Tamiya style battery connector to some decent yellow weather proof flex of around 2 metres then solder that to the feed wires on the maypole permanently.
Like I said will post pics up when complete
So basically all I do is park car, open boot, plug in, close boot, close garage.

 

[yusuf7869]

It also comes with this connector that you can have attached to the battery so all you got to do is connect the charger

 

[CHEZ]

It also comes with this connector that you can have attached to the battery so all you got to do is connect the charger

Yes mate I seen them, but as I am soldering new wire in anyway, thought I would go heavy duty, and just put new ones in

 

[yusuf7869]

Nice, definitely would love to see the end result

 

[rum4mo]

Yes, I never thought about the fact that the +ve post under the bonnet is on the wrong side of the firewall, I'm lucky as I have mine garaged!

Anyone using a CTEK could just get the correct sized ring tags lead and if needed also buy an extension lead to get the charger to be sited in a place where the bonnet can be fully closed, I bought a CTEK extension lead, have the CTEK on a bracket on the garage wall at the front of the S4 and stick with using the crock clips.

My daughter's boyfriend is a bit OCD, so he just had to fit the small tag terminal to the battery +ve and the -ve to the local body earth, though it is too big for the small size of ring tage so it seems to have been cut open so that it fits - at least that means that they can leave it locked up overnight while giving it a top up charge due to lack of use right now.

 

[A4A4]

Glad I got the maypole charger and just came in the nick of time.

Used the croc clips to attached them to the +/- charging points under the bonnet, lowered the bonnet slowly to a point it was resting on the latch and was clear of positive croc clip and cable. Attached the charger to extension lead from the garage.

Locked the car doors, closed the garage door and powered it on.

The battery was already showing less than 20% (1 bar flashing on the charger display)

Took 6 hours to fully charge the AGM battery. Not bad for a 4 amp charge.

Great piece of kit and does the job perfectly.

 

[PenttisHSR]

I made the cigarette lighter permanent live and use the charger in that, via a cigarette lighter plug.
The fuse for it is in the boot, just loop a fused permanent live there, dead easy.
Wires are then just trapped in the bottom of the door when shut, no problem.
Can leave it like that until next time you need the car.

The permanent live is very handy to charge phones or sat-nav etc. whilst you are away from the car and it can be locked.

 

[jdp1962]

There's something puzzling me; I've seen chargers advertised with 12V terminals to plug into a cigaretter lighter type socket. How does that charge the battery? Isn't it taking power from the battery and routing it back again? Unless I'm missing something (and I accept that's very likely) it seems like the equivalent of writing a cheque to clear your overdraft.

 

[rum4mo]

Is that not just to use a support battery when swopping the car's own battery, ie like a temporary slave battery.

Some just use a PP6 9Volts internal battery to do that job, I've got one that gets its power from the mains, and I've also got another one that plugs into the OBD socket and I use that with a small GEL battery if I needed to remove/replace the car's own battery - I've also now got a CTEK 25Amp charger/support unit that I could use for that by connecting between battery +ve lead and car body, sound like I've got too many things!

Edit:- bottom line is, as it sounds a bit like you are looking for an easy method to keep your car battery in good health during the lock down, why not just get one that is like the CTEK MXS5 and if the lead length bothers you, also buy the extension lead which possibly allows you to fit the charger to the jump posts under the bonnet and have the charging lead coming out from the front of the bonnet and maybe even be able to rest the charger on the ground under the front of the car.

 

[rum4mo]

One issue that I would have if I was charging the car out on the driveway is, with the +VE jumper post cover removed and the box that it is in's lid open a bit, if it rained/snowed etc, lots of water would get into that box and long term that would not be good, so I would intend to make up a fused lead, or buy the CTEK panel mounting kit and fit that to the upright plate at the back of the engine and feed a fused +VE and a -VE to that - or use its supplied leads, so that all you end up with is a sealed/covered charging socket at the back of the engine compartment - then using either the charger's own supplied lead, or that plus its extension lead, pass this "flat twin" lead out from under the bonnet at a suitable point and have the charger located under the car,maybe raised above the ground to prevent it getting covered in rain water, even although some of them claim to be fit for use out of doors.

 

[PenttisHSR]

There's something puzzling me; I've seen chargers advertised with 12V terminals to plug into a cigaretter lighter type socket. How does that charge the battery? Isn't it taking power from the battery and routing it back again? Unless I'm missing something (and I accept that's very likely) it seems like the equivalent of writing a cheque to clear your overdraft.

The maypole charger is connected to my house mains and charges the car through the (permanently live) cigarette lighter socket.
Normally the cigarette lighter socket is only live with ignition on.
The "chargers" you are referring to, are I think the "boost chargers" for when the car wont start. They are not chargers, they are rechargeable batteries which are themselves re-charged by the car (when running).

 

[PenttisHSR]

One issue that I would have if I was charging the car out on the driveway is, with the +VE jumper post cover removed and the box that it is in's lid open a bit, if it rained/snowed etc, lots of water would get into that box and long term that would not be good, so I would intend to make up a fused lead, or buy the CTEK panel mounting kit and fit that to the upright plate at the back of the engine and feed a fused +VE and a -VE to that - or use its supplied leads, so that all you end up with is a sealed/covered charging socket at the back of the engine compartment - then using either the charger's own supplied lead, or that plus its extension lead, pass this "flat twin" lead out from under the bonnet at a suitable point and have the charger located under the car,maybe raised above the ground to prevent it getting covered in rain water, even although some of them claim to be fit for use out of doors.

That's why I use the cigarette lighter socket (modified to be permanent live)
Car is locked up like normal.

 

[Dippy]

There's something puzzling me; I've seen chargers advertised with 12V terminals to plug into a cigaretter lighter type socket. How does that charge the battery? Isn't it taking power from the battery and routing it back again? Unless I'm missing something (and I accept that's very likely) it seems like the equivalent of writing a cheque to clear your overdraft.

I have one of those - it's to charge one car from another's battery, or as a boost-start. I have never used it and would be worried to because of the risk of blowing a fuse.

 

[daytonamart]

Hi Chaps,

I've just put a CTEK MXS 5.0 in the classifieds.

Brand new, never been used.

£50 delivered secure signed for package.

Any questions let me know.

 

[scotty76]

Can I ask another stupid question? I see that the +ve attaches to the battery or similar and the -ve to a "suitable ground point" on the body work. How do you identify a suitable point? Thinking about this for my wife's Mk7 Golf.

 

[rum4mo]

Can I ask another stupid question? I see that the +ve attaches to the battery or similar and the -ve to a "suitable ground point" on the body work. How do you identify a suitable point? Thinking about this for my wife's Mk7 Golf.

On most/all cars, the battery -VE goes directly to a body earthing point which will be very close to the battery -VE post/terminal, so for permanent fitting of a charging lead, you would fit the -VE ring tag to that body earth bonding point.

 

[A4A4]

Thought I would invest in one of these. A motopower battery tester to check the status of the battery, after fully charging it last week with a charger.

Not sure how accurate it is but the was showing 12.46V ( status medium, a little low). Then checked the alternator, this showed a good status with 14.39V when the engine was running.

Does anyone know if these battery testers are accurate?

 

[Dippy]

Can I ask another stupid question? I see that the +ve attaches to the battery or similar and the -ve to a "suitable ground point" on the body work. How do you identify a suitable point? Thinking about this for my wife's Mk7 Golf.

On most/all cars, the battery -VE goes directly to a body earthing point which will be very close to the battery -VE post/terminal, so for permanent fitting of a charging lead, you would fit the -VE ring tag to that body earth bonding point.

Scotty, just be careful that it is an earth bonding point and not just a fixing bolt. If you plan to do any electrical work then you ought to own a multimeter (which can be unbelievable cheap these days) so you can check the earth continuity of the various bolts. Don't forget to check the continuity of the multimeter leads first.

Just as an example, a battery charger at just over 14V connected via a poor earth connection of 1 ohm, would be limited to about 2A due to the voltage drop across the connection. Depending on how sophisticated (or not) the charger circuit is, it might just sit there cycling its charge current and take a lot longer to charge the battery than you expect. As a contrast a dashcam might only need 0.3A to work so such a fixing point would only cause a 0.3V drop which won't be enough to stop it working.

 

[rum4mo]

@Dippy, on all modern VW Group cars that have the battery located under the bonnet, there is an earth bonding stud at or within 6 inches of the battery earth, ie -VE post, so anyone following that lead to where it is bolted to the body, will have found the correct earth bonding point which is best suited to be used when using a battery charger. That Golf being mentioned might even have a plated tag to clip the crock clip to if that is to be the chosen method of connecting the battery charger up.

 

[rum4mo]

Thought I would invest in one of these. A motopower battery tester to check the status of the battery, after fully charging it last week with a charger.

Not sure how accurate it is but the was showing 12.46V ( status medium, a little low). Then checked the alternator, this showed a good status with 14.39V when the engine was running.


Does anyone know if these battery testers are accurate?

As you have asked the question, I'd not expect much in the way of a item called a "battery tester" for about £20, what that is mainly is just a digital voltmeter with some LEDs corresponding with certain voltage levels.

Having said that, you have bought it and can use it as a yes/no indicator of " is my battery charged" and "is my charging system working" - which might be all you want to know, if you knew how to assess measured voltages, you could have used that money to buy a simple cheap multimeter which would have many other uses.

A proper battery tester will cost a lot more and tell you a lot more and if used wisely give you early warning of battery and charging problems, though a proper multimeter will also let you know about charging problems though not early warning of battery dying.