I can't see any mention of trickle charging. Float charging and constant voltage charging are all that are mentioned or recommended.
You mix "trickle charging" with "charging voltage" in the same paragraph, which suggests that your success in charging lead acid batteries has perhaps been more by accident rather than through knowledge.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:
Not unknown. For some reason peculiar to them, Commer of van fame wired up the brake lights to do exactly that.
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Just had a look at them, they look extremely similar (different colour case and different name) to the Aldi one I bought last year?
I am going to take one of our two cars off the road at the end of this month. I had thought of running a mains extension under the bonnet and leaving a charger there. The extension will be plugged into a timer to control how long the chargers is on.
How long a time should I power up the charger, per day/week?
Dave
The trouble is cheap chargers generally wreck batteries if left attached for long lengths of time. I don't know what's currently on the market. But a charger designed for "float charging" is one you can permanently leave connected to the battery.
I have known good lead-acid batteries keep their charge for nearly a year, but it's rare.
I have seen it suggested that a unconnected battery should be topped up every 6 weeks. I would disconnect the charger if the terminal voltage gets much above 14V and then assume the battery is then close to being fully charged.
Yes. Wonder how easy it would be to modify?
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Dave saying something like:
Half an hour per day would be fine. That's exactly what I do on one of mine. So far, that particular battery's remained good for a couple of years after being laid up. An alternative is a decent sized solar panel inside the windscreen and charging either through the lighter socket or via flyleads to the disconnected battery. Again, another of my vehicles has just that.
All depends on the battery's self-discharge rate and of course if anything's slightly draining it on the vehicle.
According to an expert on another group the average lead acid car battery loses 60% of its charge per month. I'm only quoting this FWIW as it's not my experience. I have a clever electronic battery tester which works out the actual capacity and that shows nearer 20% per month. Of course if the battery is left connected in a modern car, the quiescent drain may well flatten it in less than a month.
It happens that Dave Plowman (News) formulated :
Not that easy - the button needs to be pressed several times, depending on the model, to set it for car battery charging. There are other types which do start charging as soon as the mains come back on, but the down side is that they discharge the battery if they remain connected whilst the mains is off.
Naw, thats worse than NiCd!...
I'd say even that is high, no doubt that also includes the energy taken by the tester. Lead acid batteries have a very low self discharge, Battery University say 40% per year (3%/month average):
Agreed, modern cars have a "deep sleep" mode that they can be put into. The makers use this when brand new cars are spending weeks on a boat traveling the world or parked up on disused airfields waiting to be sold.
Sounds far too high to me, unless it includes the quiescent drain.
Dunno exactly how it works but I suspect it puts on a very heavy load for a fraction of a second only. I checked its reading against a 5 year old battery by doing a 20 hour rate test - and it was spot on.
Me too. But he came out with all sorts of lab tests to prove it. Makes no difference - I've been using them long enough to know he's wrong.
I have a boat - that is not used over winter - I have a modern 12V pulse charger .. I just put it on an overnight charge once a month. It initially take a couple of amps, but drops very quickly to trickle charge.
Boat starts no problem come spring.
Far better to keep battery in good nick ... don't keep it permananently trickle charging, and avoid large current charging form flat, as that can damage the plates.
Put a solar charger on the parcel shelf, then you don't have any mains voltage hanging about.
Won't work in the garage though!
"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Nor mine.
I've left cars in lockups regularly for the winter, occasionally for 18 months or more, with either no drain (no clock, no stereo memory etc) or with battery disconnected - and they've started happily come spring.
The battery in 'erselfs 2cv has been on for roughly a decade - it's used occasional weekends through the summer, usually with at least one week+ trip per year. The battery earth is normally disconnected over the winter, but left connected through the summer - with a stereo with memory fitted. It's not had to be jumped or charged for years.
As far as the original question goes - just disconnect the battery and reconnect when you want to use it again.
I've not heard of this. But not saying it doesn't happen. My experience is that new batteries have electrodes of high purity, such that batteries have a very low rate of self discharge. They may well retain their charge over an extended time. One issue when fitted to a car is that some of the car's gadgets do consume a small current.
I had believed that batteries were generally shipped dry, with the electrodes in their formed state, where on importation or before sale, were topped up with the correct strength of sulphuric acid. A dry battery will quite literally last years on the shelf. Again I could be wrong.
Well, since I gave it about four hours on the charger on Friday it's been fine. If there is something draining it, it doesn't seem to be at work now.
How much use does a car need to keep its battery charged?
Daniele
IIRC, BMW won't entertain a claim for a new battery if the car's not been run for over three weeks. I've read somewhere.
=A0 London SW
Here are some numbers recalled from working days. When one typically dealt with 24 cell, nominal 48 volt, large capacity telecomm. batteries and occasionally with other varieties/sizes!
Voltages per cell and for a six cell car battery. Charging voltage; 2.3 to 2.4 volts/13.8 to 14.4 volts. Floating/trickle charge to keep batteries alive and fully ready for service, 2.15 (British Post Office) to 2.17 (US. ATT&T etc.) 12.9 to
13.0. Just a few milliamps going to battery bank to offset natural self discharge tendency. A non trickled battery in good condition can self discharge in several months. In other words any 14.5 volts and over can boil a wet battery dry. A trickle voltage below say 12.5 not much use.Another yard stick read somewhere was; after some 12 to 24 hours after being fully charged (not over-charged) a battery in good condition should settle down and assume a nominal voltage of around 11.8 to 12 volts. If it's anything below that or down to say 10.7 volts or below, battery is shot! Haven't tried that myself, although got several old truck batteries that were refreshed recently, so must try it!
PS. Forget nonsense about modern encased batteries discharging if stored on a cool cement floor. Old wives tale due to earlier, probably porous rubber encased batteries of an earlier era!
BTW Apropos the "Save a tree ................. " Try this: "Save fish, hunt some seals". The 500 year old fishery off the east coast on Canada/North America has been decimated by a) Overfishing and b) The millions of seals who will eat almost anything marine!
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