I only use my car about once a month at the moment and when I tired to start it this morning the battery was flat, fortunately a builder working next door gave me a jump start which was kind of him.
The car is just under 3 years old with 9,000 miles on the clock.
Do I go for a normal trickle charger (£30 appx) or one of these booster packs (£100 appx). It's not kept in the garage but I can easily take mains power from a socket in the garage.
Thoughts appreciated.
A trickle charger should be fine. It's what I used during Covid lockdown.
I'm in a similar position. I ended up buying a cheapo AA branded solar trickle charger from fleabay which I keep in the windscreen and plug into the ODB-II port. Touch wood I've not had a flat battery at all, but I have to confess I've not done any serious testing other than put a multimeter on the panel output to ensure that it's outputting ~12v upon delivery.
At approx 60 miles/week it may be worth thinking of selling it and using a taxi. It may work out cheaper once you've factored in depreciation, servicing, insurance, road tax, fuel etc. If the taxi is viable for some journeys think about car hire.
Otherwise a trickle charger is the way to go.
The best way to look after your battery in these circumstances is to put it
24/7 on a controlled maintainer charger, such as Optimate or Accumate; the discount supermarkets often sell other makes of these types of charger quite cheaply.Roughly speaking, either of the two named ones above will cost a little less than a new battery and keep it in tip-top condition.
Check the charging-maintaining cycle of any that you’re interested in.
Note that in hot weather batteries self-discharge at a faster rate.
That's exactly what I did (and probably the same product).
No further issues after that.
More important now because my 12v battery is now relatively tiny, as it's just for the hybrid stuff.
My Suzuki has a 48 V battery under the passenger seat which runs the electric motor to aid acceleration. Despite showing 4 bars (from 5) it didn't seem able to lend any power to the starter battery :-(
It is probably not designed to. The assumption is that the 12V battery starts the car and is charged by the alternator. The 48V one is purely to aid acceleration and recover energy on braking. There is no method of charging either battery without the engine running. It would be an additional, unnecessary piece of hardware.
Our BEV of course has no alternator and therefore does charge its 12V battery from the traction battery and has to have a charger for that, so it can also top it up when switched off for a long period, if necessary.
Our CRV, an excellent car, had one issue - after a several weeks the battery would be to low start it. It was a known problem. It became an issue when we started taking long trips and leaving it at home.
I ran a lead from the battery to the rear hatch area, fused at the battery end, negative to the chassis in the engine bay, and a pair of Anderson power pole connectors at the other end. ( I used those as I use them in my hobby.)
I also made up a short section with four more connectors and a diode 5A.
A lead from a Power supply in the garage, adjusted to give 13.5V after the diode, was connected when I when away.
It was set up so, if I forgot to disconnect things, the Anderson’s just pulled apart, the diode stopped the car battery discharging if the mains failed or I drove of and the wires broke etc.
It worked a treat, even when we went on 6 week trips.
I used it in the garage and on the drive, I was able to park the CRV in a place where I could run the 12v wire and it was all but invisible.
Ah, but does it? For the HV DC to LV DC converter to work (and charge the
12V battery) the contactors would have to close to energise the system. As far as I’m aware, this only happens when the “ignition” is on or when the car is connected to a charger.If the car is neither plugged into a charger or not turned on I don’t think there’s any way it can energise the 12V charging circuitry.
Tim
My Nissan Leaf has a solar panel built into the roof for charging the 12V battery. Trouble is I keep it locked in the garage with only six 9" wide windows so it doesn't much charge between very rare journeys.
My hybrid, an Outlander, if it hasn’t been driven, ‘tops up’ the 12V battery ( which is used for various things but not actually the starter motor ) at 2 pm every day from the traction battery. The traction battery may show zero but it has a ‘reserve’, which is kept for starting etc. It is recharged by the engine and regenerative braking etc. You can, if you wish, recharge the traction battery from the engine.
Teslas seem to be an exception here (or some of them). Having quite a heavy off-state load on the 12V and a small capacity battery (especially the Li-ion ones) they run down the traction battery even when off. Presumably they don't have a battery isolating contactor, or have some sort of low-current bypass.
nib
Jeff Gaines snipped-for-privacy@outlook.com wrote
The problem with boosters is that they let the battery go flat and just let you start with a flat battery. Letting the battery go flat is very bad for the life of the battery.
So trickle charging is much better for the battery.
But there would be a trip hazard with the trickle charger kept on all the time.
My parents used to have a Toyota Yaris hybrid. It was forever having problems with its starter-motor battery: they'd come back to the car after parking it (sometimes for as little as a few minutes after a long run which ought to have fully charged both batteries) to find that a) the central locking would not unlock the doors; b) the alarm would go off as soon as they opened the door with the key in the keyhole; c) the starter motor would not operate at all or would turn the engine over far too slowly for it to fire. They were forever calling out the RAC to get them started. They had the car into the Toyota garage numerous times to check for anything draining the battery when the car is supposedly turned off (so only the alarm and the clock should be using power) and they had a new battery. Nothing fixed it. They eventually sold the car, with the price affected by this known problem, so someone else will have inherited the self-flattening battery.
No, on both counts. Explain options...
Booster pack: these are to start a flat battery car, they're not battery chargers. Relying on one results in the battery often going flat, which will kill it fairly quickly.
Modern intelligent car battery charger, 4 - 8A : the ideal option
Trickle charger: minium cost typ 1A chargers. Cheap, small, very slow. Usually regulated but not full smart control.
Old dumb charger: these love to kill batteries. OK if you just leave it on a few hours, leave it on too long & it will abuse the battery
Solar panel: might do the job, less likely in winter. No need for a mains supply.
That was my first thought. Sometimes referred to as a multistage charger. It doesn't have to be much current either, as all it is doing is maintaining a minor discharge
I would put the two above in the same boat.
It's fine if the windscreen or possibly the rear window gets some sun. If in the wrong location and largely in shadow it's hit and miss it will work, especially in the colder months.
These days it is best to find out what type of battery your car has. For example our VW cars use AGM batteries possibly because they have engine stop start, so that the engine stops whilst you at traffic lights etc.
Also there a smart chargers which can be kinder to the battery
These details may be useful:
You should have named the precise model. This is only a guess on my part.
"The compact and lithium-ion battery stores electrical energy recovered from deceleration and braking and incorporates an idle stop function operated via the Integrated Starter Generator. The battery, along with the DC/DC convertor unit, is located under the front seats to assist overall weight distribution. "
"The new and higher-powered Suzuki SHVS system consists of a 48V lithium-ion battery, Integrated Starter Generator motor (known as ISG) and a 48V-12V (DC/DC) converter to power components requiring lower voltage including lights, audio and air conditioning. The ISG acts as both a generator and starter motor; it is belt driven and assists the petrol engine during acceleration from stand-still with a higher level torque of 235 Nm (173 lb.ft) available from 2,000 rpm up to 3,000 rpm to boost mid-range response as well. "
"Engine/transmission: Revised 1.4 litre, four cylinder Boosterjet direct injection petrol unit with variable inlet valve timing plus a 48-Volt integrated starter/generator motor, lithium-ion battery pack with regenerative and self charging power functions, six speed manual, 2WD "
It has two batteries. You may have to look at a few minutes worth of this video, to figure that out. The lead-acid seems to be up-front, the lithium iron phosphate is further back.
This sounds like something Makita (toolmaker) would try.
*******Since the electricals around that lead-acid battery are not conventional, I would consult with the dealership (or the user manual), concerning charging. It looks like the 12V lead acid starts the motor from cold. (The lead acid may actually have more cold-cranking-amps than the Lithium Iron Phosphate.) The 48V lithium is a boost source once the machine is running.
On a conventional car, the diodes on the alternator, prevent reverse current flow. The example car has way more complexity around this area of the car.
Paul
My Polo has Regenerative assisted braking and charges the battery.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.