Flat Battery & trickle chargers

[Steve H]

Flat battery tonite (although the clock is still going!! I havent used the car since Sunday and so I must have left something on. I keep her undercover directly in front of the garage door and so I am thinking of a trickle charger.

I have checked a few postes on here and everyone seems to keep thir cars in a garage with the charger on. Security is not an issue and so I assume these chargers plug into the mains and onto the battery? Sorry for my inexperience but I am new to the world of classic car ownership. also can anyone recommend a charger for such a job?

Of topic, I have also noticed a bit more rust around the headlights, could this be the fact that it is outside and undercover? could it be the cover? Is there anything I can put on the chrome to protect it?

Thanks all

Steve

[jimed]

I have a CTEK XS800 which is a conditioner - ie you can leave it permanently plugged in and attached to the car and it will keep the battery fully charged and only top it up if the charge falls. There are others such as Accumate and I see that Lidl is also selling something at the moment which says it does the same job (at £12.99 could be worth a look). The conditioners usually charge at a low rate so a fully discharged battery might take a couple of days or so to fully charge.
The CTEK and Accumates will probably cost you £30 or so and more so worth shopping around - I managed to find a local co that sells on the internet at good prices and picked one up without the carriage so hunt around.
Jim

[Barkychoc]

If you need to extend the cables then extend the 12 volt leads - so the mains is kept well and truly in the garage.
It won't be a problem with a trickle charger as its only a little current, it won't affect the voltage much.

[Dave_M]

Mine's on permanant trickle charge and has been for 2.5 years with no problems (cheap charger, £10-12).

Not had any problems with it. It's very easy to knock the light stalk when getting out of the car in a confined space like a garage resulting in a flat battery.

Not that I've ever done that you understand

[Barkychoc]

I remember the demo how not to do that Dave.

[Ceejay73]

Hello mate, I don't reply to many posts on here (lots of people have the answers to the common questions), just tend to read em, your post however does require an answer. Are you 100% sure you left something on? The only thing you could leave on in an S is the lights. If not I would suggest that it is not a charger you need but a battery. You should be able to leave any car, classic or not, for a couple of months at least without needing a charge. It seems to me that yours has been less than a week, (unless the beer is makin me read dates wrong). I would get a new battery and all your problems should fade away like a morning mist.
All IMHO ofcourse.
Carl.

[Jed-S]

Ceejay73 said:

Hello mate, I don't reply to many posts on here (lots of people have the answers to the common questions), just tend to read em, your post however does require an answer. Are you 100% sure you left something on? The only thing you could leave on in an S is the lights. If not I would suggest that it is not a charger you need but a battery. You should be able to leave any car, classic or not, for a couple of months at least without needing a charge. It seems to me that yours has been less than a week, (unless the beer is makin me read dates wrong). I would get a new battery and all your problems should fade away like a morning mist.
All IMHO ofcourse.
Carl.

I also agree with this. The only thing to add is to check to see if anything other than the lights powers up with the ignition off. Maybe a previous owner has wired the radio into a non switched live feed?

[Dave_M]

Barkychoc said:

I remember the demo how not to do that Dave.

I only actaully did that as one day I knew I'd be able to post helpful advice

Much like breaking down outside the gates of Rockingham for Diamond Rock!

All planned

[jimed]

Batteries are one of the things that creep up on you slowly - this year I've been thinking that the S isn't starting quite as well as it did so following on the threads re earth problems I've checked some of them and it made no difference. Just recently it has got worse - with the cold weather so realised the battery was now 3 years old and ready for a change so new battery in yesterday and instead of crank-crank-crank-start it is now crank/start. Much better!
Leaving the alarm on can help to drain the battery as well so if your battery is getting a bit past it its a good idea to change it before you get stranded with it not starting.
Jim

[Steve H]

Thanks for all of the help and advice, its a great comfort to a novice like me! Well for £12 I bought the Trickle charger from Aldi and will give it a try before I consider a new battery.

Having read the instructions it tells me to disconnet the battery from the car and put on the croc clips from the charger. Now I want to leave this on while the car is not being used and thought it could be done while the battery was in situ, still connected to the car.

would I be wrong in doing this? will it cause damage?
Cheers

Steve

[hvdweerden]

Steve H said:

would I be wrong in doing this? will it cause damage?
Cheers

Steve

NO and NO, leave everything connected. your alternator also charges your battery while everything is connected

br,han

Edited by hvdweerden on Saturday 17th October 16:45

[S2 Giles]

i bought two of the LIDL TRONIC battery chargers at 12.99 - look superb value for money.

I had to hunt around at 3 LIDL's tho, third time lucky

[Steve H]

There were quite a few in my local store, if anyone wants me to pick one up let me know and I will go and have another look at the weekend
Steve

[mycroft]

Maplins sell a solar charger , it comes in three different panel sizes . I have just bought the smallest at £10 thought it was worth a go for topping up electric fence batteries .
If you car is outside but secure it would require no mains supply so it could be worth a try . My S alarm has always slowly drained the battery even when its been a new one . The input on the £10 unit is only 1.5 amps @ 17.5 v , it comes with crock clips and cigar lighter connections but i think the cigar lighter is dead in the S when ignition is off so you need to connect directly to the battery .
Dale

[Gerald-TVR]

Just come back from ALDI they have a trickle charger at £12.99 as well

[seb400]

Hi all
Does anyone else use a Maplins solar charger? I bought one some time ago when my last battery was on its last legs. All it seemed to do was run the battery flat, but the battery was shot by then. I've got a new battery now and have connected the charger up to it. It says in the instructions that the blue LED on the charger will flash when battery is receiving charge, trouble is the LED is continuous - does this mean that the battery is fully charged and unable to be charged further, or is the charger likely to be draining my new battery?

Steve

[Chimpaholic]

seb400 said:

Hi all
Does anyone else use a Maplins solar charger? I bought one some time ago when my last battery was on its last legs. All it seemed to do was run the battery flat, but the battery was shot by then. I've got a new battery now and have connected the charger up to it. It says in the instructions that the blue LED on the charger will flash when battery is receiving charge, trouble is the LED is continuous - does this mean that the battery is fully charged and unable to be charged further, or is the charger likely to be draining my new battery?

Steve

Hi Steve, I picked up Maplins £10 solar charger yesterday (half price deal) so it was connected for its first full day today.

It only shoves out 1.5W for 10 - 12 hours a day but for £10 I figured its worth a go.

It may get nicked or it may not like the rain so I went for the cheapy model.

My blue light was flashing this morning when I checked it, as soon as the ambient light falls below a certain level (dusk/sunrise) the blue led goes out.

The info on the Maplins website says the built-in blocking diode prevents reverse charging from the battery to the solar panel at night.

I really hope the thing doesn't drain my battery, currently my battery will start the car after a maximum of 12 days inactivity.

More than 12 days and the drain wins out, the battery still has enough to pop the locks but not to start the car.

Lets see if the solar charger beats the drain or adds to it. Dave.

[S2 Giles]

I used solar charges last year

1 on my Tiv was about 3amp and extended the time it could be left unused, however it still drained.
I also used 1 on my 110ah Leisure battery & they didnt work really, had to replace it at the start of the season.

So thats why this year i went for the LIDL charger. Plugged it in tonight & it seems fine, I will check its cut out in a few minutes, but at least this will keep it in fully charged condition