Jump starter on good battery for short trips?

Jump starter on good battery for short trips?

Author
Discussion

aust240378

Original Poster:

125 posts

74 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
Weird question but here we go smile

I know that a car battery only being used for short trips will drain it overtime if it's not given a long enough run to re-coup the loss, but would using a jump starter on a good battery to start the car, when it's only being used for short trips mitigate that? effectively giving the battery a helping hand until a long trip can be done?

(I know that I can use a trickle charger, but lets assume I had to do a lot of short trips in succession)

Thanks!

paul_c123

803 posts

8 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
No

E-bmw

11,046 posts

167 months

Thursday 27th March
quotequote all
^^^ Wot 'e said.

All you are effectively doing is fitting a bigger battery which will take longer to discharge but also longer to charge.

Collectingbrass

2,514 posts

210 months

Friday 28th March
quotequote all
No, you'd be better off with a trickle charger to keep the battery in good condition and taking it out for a good long thrash Italian tune up every month or so. We have a number of vans and pick ups at work that don't do much more than 20 -30 miles a day at 10 miles an hour and their engines are all throwing emissions faults now.

Caddyshack

12,491 posts

221 months

Friday 28th March
quotequote all
Just use it as normal and if you think it’s getting low put it on a good CTEK to give it a good charge every now and then or give it a good run which would help other things.


Simon_GH

710 posts

95 months

Friday 28th March
quotequote all
I’d just trickle charge overnight every week.

Pica-Pica

15,197 posts

99 months

Saturday 29th March
quotequote all
Collectingbrass said:
No, you'd be better off with a trickle charger to keep the battery in good condition and taking it out for a good long thrash Italian tune up every month or so. We have a number of vans and pick ups at work that don't do much more than 20 -30 miles a day at 10 miles an hour and their engines are all throwing emissions faults now.
A perfect usage for electric vans.

aust240378

Original Poster:

125 posts

74 months

Monday 31st March
quotequote all
Thanks all, will get it on the trickle charger..

GreenV8S

30,857 posts

299 months

Monday 31st March
quotequote all
aust240378 said:
Thanks all, will get it on the trickle charger..
No, you don't want a trickle charger. What you want is a battery maintainer ie something designed to be left connected indefinitely keep the battery healthy.

Sometimes things referred to as a trickle charger are actually battery maintainers, but not all trickle chargers are - some of them just charge the battery up slowly, and if you're lucky they stop when they think it's fully charged.