Trickle Charger recommendations?

[iandews]

My CR can spend a week or two outside without use and I'm worried about it draining the battery. I've never had a trickle charger before so wondering if anyone has any recommendations for one that will work outside? I can run the cable (if thin enough) through my window, or under the garage door, but it will need to be weather proof. Having never had any experience of them, do I need to remove the batter from the car or the plugs, or do these just connect up as additions and is the battery easy to get to on the Cayman? I see that solar power ones are quite popular; anyone know if they are effective...the problem I have is that the sun doesn't shine down on the driveway, so I'd only gain power from daylight, not sunlight (unless the cable is long enough to run around the house!!!

[majordad]

CTeK, or Aldi and Lidl do a good one cheap. NO need to remove battery.

[sundayjumper]

I bought two from Aldi last year and they've been great.

I doubt they're waterproof though. Best solution would be to have a thin extension lead from the garage that you can trail into the car and then leave the charger inside the car plugged into the lighter socket.

[spyderman8]

The CTek chargers are fairly well sealed (I think they even have an IP rating) but you might find the cable isn't long enough. Obviously you don't really want to run mains outside if you can avoid it, meaning you will have to find a way to extend the 12v side - and make the join waterproof. You can buy no-solder connectors from Halfords and perhaps a roll of self-amalgamating tape to seal it.

Chris #88

[SMGB]

sundayjumper said:

I bought two from Aldi last year and they've been great.

I doubt they're waterproof though. Best solution would be to have a thin extension lead from the garage that you can trail into the car and then leave the charger inside the car plugged into the lighter socket.

I made up a low voltage extension lead for my chargers. It works fine whichever one I'm using and means you dont have mains voltage trailing around outside. I made it so I could clamp onto it with the standard clips on the chargers and fitted croc leads at the business end. This means I can still use them as designed in the garage.I put an in line 2A fuse very close to the +ve so if there is a short it isnt a fire hazard. The lead is in single insulated low current equipment wire and it just slips under the garage door and through a panel gap near the slam panel, this works fine for my fleet so I dont know if you could work this with your car. One of my chargers is the Aldi special.

[m33ufo]

Looks like the answer is to buy a garage (with power).

I have a CTEK which works perfectly and cycles the battery. Over winter it's connected all the time. Also have a couple of Optimate chargers I've used on bikes but work equally well on cars.

[iandews]

Unfortunately using the garage isn't an option for me at the moment, so I'm having to find an outdoor solution. Disregarding the need for waterproofing for a second, are the ctek options effective when plugging into the lighter socket? I presume you have to use the additional one in the passenger footwell rather than the main one which I guess doesn't carry the charge when the ignition is off?

Anyone tried the solar panel ones?

[m33ufo]

Not used the 12v socket in my Spyder to connect the CTEK, I have it going straight to the battery. I'm pretty sure connecting to the central one works though.