How you get a charge

[JBT]

Aldi have a charger for $29.99 on Saturday 6 Oct 18.
3 year warranty.

[greenMachine]

+1 for C-Tek. I also have a 5.0 one for the track cars tiny agm, but the 0.8ones would be just as good for top up usage.

I have the 5.0 also, it is also currently bench charging the PC680 from the SE while it undergoes some work.

I might have a look at that aldi one though, for keeping the tractor battery in good shape.

[rascal]

I’m a bit gun shy of the cheap ones after having a cheap trickle charger kill a 2yo battery in the tow car.

Especially given how expensive batteries are, saving $30-$40 by buying an unknown charger doesn’t seem worth it to me .

[project.r.racing]

Well of course it's the OE Panasonic - the last one cost $420. in 2010.
I retired the previous one before it failed at 9 years and I'd like to get at least another year out of this one.
Driving only once a week with a 2 - 3 week holiday a couple of times a year, I figure any battery, old or new should benefit from a Trickle-charge now and then.

There is no way said battery should have cost you that much. It is a very small battery. And buying OE is always gonna be 3x the price of normal replacement product.

And if you only drive the car every 2-3 weeks. Then just remove the negative battery terminal cable and it should hold what charge it has for 3-6 months without issue. Which you still need to do anyway when the trickle charger is attached.

Be a different story if the MX5 got 6 monthly driving holidays.

[rascal]

Then just remove the negative battery terminal cable and it should hold what charge it has for 3-6 months without issue. Which you still need to do anyway when the trickle charger is attached.

you don't need to disconnect negative to attach the trickle charger..
Just leave everything as normal, connect the trickle charger leads and turn it on...

[manga_blue]

I’m a bit gun shy of the cheap ones after having a cheap trickle charger kill a 2yo battery in the tow car.

Especially given how expensive batteries are, saving $30-$40 by buying an unknown charger doesn’t seem worth it to me .

Exactly. Though I've had a sort of reverse experience where a C-TEK has revived 2 batteries of mine that I thought were dead.

[Rocky]

PRR - what "should" and what "is" are two different things. I live up in the sticks and EVERYTHING costs more. The Panasonic has to come from the local Mazda Stealer (nobody else is interested in sourcing one for me), which probably explains something.
The car gets dríven 100ks of open road every week and the Panasonic holds up just fine in the early years but I always get the feeling that they start to get a bit tired around 8 years and maybe need a bit of help.
My previous Trickle-charger, and the one I have just bought both have leads and a connector that can be permanently attached to the battery (see photo of CTEK), so that when you want to hook it up to the Charger, you just attach one snap connector and you are in business. I have it set up so I don't even have to lift the boot mat.

[Hammer]

Since I don't drive my Clubman as frequently, I use this unit to charge and maintain its battery. It has clips that you can permanently attach to the battery (which I've done). From there I simply plug and play the device when I park the car in the garage. Keeping the battery charged up everytime. No matter how infrequent I drive it.



But as a charger, I use this. The beauty of this charger, is it has an option to recondition/rejuvenate the battery before charging. It came really handy when I though I disconnected the battery of my SP (but I didn't) before leaving it in storage for about 6 months without driving. Needless to say, the battery was dead, really dead. Not a single electrical juice in it.

Using a normal charger couldn't wake the battery (ie.wouldn't retain charge). I thought I was up for another new battery - the one that was on the SP was less than 12 months old. But after a few research, took the plunge and bought this unit and after 24 hour charge cycle (discharge, recondition, charge), the battery is as good as new. So it paid for itself straight away (saved me from buying another battery).

[KevGoat]

Projecta units are the most commonly used and recommended by the RV crowd we meet on our travels for their vehicle and van charging/maintenance and solar - and they can be highly critical individuals of even minor issues with anything they use ...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Okibi]

I have the similar one to Hammer, it doesn't really get used now I have the C tek.

[Mr Sexy]

Been thinking about a trickle charger for a while now, especially as my mx spends more time sitting than on the road these days. At what point of inactivity would you guys recommend a trickle charger? I'm usually going about 3weeks or more with out taking it out, saying that it still has plenty of charge to start even after over 4 weeks of not being ran.

[manga_blue]

Been thinking about a trickle charger for a while now, especially as my mx spends more time sitting than on the road these days. At what point of inactivity would you guys recommend a trickle charger? I'm usually going about 3weeks or more with out taking it out, saying that it still has plenty of charge to start even after over 4 weeks of not being ran.

AGM batteries begin to sulfate when voltage drops below 12.4V. You can test voltage with a multimeter and gauge for yourself how long it takes in storage before voltage drops below that.

[Mr Morlock]

You will know how long when the car cranks really slowly. I would attach the trickle chargers my the car if not likely to be used for 2 weeks. As long as it not charging at a high rate i.e. a genuine trickle charger you should not have any problems. After all people go away on holidays for a month(s) and leave cars on trickles- same for many stored cars. Also consider that older batteries don't hold a charge as well as new ones.

[Red_Bullet]

https://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

Quote from above article:

Some lead acid batteries are used in a standby condition in which they are rarely cycled, but kept constantly on charge. These batteries can be very long lived if they are charged at a float voltage of 2.25 to 2.3 volts/cell (at 25 degrees C) (13.5V to 13.8V for a 12V battery). This low voltage is to prevent the battery from losing water during long float charging. Those batteries that are used in deep discharge cycling mode can be charged up to 2.45 volts/cell (14.7V for a 12V battery) to get the highest charge rate, as long as the voltage is dropped to the float voltage when the charge is complete.

[Rocky]

Hooked the new CTEK Charger up at 3.00pm this arvo. Put the permanent connectors on it so only have to use the snap-connector to get things going.
By 6.00pm it was saying it had done it's more intensive charge to bring it up to 80% charge and was now on the Trickle-charge phase to take it the remaining 20%. It appears that the battery was in better shape than I thought.
According to the manual, the next stage in the charging process is that it checks whether the battery can hold the full charge or is stuffed.
If the battery is fully charged and sound when I go on hols, I will just disconnect the battery and it should be OK for just a couple of weeks.
Alternately I could take it round to Son's place and leave it connected out on the patio.