Thoughts on mains car battery boosters?

[JOEPRO]

I have a number of classics with draining batteries this time of year. Impossible to keep up with at times. Thinking of one of these from Lidl NI in this Thursday



May also be useful for diagnostics to keep a good voltage in the car in use without engine running. But likely too undersized for my engines.

Even to get a discharged battery a good boost / fast charge so the auto chargers can start their charge.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I use £15 Lidl battery maintainers on all mine.

 

[arther dailey]

for some thing to be permantly plugged in , and in which case a source for short/fire potential I personally would be buying something from a known quality brand ,which although still a risk should be lesser.

 

[JOEPRO]

I use £15 Lidl battery maintainers on all mine.

I have a number of CTEK and similar chargers. But the S classes can kill a battery very fast to the point where the ctek and similar digital chargers won't charge them as they can't see the battery.

In which case I jump them to another battery off the car and get some base voltage to allow the charger to begin.

It would be nice to have a mains appliance I can bring to a car and leave it with proper voltage feed for a couple hours or may even have enough to start it on its own at that point. Or at least enough of a boost to allow the normal chargers to start.

 

[JOEPRO]

There are Sealey Start 420 and similar floor standing models. Alot more expensive though and take up floor space.

I like how this one would sit on a shelf out of the way when not in use. And it has digital controls/ processor. Some of the larger ones are all analogue so may not have the same level of protection on paper.

 

[arther dailey]

can you not just dis connect earth on battery so no drain ? then charge say monthly

 

[JOEPRO]

can you not just dis connect earth on battery so no drain ? then charge say monthly

I could yes. But with 13 cars at my house it's very hard not to have one or two dead at any one time

 

[arther dailey]

I could yes. But with 13 cars at my house it's very hard not to have one or two dead at any one time

did nt realise you ran a museum !

 

[arther dailey]

so that means all batteries dis connected and two on charge at any one time , could be done , just swap over charger two next to say at 7pm each night

 

[arther dailey]

before any one starts, two,to,too

 

[ajlelectronics]

can you not just dis connect earth on battery so no drain ? then charge say monthly

The problem with that is that the ECU etc will go back to its base map. You may also lose radio presets and the clock too.

 

[reb78]

The problem with that is that the ECU etc will go back to its base map. You may also lose radio presets and the clock too.

Dont think I have ever lost a map by removing the battery from a vehicle. The D2 sat for 9 months without one but its still running the same map as when the battery was taken out.

 

[Gritineye]

Odyssey batteries will last 2 yrs without loosing charge, I love em.

 

[JOEPRO]

I have 6x older S classes. They are sore on batteries. Eg air suspension and systems that can't be turned off.

So those cars can drain a large a battery in a week or two unless a charger is continuously hooked up.

Some cars just have a high parasitic draw. Of course some of them may also have faults that I haven't yet diagnosed.

 

[Ross365]

It's interesting; best thing would be for you to buy it and report back .

I'd like to be sure that it starts charging slowly with a really flat battery and know what it's max charge rate is. Modern batteries are much more sensitive compared with the old ones, where you could do a bit of gassing and then just put water in.

Batteries are damned expensive these days. I bought a low-cost "smart" charger off ebay a couple of years ago; it lasted 3 months then failed, greatly overcharging the battery which was destroyed. Using low-cost chargers on high-cost batteries no longer appeals to me, and I went out and bought a CTEK which has been perfect for the 2 years I've owned it, but I realise your needs to deal with lots of cars.

I did put one of those fast dis-connects on one of my (2) cars, but as already stated, you lose all the memories. In winter, neither of the cars gets used very much and I use the CTEK (5A) to fully re-charge them every ~2 weeks or so (they'll usually take 2-3 hours to do that).

 

[m_c]

I have a number of classics with draining batteries this time of year. Impossible to keep up with at times. Thinking of one of these from Lidl NI in this Thursday

View attachment 475798

May also be useful for diagnostics to keep a good voltage in the car in use without engine running. But likely too undersized for my engines.

Even to get a discharged battery a good boost / fast charge so the auto chargers can start their charge.

Other than the unspecified jump start functionality, that probably has similar low voltage protection like a CTEK charger.
If the batteries are going that low, then an old fashioned transformer charger would likely be more useful. Or an adjustable bench PSU if you're feeling a bit more flush.

 

[dobbslc]

Get one of these.
I've got an Optimate 4 on the bike most of the time and it's the only thing I'll leave on in the garage. If the cars are close enough together you can get extended leads.

Optimate 3 X4 Quad Bank 12V 0.8A Motorcycle Battery Charger & Optimiser TM456/TM-454BS

The Optimate 3x4 12V 0.8A Quad Bank Motorcycle Battery Charger & Optimiser This 4-channel automatic battery optimiser for motorcycle sized batteries. Since it's launch in 1995, OptiMate has received wide acclaim as an outstanding compact automatic charger, maintainer and recoverer for 12V...

www.tayna.co.uk

 

[JOEPRO]

It's interesting; best thing would be for you to buy it and report back .

Yes I'll take one for the team

I'll buy one when they are in Thursday evening. I have a drained 300E-24 would be a good candidate to see if it can boost it enough to turn over the engine after a few mins on the start function.

 

[jmp49]

I have a number of CTEK and similar chargers. But the S classes can kill a battery very fast to the point where the ctek and similar digital chargers won't charge them as they can't see the battery.

In which case I jump them to another battery off the car and get some base voltage to allow the charger to begin.

It would be nice to have a mains appliance I can bring to a car and leave it with proper voltage feed for a couple hours or may even have enough to start it on its own at that point. Or at least enough of a boost to allow the normal chargers to start.

I have that with the smart chargers I have, but I have a battered old style transformer start charger that doesn't do anything magic to the battery and just pumps whatever current you set it to. It fits on a shelf & can rescue a really flat battery back up to the state that the smart chargers can see the battery and take over and do their magic.

 

[Newlands]

Yes I'll take one for the team

I'll buy one when they are in Thursday evening. I have a drained 300E-24 would be a good candidate to see if it can boost it enough to turn over the engine after a few mins on the start function.

I've got that exact model. Works well, although as others have said it won't do anything with a very flat battery (I've got a very old Halfords one for those!). I wouldn't be too worried about electrical stuff from Lidl - big German company that can't afford to flog dodgy electricals so I wouldn't mind betting that they are fairly sound.