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Spare battery 'maintenance' ?


Jeffds1360

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I bought a spare 12v battery as varta had a great deal on 3 months ago.

It has been sat in the garage since.

I thought it was time to check/recharge as necessary so put it on the bench and connected my charger...... It took 30 seconds for the charger to show a green light.

Ahaa I said..... best give it something to do.... so , looked for some 12v accessories to run off it..... found my new windscreen washer set up with an electric pump (unfitted due to loss of dexterity in my fingers etc etc)

It ran fine but after a minute I thought, hang on, I'll burn this out!!

So..... found a spare 21w bulb and wired this up to do a bit discharge of the spare battery..... boy, did it get HOT just after a few seconds!! ? ... is this normal?. Anyway, decided it was too risky to leave it like that.

Have you gurus any suggestions as to how I can keep this spare battery in tip top condition please?

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17 minutes ago, Jeffds1360 said:

boy, did it get HOT just after a few seconds!! ? ... is this normal?

If I recall elec eng 1 correctly filament bulbs are VERY inefficient at being light bulbs. They turn 97% of energy into heat and only 3% into light.

When I all too regularly pick up a new battery from Euro Car Parts they pull one of a shelf, God knows how long they've been there, but they're always fully charged.

Doug

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Because my race truck, the TRansit, isn't used that often, and the battery it came with passed out, I got a 'smart' charger (CTEK MX5) for it.   It now lives in the TRuck and keeps the new battery at peak power, off the camp site type hook-up cable that provides mains power.

There are, of course other chargers available!

John

 

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If you want to give it some work to do fit it to the car and go for a nice long drive, good for the battery, good for the car & good for you.

Over winter I just plug the charger into the battery ( still in the car) from time to time in between the few winter days when I take the car out for a run.

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even a 2,2 panel bulb will burn your fingers   yes  they all get soooo Hot 

21w will fry eggs  and headlamp bulb  cook steak ...........just   dont touch them 

a Aldi or Lild  charger when they have them work well at less than £14  my££££££s  Cetek gave up and ive used an aldi one now for 7 years 

batteries are best worked not left static  modern batteries are somewhat better at being a bit dormant but use is the best to keep their life 

Pete

 

 

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Pete, a quick question... I have a ctek, had it for years and still going strong. It is connected via a hard-wired socket straight to the battery and with the battery still connected to the car. The aldi ones, can they be connected the same way or do you have to disconnect the battery to protect the alternator?

Derek.

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had both  lidl and aldi on cars   and seem as good as the Ctek which failed totally dead

can be used direct on car i jusy clip plug and sleep easy  

some wont recharge fully flat  they are to charge /discharge and condition the battery not refill volts to a dead battery   that needs  full charger 

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7 hours ago, Jeffds1360 said:

So, hot bulb normal ! Surprised they do not melt the plastic fittings nearby!

Not got a 'smart' charger so should I give the battery some work to do and then recharge, or just let it sit?

Us motorcyclists used to swap our rear lights from 5w to 21w by reversing the wiring if a filament blew during a journey. It would melt the lens after about ten minutes. t is surprising just how hot 21w is in a smallish space.

Use an 'Intelligent' or smart charger, or just use it as a bench lamp occasionally. I remember being told to leave a door ajar on my classic overnight years ago to run a 5w interior lamp. Very difficult to remember.

Maybe use a camping style solar kit that would charge only during daylight hours.

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1 hour ago, Firefly said:

Keep any spare batteries up off the cold concrete floor, that will kill them extra quickly.

What`s the science behind that Colin?.......or is it `an old wives tale`.  

Are you saying colin is an old wife? 😜 He's far more likely to be an Irish joke(r). But yes what is the reason, I would like to know as well.

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Found a reference online that says store batteries on a wooden block rather than direct on concrete but it didnt say why. They are temperature sensitive as the hotter they are the quicker they discharge however stability at around 15º seems to be the ideal...

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8 minutes ago, Firefly said:

 

              Interesting reading. So Colin is an `old wife` after all, as well as an Irish joker.😄 We love you really Colin.

Yes, interesting reading. Maybe 'Colin is an `old wife` after all, as well as an Irish joker'  OR still uses very old batteries

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Aldi where Knocking out 15w solar panels a few years ago, I got 2 of them. I`ve had one linked to the Battery that came with the 13/60, it`s just enough to keep the battery up to charge, around 12.7V standing, It boosted the "modern" recently   I leave it permanently connected. Another is permanently connected to an old 12V camping lantern, handy when we get "outages". I have both C-Tek and an Aldi Chargers, both do a good job, the Aldi one was 1/4 the price!.

Pete

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1 hour ago, Chris A said:

Yes, interesting reading. Maybe 'Colin is an `old wife` after all, as well as an Irish joker'  OR still uses very old batteries

One of the other posts on that site asks the question: is 'New Car Smell' toxic? Probably only if you eat the air freshener.

Anyway if I want to be a wife, there's nothing you lot can do about it. Having said that I banged my head earlier, does that mean I'm really a hammer? (Ball pein? No, just slight itching.)

 

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4 hours ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

I always keep spare car batteries off the concrete floor.  However Google says no longer necessary  http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/02/storing-car-battery-concrete-floor-drain/

So Did you also get the "popup advert" For "Beautifull Ukrainan Girls want to meet older Men". or was that just me.?

Pete

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