Battery chargers

[igor]

My coon had a new battery in it when I bought it in 2013 and it's still sweet. The battery in my Civic must be at least that old too cos I bought it for my previous coon. Think I've had to charge that one once cos lots of short running / sitting unused for months. Mary's Laser on the other hand has had at least two replacement batteries since we got it in 2012 but it has a tiny battery cradle that a decent sized battery won't fit in so it's half fucked before it even begins.

[Nominal]

It seems 5 years is about typical in my experience. 

[Muncie]

17 hours ago, h4nd said:

 

Link?

Shit..... that trader has stopped selling. Still rate the aliexpress options Super cheap and Repco seem to think they're good enough to throw their names on them.

[h4nd]

2 hours ago, ajg193 said:

how long should batteries even last anyway? The old battery on Jane's car was only 5 years old but got to a point where it's CCA was only like 240 (repco test) and would turn the engine over quite slowly when engine was cold/ been sitting a few days and would only hold enough charge for one start so you couldn't just move the car a few metres to get another car out.  After doing that the engine would still turn over but super slow. Battery must have had a bung cell or something causing high internal resistance. 

 

Threw a new battery in the other day so should be good now 

Check charge V with a true-RMS meter?

[kyteler]

Warranty on batteries is typically 2-3years for regular use and 1-2 for commercial application. Life span is obviously use dependant but getting 5 is considered OK.  

I tried to charge a battery from works John Deere which was 6 years old but it wasn't having a bar of it.  Sat at the same charge level for ages then exploded.  Hah.  Ah well. 

[yetchh]

Battery in the 121 is at least 9 years.. as is the one in the zephyr

[Alfashark]

Load and cycle dependant - The battery in my Golf is good for 2 years between charges, then just whack it on the Ctek overnight and it's good to go for another 2 years.  No clock, no stereo, no alarm.

Only gets started to move it out of the garage if I need access to the shit stored behind it.

[RUNAMUCK]

I have a caliber one (super shit auto)

It does lead acid, calcium,  and gel. It pulses to clean the plates, and has a maintain mode when a battery is charged.  

It won't charge a dead flat battery though. I had a scooter battery that had sat for years and was.dead. I hooked up those test leads from it to the charger when it was charging a known good battery. Once it was charged I unhooked the good battery and used it. But I didn't realism I'd left the charger on and left those test leads on. An unknown number of days later I saw it was still turned on. And the battery had come back from.the dead.

[Get it done]

Oldest ive heard of is 13yrs, a Zimbabwean fella told me how they used to make them  boil to clean the plates , then drain and refill every couple of years.

 

[CaMpylobacter]

I have an sp tools smart charger....somewhere. no good for neglected shit so I use my old man's old lindford nz made beastie. 

[nivaman]

On 20/08/2018 at 18:05, Get it done said:

Oldest ive heard of is 13yrs, a Zimbabwean fella told me how they used to make them  boil to clean the plates , then drain and refill every couple of years.

 

I am still using a battery I bought 9 years ago, got it load tested late last year by the same place I bought it from, their verdict was it was still good.

[yetchh]

Just fried the one in the zephyr.. Left it charging on an old charger by mistake for a week.. New one says its charged but barely turns the zed over.. Doh

[Hemi]

Been repeated heaps, but yeah dont let them go dead. most chargers now days are like 10 amp most which just wont wake a slumbring beast, they probably cut out/ cut the amps because they think it has a dead cell which if fed like that will cause boiling ( both charging and in the vehicle)
The batts in the trucks here last like 2 months tops in summer if they go onto the gravel due to heat and vibration.
Dont be mad if you have to replace them every 3 years tbh. couple hundy over thet term isnt that bad.
 

 

[oldrx]

Checked the batt in the project, some kind of big calcium generic thing, usually charge it about twice a year when it gets down to the low 12s V. Read 16.5!? Must check meter on daily to see if its telling lies otherwise what the heck?

[~Slideways~]

7 hours ago, oldrx said:

Checked the batt in the project, some kind of big calcium generic thing, usually charge it about twice a year when it gets down to the low 12s V. Read 16.5!? Must check meter on daily to see if its telling lies otherwise what the heck?

Try change the battery in your multimeter, when they get low they read wrong. I had this once and google told me its because the internal battery voltage is used as a reference, or something like that.

I had that with an old 4age alternator, read 18v. Changed Alternator, same thing. Turned out to be the multimeter battery even though the low voltage wasn't indicated.

[FraserNZ]

3 hours ago, ~Slideways~ said:

Try change the battery in your multimeter, when they get low they read wrong. I had this once and google told me its because the internal battery voltage is used as a reference, or something like that.

I had that with an old 4age alternator, read 18v. Changed Alternator, same thing. Turned out to be the multimeter battery even though the low voltage wasn't indicated.

Yes.  I once convinced myself that the alternator was over charging and took it off the and into the auto-sparky to test for me.  It was fine and as I was walking out the door he said, oh by the way check the battery in your multi-meter...  Of course when I put my glasses on I could just see the low-battery indicator

[WLDRX2]

Does anyone have the hook ups on Ctek chargers ?

Looking at getting one that I can leave on to maintain the battery .

Probably the Mxs-10.