Maintaining battery health whilst S off the road

[Spathodus77]

Hi,

As my S has now been off the road for 4 months I'm starting to worry a bit about the health of the battery. Ideally I'd like to charge it then fit it to my daily driver so it gets frequent charging, probably swapping the batteries back over every two weeks or so.

My S battery has a 150A capacity and 570AH max output, my Audi 1.9TDI battery has a 70A capacity and 640AH max output. Given that 570 and 640AH aren't massively different I reckon the S battery should work in the Audi. What do others think? any risk that the S battery could be overcharged by the Audi or will it be OK?

Secondly, my trickle charger does n't have an indicator to tell me when the battery is at full charge. Given a trickle charge of 300mA how long is it likely to take to charge the S' battery?

Thanks,

Ralph

[DJ8226]

Treat yourself to an Accumate and your worries will be over.

[phillpot]

Spathodus77 said:

any risk that the S battery could be overcharged by the Audi ?

Ralph

I wouldn't have thought so, the alternator will only "give" what a battery wants, the inbuilt regulator will sense the battery condition and charge accordingly.

[Barkychoc]

If a trickle charger is not practical look into caravan split charge relays - these only allow your auxiliary (S) battery to be connected to the audi while the engine is running so it can't drain the audi battery when its turned off.
You then just need to secure the battery in the boot.
You can get plastic carrying cases for batteries which might help.
The charge kit is cheap if you fit it yourself just beware audis can be a bit funny with electrics.

[GreenV8S]

A 2L diesel will take a lot of current to turn over (especially in Winter) so using your S battery in the diesel will be giving it quite a hard life. If you think that the battery will benefit from that - I think you're wrong. Better to charge it up, disconnect it and just leave it somewhere that won't freeze.

[Road2Ruin]

I used to have one of those solar chargers (until it broke) and that woked ok. It is only a very small power output but enough to keep the battery ticking over. I usually disconect it anyway.

[Roop]

CTEK charger. Best by miles.

[Spathodus77]

Thanks all, given that the project has progressed a little more quickly this week I'm now thinking that I'll charge the battery and store it in the house. I'm sure it'll still be fine in 3 weeks - hopefully the S will be back on the road then.

Ralph