battery conditioner/trickle charger

[Ed Davis]

Any views on the best battery conditioner/trickle charger to keep my battery going over the winter?
Would like one that plugs into lighter rather than muck around with the battery terminals. Also, do I need a trickle charger or conditioner? Have been told that keeping a trickle charger on all the time is bad for the battery!

[Ballistic Banana]

I use an Optimate 3, i originally brought it for my motorbike ,so i had to by the cigerette adaptor seperately after.
Basically i believe when u turn it on it detects the condition of the battery,then starts to bring the battery up to full in stages until it gets full.
Then i think it looks every so many minutes and recharges if necessary.
I have used this on my griff battey when it has been completley dead and it has brought it back to life within a day.
I now swap between my bike and car if i know im not gonna be using either much(no chance).
I would recommend this one highly.


BB

[Leadfoot]

2nded. I've got one each for the griff & trumpet. Only once have I not used the griff's one.... 3 weeks later 'click' as I turned the ignition.

[yum]

I bought one from Leven technologies, £45. You can just fit and forget it.

www.leventechnology.co.uk/

[Crimson King 500]

Me too, I've got an Optimate as well, cost me about £120 to have a dealer fit it, excellent investment.

[Leadfoot]

Crimson King 500 said: Me too, I've got an Optimate as well, cost me about £120 to have a dealer fit it, excellent investment.

80 quid to fit it! :christonabikesmilie:
Must've taken them all of 30 mins........

[simon.b]

What's with the £120 dealer fit, I bought a Gunson bike trickle charger for £30 it just goes in the cigarette lighter socket it never pulls more than 800mA, I assumed the optimate would be the same.

Cheers,

Simon.

[zumbruk]

Any cheapo trickle charger on a timer, plugged into the ciggie lighter, works fine. I've been usijng this arrangement for years - total cost < £20.

[incorrigible]

Hmmm

After reading a couple of these threads (and having a little gremlin that seems to want feeding all the charge in my battery) I tried the cigarette lighter trick.

It was all going well for about 5 mins, then the trickle chager turned itself off. Now I have 6 volts at my cigarette lighter, but the gremlin has gone away and no drain overnight from the battery

WTF any ideas ??

[P7ULG]

simon.b said: What's with the £120 dealer fit, I bought a Gunson bike trickle charger for £30 it just goes in the cigarette lighter socket it never pulls more than 800mA, I assumed the optimate would be the same.

Cheers,

Simon.

Just wondered how many bikes had cigarette lighters, sorry couldn't resist it.

[simon.b]

Chortle Chortle

[keithskip]

My garage is some distance from the house - too far for an extension lead - and does not have lecky. Should I take the battery out during the winter (I won't be using the Griff much) and trickle charge in my utility room? Or just turn off immobiliser and take it for an occasional spin (this worked when I had S3)? Did I hear someone mention solar-powered trickle charger?

Lotsa questions - as always, appreciate your help

[mel]

Is it sunny in your garage then ???? The only "solar" ones I've ever seen sat a little panel on the dash board, in other words FA use if the car is garaged.

[beljames]

Buy a longer extension lead....

Okay - sorry, but my garage is some way from the house and I invested about £40 in the worlds longest extension lead. It has proved to be a most excellent investment.