Battery trickle charger

[Riley26]

Do you have to remove the battery from your car to charge the battery with one of these trickle chargers? Thank you.

[NDA]

No you don't.

You can either clip directly onto the battery (which I prefer) or some charge through the cigar lighter socket.

I've had many cars on trickle chargers and never once removed the battery.

[Riley26]

That's the charger I have

I

[Riley26]

Thank you and just put on until it flashes 100% charged?
It struggled abit this morning. But it only gets used once a week. And with lights and fan in this time of year I can imagine it's not fully charged

[NDA]

Yep, put directly onto the battery terminals - assuming you can see them.

Red terminal on first and red terminal off last.

[NDA]

Riley26 said:

Thank you and just put on until it flashes 100% charged?
It struggled abit this morning. But it only gets used once a week. And with lights and fan in this time of year I can imagine it's not fully charged

Just leave it connected permanently until you need the car - and then connect up again when it's parked.

I have a car that's on trickle permanently for at least 4 months at a time.

The point is that rather than charging the battery (which it does), it prevents the battery emptying, which would kill it. It just keeps it topped up.

[Riley26]

Thanks I can't really keep it on permanently as the cars outside. If I left on for 12 hours tomorrow would it help?

[bigandclever]

If you're bored you can read the book about it

https://assets.einhell.com/manuals-pdf/900_401653/...

[Riley26]

Thank you for the link

[NDA]

Riley26 said:

Thanks I can't really keep it on permanently as the cars outside. If I left on for 12 hours tomorrow would it help?

Every little helps.

Yes it should top it up to full if the battery is in decent shape.

[Riley26]

Thanks it mentions in the linked instructions. To put the red clamp in the positive terminal and then it mentions something about putting the black clamp on the bodywork of the car?

[NDA]

Riley26 said:

Thanks it mentions in the linked instructions. To put the red clamp in the positive terminal and then it mentions something about putting the black clamp on the bodywork of the car?

Normally (in 99.99% of cases) the red terminal is the positive terminal. The black terminal is where the other clamp goes - ignore the 'bodywork of the car' bit. It's referring (I assume) to the bodywork being the earth. Use the black terminal.

Put the red on first - then the black when connecting. When removing, take the black of first, then the red.

[Riley26]

Ok thank you. Excellent this forum always surprised how quickly get knowledgeable responses

[Haltamer]

For modern cars, it's recommended to connect the positive directly to the battery, and as mentioned, connect the ground to bodywork - I just reused an existing ground, but virtually any bolt will do - Easy to test if you have a multi meter.

As for connecting outside, I use a small SAE Connector hidden under the bonnet cowl - When I'm on the drive, I just connect to that using a super long SAE Extension I bought on Amazon.

[Puddenchucker]

Riley26 said:

If I left on for 12 hours tomorrow would it help?

My 350Z doesn't get used much in the winter, so if it hasn't been used for a week I attach my CTEK charger,
Typically, it will take 6-8 hours before the green 'fully charged' light illuminates.

[Riley26]

I have put on charge it came up as this.
I have just switched the mode to cold charge I think as it's less the 5c.

[Riley26]

Not sure if that means fully charged

[NDA]

It looks like it is fully charged - although I am not familiar with the trickle charger you have.

The test will be to see if it turns over easily (once you have disconnected the charger).

I am not sure if you have a garage with power or what car you are charging.... but if the battery is easily removed, I'd be tempted to remove it and keep it on a permanent trickle (good security too if the car is outside most of the time). But maybe that's too much faff?

Batteries are surprisingly sensitive things - if you let them drain down they can fail completely and then you can't get them to hold any charge. The other thing that larger engines need is 'cranking amps' - this is amps behind the volts (sort of). A big V8 (for example) can have a battery reading 12 volts, but not enough CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) to turn the engine over - typical of a weak battery that has been drained.