Battery options...

[jonrudling]

Hi all,

Firstly, apologies for starting this thread. I appreciate there are hundreds of threads on batteries... but I have a bit of a situation, and some questions relevant specifically to this!

So... having collected my Chim on Friday (and used up 10% of my insurance mileage limit over the weekend!), I now need to think about care/maintenance!

It is likely that I could leave the car for 2 weeks sometimes, between uses. Therefore, I expect the battery could drain.

I park in a covered residential car park. No power available. No water available. A harsh environment for a 'keen' enthusiast!

My car does have an 'opti-mate' charger in the boot, with a plug... but as mentioned, no where to power it!

For my Alfa, I've always used a jump starter (http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/jump-start-910-cw-12v-compressor).

Qn 1: Is it safe/ok/sensible to use the jump starter on the Chimaera?

Qn 2: I've read about a battery "kill switch" or similar to preserve the battery when left for a while... Is this a better option for me? Can any one recommend / direct me to what I need?

Qn 3: Anything I've missed, that I should be thinking about if I am to leave the car for a couple of weeks?


Thanks in advance, as always!
JR (still with big grin from a weekend of V8 fun!)

[K4TRV]

Qn 2 - try this: http://www.batterybrain.co.uk/

HTH

Trev

[977]

You'll need the battery brain with the remote reconnect, or you won't be able to use the central locking to get back in!

You can use a jump pack but getting at the battery is a minor faff, if you needed to do it often you'll put a lot of wear on the footwell stuff...

You do need a fair amount of juice to crank the engine, a good bosch 600cca will go a long way to help, but mine started I a duff one turning at about 100 rpm. Just don't stall it straight after!

[jonrudling]

Thanks guys.

Yes - I've seen this Battery Brain mentioned before.

Is it general consensus that it is a good product, and worthwhile installing?
Any 'negatives' to consider? (excuse the lame battery pun!)

Finally, installation. Can anyone recommend someone near London/Essex to install these?

thanks again,
Jon