Battery Charger/Conditioner - heads up

[sim16v]

Heads up for people with classics that are parked up for a while before use.

Lidl have some very good battery charger/conditioners in stock at the moment, for £14!

I bought a couple earlier this week, and I'm impressed with the spec and quality.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?id=74...

Some other good accessories as well, so worth a look.

[TR4man]

I bought on three years ago and it still gives good service.

For the price, they can't be beaten.

[5ohmustang]

I'm not sure if you can get battery tenders in the UK but I have uses them on my batteries and they work great for maintaining the state of an unused battery.

[p4cks]

Thanks for the heads-up! I was actually looking at these and pricing them up only last week as my VX220 rarely gets used and very often has a flat battery so this looks ideal.

I owe you a pint.

[mikey77]

They're in Lidl in France as well at the moment, at €17.99. Never heard a bad word about them.

[alfaspecial]

Look pretty good. Only issue is that it can be a minor hassle to access the battery in order to use.
I bought one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ring-RCB75-6V-12V-750mA-...
which has the benefit of having the option of being able to connect one of the sets of leads permanently to the battery (the one with the ring connectors in the photo - battery terminal clips) - I then ran this to the dash - just have to plug the charger into a socket & the connect the charger plug to the hard wired battery connection - no need to fiddle with opening the bonnet.

Edited by alfaspecial on Sunday 17th January 16:18

[p4cks]

One year on mine still works perfectly, and they're also back in stock at Lidl for £13.99 for anyone interested

[Lugy]

Quick question here, daft as it may sound, are these okay to use with the battery connected to the car? Reason I ask is that many moons ago I had a Mercedes W140 that suffered ECU failure, one potential cause given was that I'd charged the battery with it connected to the car (admittedly a fairly powerful charger) and the electrics were quite sensitive. Apart from my wee solar charger I've always disconnected any batteries I've charged since!
I guess these are a bit less aggressive than the usual type and should be okay?

Cheers.

[p4cks]

Lugy said:

Quick question here, daft as it may sound, are these okay to use with the battery connected to the car? Reason I ask is that many moons ago I had a Mercedes W140 that suffered ECU failure, one potential cause given was that I'd charged the battery with it connected to the car (admittedly a fairly powerful charger) and the electrics were quite sensitive. Apart from my wee solar charger I've always disconnected any batteries I've charged since!
I guess these are a bit less aggressive than the usual type and should be okay?

Cheers.

Yeah it's fine to use with it connected to the car. My VX220 is connected up to one 99% of the year and there's been no problems at all.

[Lugy]

Cheers, I just picked one up on my way home from work, my local store is doing them for under a tenner!

[Perik Omo]

Lugy said:

Quick question here, daft as it may sound, are these okay to use with the battery connected to the car? Reason I ask is that many moons ago I had a Mercedes W140 that suffered ECU failure, one potential cause given was that I'd charged the battery with it connected to the car (admittedly a fairly powerful charger) and the electrics were quite sensitive. Apart from my wee solar charger I've always disconnected any batteries I've charged since!
I guess these are a bit less aggressive than the usual type and should be okay?

Cheers.

Cars that have sensetive electronics have to be connected to a battery charger slightly differently than red to red / black to black, you should connect the black lead from the charger to an earthing point on the bodywork and not to the battery. There is a warning in my car's handbook about this.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Perik Omo said:

Cars that have sensetive electronics have to be connected to a battery charger slightly differently than red to red / black to black, you should connect the black lead from the charger to an earthing point on the bodywork and not to the battery. There is a warning in my car's handbook about this.

That would be worse for the sensitive electronics if there is any resistance in the earth strap. The recommendation to use a chassis earth is more a health and safety thing to minimise the risk of the ham fisted positioning 2 croc clips where they may come in to contact with each other, and the reaulting fireworks, for permanent connection the battery terminals are best.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Lugy said:

Quick question here, daft as it may sound, are these okay to use with the battery connected to the car? Reason I ask is that many moons ago I had a Mercedes W140 that suffered ECU failure, one potential cause given was that I'd charged the battery with it connected to the car (admittedly a fairly powerful charger) and the electrics were quite sensitive. Apart from my wee solar charger I've always disconnected any batteries I've charged since!
I guess these are a bit less aggressive than the usual type and should be okay?

Cheers.

A powerful linear type charger being connected to a dead battery/heavy load results in a rapid large current flow and rapid voltage rise which in turn due to inductance in the circuit generates a brief backwards voltage spike that can be up to a couple Of thousand volts for a few milliseconds which can zap certain semiconductors. Intelligent switchmode chargers have voltage sensing and soft start and other features programmed into the microcontroller to prevent that happening, and usually a reverse bias diode and mov across the output to clamp any back emf if the software controls don't do their job.