Fixing a Dead Battery with a Re-Conditioner

[AshVX220]

OK, so having not driven the VX for a while I get in Saturday to find the battery completely dead. Plug in the charger and it says the battery has a fault and won't charge, I guess because it has completely drained (could be wrong though). I only got the battery a couple of years ago, so it's not "old".

A friend has just suggested I get a re-conditioner for it, so the questions I have are this;

If I get one of these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/battery-desulfator-and-r...
will the battery need to be charged for this to initially work, or will this fix the battery then allowing me to charge it? It also looks like it should be a permanent fixture?

Or should I get one of these clever chargers http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CTEK-Multi-MXS-5-0-1...
as it would appear this will do everything I need?

Or is the battery properly FUBAR'd and I'll need a new one regardless?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated before I spend any money.
Cheers
Ash

[Jimmyarm]

If you have only had it a couple of years, and it is a decent battery then it will still be within it's guarantee period (the bosch ones we fit are 4 year guaranteed for instance)


Personally, I'd just buy a new battery rather than risk/waste money on something which may not work.

[HustleRussell]

It's worth having battery conditioner anyway to prevent it happening again.

In my experience a battery conditioner will recover a totally dead battery- in the past I have connected the battery in parallel with another good battery to trick the battery conditioner into charging.

However lead acid batteries do not cope well with being completely discharged and yours will probably have been permanently weakened.

As above, I suggest both a new battery and a battery conditioner to keep it healthy if the car is not used regularly enough.

[Piersman2]

This seems to have become a commnon bug bear for me.

I've got a stack of 4 batteries in the corner of the garage, 3 of which are useless.

The last 4 cars I've bought I've had to replace the batteries as they've been left standing at some point, the battery has drained and if left for a week or so in that condition the battery doesn't seem able to recover, the sulpur crystals that build up on the plates are too big and strong to be 'recovered'.

I have tried with each one, to re-charge and make sure the battery is kept regularly topped up, but once they've been left uncharged even for a relativley short time they never seem to be able to hold a decent charge after that. If a battery lets me down twice, it's swapped out with a new one.

I have bought a couple of cheap battery conditions form Halfords, not to charge the batteries but just keep them topped up if the car is parked up in the garage for a few weeks or months. It saves having to worry about the battery being slowly discharged by an alarm. They seem to have done the job admirably this winter.

[Steffan]

Modern lead acid batteries are exceptionally reliable in cars. However all such batteries can be damaged if run down and then remaining flat for some time. As others have suggested it is very probably better to replace such damaged batteries. Using a modern battery restorer will partly improve the battery. But cold morning starts with modern high compression engines require batteries to be fully functional. I would replace and not ake the risk.

[RONV]

the only way is to get a good battery and put jump leads to your flat battery put your charger leads on your good battery then switch on the charger but has said before a new battery is best. Ron.

[AshVX220]

Thank you all very much for the replies, new battery it is, I may speak to my mate at the garage where I got it from and ask if it's still under guarantee.
Cheers again

Ash

[227bhp]

If they've been flattened to death by leaving them connected for a long time then that's pretty much it.
The only ones which can be brought back to life are those with removable plugs, but manufacturers know this so seal them making you buy a new battery.