Battery Boosters - what one?

[TVR newbie]

Hi guys

Had to call out the recovery guys for a home start on Sat due to a flat battery (had only been parked up for a week but seems the cold killed it) but as i work in the week and can't really get much time to drive the car daily i don't want this happening again so thought would buy my own booster set.

What do people advise or are trickle chargers (although i have v limited knowledge on this so be gentle...) better?

Cheers Dan

[Targarama]

Trickle charger such as Optimate would work, if the car is garaged. Obviously this assumes there is not a major drain on the system.

How old is the battery? May be worth replacing it.

[TVR newbie]

sits on my drive unfortunately but guessing that not a massive problem as can connect it up still (does it need to be on every night?)

new battery at the last service and has been fine till now - holds a charge of 13.4-13.6 when driving so think working ok?

as say though my techy knowledge is quite limited.....

[Pixi]

I use the Optimate charger connected through the cigarette lighter. This is on my garaged Sagaris, but in my last house, I had my Chimaera on the drive (in Scotland....) with the Optimate unit inside the garage, then bought the extension cable to run the line from the Optimate box, under the garage door to the cigarette lighter through gap/seal between the passenger window and door frame. My batteries last for years. I use the cars all year round - as its my only vehicle (apart from an Aprilia RSV-R Edwards and a GSX-R 600 race bike...).

Main thing to remember is to turn off the unit at the wall, then disconnect it, and make sure the power to the optimate unit is off for at least 1 minute - this allows the internals to reset itself - if you don't you'll come back later and it wont be working. My units are 10 yrs old and as long as you remember to switch them off at the wall, they are awesome units.

Happy charging

Forgot to add - I only put mine on charge if I don't drive the car for 2 weeks or more. You don't need to add it every day. This was true for Chim & Sag, obviously may be different if you have a different model (Tamora or T350?). So if you are worried start off using for non-driving periods of 1 week and work up from there to 2 weeks. I've no scientific basis for this last part, just experience.

Edited by Pixi on Monday 5th January 11:47

[TVR newbie]

Cheers for that

Searching on google that charger comes up as a bike charger....? i assume that is the same one and is ok to use in my T350....?! (apologies for the stupid questions....)

Will prob be no longer than 1 week being unused and hoping the balst i had this wekeend will keep it charged during the week (otherwise maybe i do have a battery problem...)

[hab1966]

Pretty sure i have the accumate charger in my car. It's plumbed in directly to the car and is housed in a recess in the 'boot'.

You might also want to consider a solar trickle charger as that would remove the need to run a cable to the car. You just place the charger on the dashboard, providing you can get 'good' light. Something similar to this - note i have no experience of this product, just picked it as an example!

Edited by hab1966 on Monday 5th January 12:48

[Findles]

I use an Accumate - bought it 6 weeks ago and it appears to work well. Its powered from the mains and plugs in under the car (just behind the nearside front wheel) to the underside of the battery via an Anderson connector. There should be a rubber cover over the Anderson socket which just pops off. Then just leave it on 24/7.

[cramorra]

for accumate as well her used it since years.. no problem another tip is turm off ALL interior lights, unplug satnavs, or mobile chargers you may have as they do things in TVRs you would not expect in other cars (think aberrant currents, perma plus) which drains on your battery
This in addition to the quite hard drain when you start her up in the cold...

[Englishman]

I have both a CTEK XS3600 and Accumate Optimate in continuous use when I'm not driving the cars. Both have worked fine for several years. The CTEK device is a little lighter and more compact. It has also won a number of awards. If I were buying again I'd go on price between the two.