Which Battery Charger? and what impact....

[fieldl]

As the weather is rubbish my 4200 Spyder just isn't getting used.
So I can envisage the battery will be flat or well on it's way towards it.

Can anyone recommend a decent battery charger I can use. I will have to remove the battery and can't trickle charge it due to a lack of power in the garage (it's separate from the house)

So what might stop working when I disconnect and then reconnect the battery?

[bertie]

I'm not sure of the setup on Maseratis, but the alarms / security systems can be seriously troublesome if you remove the battery for any time.

Personaly I wouldn't want to do that, I can see trouble!

[marc.l]

How about a solar trickle charger and just put it on the garage roof ? This is just a cheap one, I`m sure some one must make a better one.
http://www.acegadgets.co.uk/solar-panel-to-charge-...

regards
marc

[TSS]

I've had one of these for 2 years and so far it has worked perfectly: http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/Store/Product/P...

[funwithrevs]

+1 vote for the CTEK 3600. I bought the permanent wiring loom widget so that I can just plug the car in without removing the battery as it is a git to get to on my car.

[bertie]

Yes, I have a Ctek on my Elise and another on my Caterham, no use for the OP though as he says he has no power in his garage.

[andy355]

maser has a battery disconnect switch to the left of the battery as you look at in in the boot. rotate until the boot light goes off. Take care if you open a door after as windows wont drop that quarter inch until you reconnect power. i changed my battery for an optomate one, seems to go flat a lot slower. when you reconnect you are supposed to leave ignition on in setting 2 or 3 cant remember for ecus to regroup. says all in manual anyhow.

[funwithrevs]

bertie said:

Yes, I have a Ctek on my Elise and another on my Caterham, no use for the OP though as he says he has no power in his garage.

But it is of use to the OP. Take the battery out, charge it with the CTEK. If you have 100 quid to spare, get the 7600 and charge it in half the time, but without the risk from cheap chargers of boiling the water out of the cells and knackering the battery.

Should the OP ever find themselves with a garage with power, no need to replace the charger with a specific trickle one as it does both.

[bertie]

funwithrevs said:

bertie said:

Yes, I have a Ctek on my Elise and another on my Caterham, no use for the OP though as he says he has no power in his garage.

But it is of use to the OP. Take the battery out, charge it with the CTEK. If you have 100 quid to spare, get the 7600 and charge it in half the time, but without the risk from cheap chargers of boiling the water out of the cells and knackering the battery.

Should the OP ever find themselves with a garage with power, no need to replace the charger with a specific trickle one as it does both.

But removing the battery doesn't answer his very real and reasonable concern over removing heis battery from the car.

[sjn2004]

bertie said:

funwithrevs said:

bertie said:

Yes, I have a Ctek on my Elise and another on my Caterham, no use for the OP though as he says he has no power in his garage.

But it is of use to the OP. Take the battery out, charge it with the CTEK. If you have 100 quid to spare, get the 7600 and charge it in half the time, but without the risk from cheap chargers of boiling the water out of the cells and knackering the battery.

Should the OP ever find themselves with a garage with power, no need to replace the charger with a specific trickle one as it does both.

But removing the battery doesn't answer his very real and reasonable concern over removing heis battery from the car.

Removing the battery is not a good solution, you can create a whole host of problems with the various ECU's doing this. Your best bet is to a a quick connector onto the battery, a battery charger then an extension lead to the house. Don't you have lighting in the garage?

My local Maserati dealer supplied me with a Banner Accugard charger, think they retail around £100.

[phib]

I have a 3600 for the 355 with a cigar lighter attachment

Superb bit of kit

http://www.hamiltonclassic.co.uk/acatalog/Battery_...

[Lagerlout]

Ferrari do a CTEK one for about £100 delived that arrives with a little horsey on it and in a box covered in little horsies. Very nice. lol

[funwithrevs]

sjn2004 said:

bertie said:

funwithrevs said:

bertie said:

Yes, I have a Ctek on my Elise and another on my Caterham, no use for the OP though as he says he has no power in his garage.

But it is of use to the OP. Take the battery out, charge it with the CTEK. If you have 100 quid to spare, get the 7600 and charge it in half the time, but without the risk from cheap chargers of boiling the water out of the cells and knackering the battery.

Should the OP ever find themselves with a garage with power, no need to replace the charger with a specific trickle one as it does both.

But removing the battery doesn't answer his very real and reasonable concern over removing heis battery from the car.

Removing the battery is not a good solution, you can create a whole host of problems with the various ECU's doing this. Your best bet is to a a quick connector onto the battery, a battery charger then an extension lead to the house. Don't you have lighting in the garage?

My local Maserati dealer supplied me with a Banner Accugard charger, think they retail around £100.

Agreed that removing the battery is not a good solution. But from the car's point of view removing the battery is identical to having a flat battery. From the OP's point of view, a flat battery is a battery that needs replacing at the same sort of cost of a decent charger.

For the OP I shall expand on my simple +1 vote earlier...

It must be possible (if a pain) to change a flat battery, so it must be possible to remove the battery. If you remove the battery, then you want to charge it as fast as possible so you want a decent fast charger like the CTEK. If you can charge in place but don't want to leave an extension lead trailing out to the garage for days then get a decent "in situ" fast charger, the CTEK does that. If you manage to get a garage with or upgrade the garage to permanent electrics, then if left plugged in the CTEK will sense when the battery is full and switch from fast charge to maintenance mode.

Note that the model numbers are the number of milliamps the charger can deliver on full charge, so the 3600 delivers 3.6A which into a 40Ah battery is going to take about 11 hours from fully discharged. The 7000 model will charge at 7A, so takes correspondingly less time.

[bertie]

Fundamentaly what everyone is saying here is you need to upgrade your garage!

Garage with no light or power? Is this 1954?

More to the point, just use the bloody thing! It's a car not a priceless piece of fine china!

Edited by bertie on Wednesday 18th February 21:27

[joan or ark]

When you remove that battery the ecu's will through up all sorts of faults which a maserati dealer will need to clear.

Clock will need resetting and make sure you have the radio code as it will cost you money to get maserati to supply it.

if you have to park the car near the house every saturday or sunday and put it on charge. Starting it up and letting it idle will do it good anyway if its been sat for a while.

[fieldl]

Thanks for all the info. Going to be as big a pain as I suspected then I'll buy a Ctek anyway and as mentioned leave the car near the house occasionally to keep it topped up.

[andrew.]

if you're going down the ctek route, then
http://www.ctek-chargers.co.uk/?gclid=CJD82uiP55gC...