Road Rage

There are several reasons you might need a battery charger for your car:
1) You have a special car that sits unused for extended periods
2) You will not be driving for a long while, for whatever reason (prison, fighting overseas, medical problem).
3) You want to ensure longest life of your battery and charging system
4) You have found the battery loses charge because of all those "stay alive" electrical gizmos: the security system, the stay alive ECM, TCM; the radio settings, added on equipment like audio gear, communications stuff (cells, iPods, GPS), etc
5) You like to work on your car with the radio on, and are concerned that the battery will be drained after a long time.

Check the voltage on your car sometime after a week or so layoff - you will find it may well read below 12.6 volts, indicating it would like a charge. Yes, the altyernator will do it, but if you drive like msot people do (lots of short hops) that can take quite a while, since the charging is offset by the use of all the car's gizmos, and short but high drain events like start-ups.

A Battery Tender (Deltran) or a Battery Manager (from Griots but made by Deltran) may be just the ticket:

www.batterytender.com
www.griotsgarage.com

I have one I bought from Griots about 8 years ago that works great with "wet" (acid) batteries. It will slowly charge a batt (12VDC @ 1.25 amps), then go into a floating mode where it trickles the juice, but will never overcharge. This will give longest life.

Deltran keeps improving the unit, and the latest ones on their website have circuitry that not only works with wet batteries, but the gel type. Gels need special charging, and an occasional "blip" of juice that helpts resist crystallization. So while my 8 year old unit will not damage the gel battery (like a Hawker or Optima), it does not contain the latest chip which uses a charging algorithm specifically designed to work with all battery types, including gels.

For longest life battery life, and to protect your alternator from premature death from having to charge a weak battery, replace the battery about 6 months before its estimated life (example: 66 months for a 72 month batt). The mfrs know the thickness of the lead they use, and have years of data to draw from when they make a guarantee (like epidemiology in medicine).

Do not just let the battery die! If it degrades slowly, the alternator will work extra hard to make up the difference, and batteries are much less expensive than alternators. When i wrenched, we would often see a car come to the shop with a brand new battery, and a customer who cannot understand why "the battery won't hold a charge!". Most of the time, it is because they have damaged the alt in the manner I described.

And get a new unit if you go to the gel type batts. They are $60 retail, but sold for less (I have seen $52 if you shop around).

MY TL is driven every day, so I have no anecdotes to share on that car. But I do for my baby S2000.

I had not driven my S2000 for about 2 weeks, and it sits in a heated garage with ambient temp never below 55 degF. You would not expect that that would put much strain on the battery. Yet, i measured a lower than expected voltage, so I dusted off my old Battery Manager. It took the Battery Manager nearly 10 hours to bring the batt to full charge!! Those security, radio memory, and other milliampere draws add up over time!

By the way, it is no hassle to connect - they come with ring terminal leads that screw onto the bolts on the battery posts, and end in a connector with the neg lead exposed, but the positive complete plastic shrouded - there is the same connector on the lead from the charger - so all you have to do is connect the 2, with no risk of shorting, and then plug in the charger. It has diode protection against improper (reversed) attachment at the battery, and will give you a warning light. It will not hurt anything in the car when it is charging (so the batt feeds to the various electrical blocks do not have to be disconnected).

I pulled mine apart, and the electrical design is sound, and the construction high quality - so these units are highly recommended as the optimum way to preserve the life of the charging system.

rets

I used to loose the battery connection periodically, clean those deposits by the brush with baking soda water, and tighten up, as well as add distilled water if necessary.


Plus, I'd say it is very important to follow the proper and precise instructions if you require to help boost another car's battery. Without the correct setup, the feedback may kill your battery.

da_illist_onE

Once again, thanks RR for the helpful and interesting write-up.

FYI: Damn system won't let me award rep points. "Must spread points around blah blah..." Sorry...

TLVR

Road Rage,
Great tips about prolonging battery life. How is the quality of the new sealed TL batteries? Mechanics and techs here in Florida claim that the Florida heat will just kill the battery no matter what you do- and that one can not expect more than approx 3 years of service before its all used up! The TL battery is actually totally exposed to the engine bay heat, even if it has those plastic shieds on the sides. Other car makes have better seperation of battery and engine. Any thoughts on these generalizations by the tech?? Thanks for your help

J RIDE 81

Good write up RR, I might buy a Yellowtop Gel Battery for my TL. Any thoughts on those products.