RussBird82
Junior Member
- Messages
- 91
Bought my car last year with what was a newish battery at the time. Never owned a car before that needed to be hooked up to a maintainer and though running it once a week or so (avoiding salt roads) throughout winter would suffice. How wrong I was.
In the depths of winter the had a tendency to discharge to approx 3v. However after a quick jump with my daily and it was good for a 20 minute drive to work and back (9hrs later). And probably ok for the next day and beyond (without jumping) if I was able to use it.
Having said that,I was getting a bit fed up with repeatedly jump starting the car, so invested in a trickle charger, in this case a Hulkman Sigma 5. A really sturdy unit that apparently has a desulphication feature.
Question is, as the car is parked outside, constantly having to hook and unhook for security when I'm away for length of time, seems more of an inconvenience than jump starting the car. Additionally since I bought the trickle charger, the battery doesn't seem to be as peppy or reliable as it was when I used to just jump start it. And having to call a work colleague to assist when it wouldn't start the other night (despite being on trickle) is testament to this.
So my questions are:
A) What is a typical discharge for the car in winter and how much difference does the isolation switch make (I never used it)
B) What is a good maintenance strategy moving forward? Car is used probably once every 10-14 days in winter, 2-3 in summer.
C) Does anyone have e experience of the desulphication chargers actually working. Having read a few forums it suggests weeks/months and more often than not just a gimmick.
D) I saw on eBay you can now buy car batteries from Amazon . Where is the best source for a reliable replacement battery? Yet again, according to the doom and gloom forums once the battery drops charge is starts to sulphate/pretty much knackered below 11v
In the depths of winter the had a tendency to discharge to approx 3v. However after a quick jump with my daily and it was good for a 20 minute drive to work and back (9hrs later). And probably ok for the next day and beyond (without jumping) if I was able to use it.
Having said that,I was getting a bit fed up with repeatedly jump starting the car, so invested in a trickle charger, in this case a Hulkman Sigma 5. A really sturdy unit that apparently has a desulphication feature.
Question is, as the car is parked outside, constantly having to hook and unhook for security when I'm away for length of time, seems more of an inconvenience than jump starting the car. Additionally since I bought the trickle charger, the battery doesn't seem to be as peppy or reliable as it was when I used to just jump start it. And having to call a work colleague to assist when it wouldn't start the other night (despite being on trickle) is testament to this.
So my questions are:
A) What is a typical discharge for the car in winter and how much difference does the isolation switch make (I never used it)
B) What is a good maintenance strategy moving forward? Car is used probably once every 10-14 days in winter, 2-3 in summer.
C) Does anyone have e experience of the desulphication chargers actually working. Having read a few forums it suggests weeks/months and more often than not just a gimmick.
D) I saw on eBay you can now buy car batteries from Amazon . Where is the best source for a reliable replacement battery? Yet again, according to the doom and gloom forums once the battery drops charge is starts to sulphate/pretty much knackered below 11v
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