Charging battery?

[wolfie]

My Polo has stood for a little while due to me being unwell. I was thinking of sticking the battery on charge. I only have an old standard type battery charger is it OK to charge the battery with it in the car. Or am I best remove it?

[iichel]

You can leave it in the car. If your car has a start/stop system, it would be best to put the positive clamp of the charger on the battery plus (or whatever position works).
The negative clamp is best placed NOT on the negative terminal but somewhere else on the chassis, i.e. the earth strap of the engine to the chassis.

[wolfie]

Cheers.

I was fairly sure it was OK to do it with it still in the car. But thought I'd ask, as modern vehicles seem a little more delicate/twitchy where the electrics are concerned. I didn't want to cause an error code I could not reset.

DD

[Ricmondo]

Edit

[Ricmondo]

Another edit whilst cursing autocorrect

[Ricmondo]

Sorry to hear that you are unwell Wolfie, get well soon.

[wolfie]

Sorry to hear that you are unwell Wolfie, get well soon.

Cheers mate. I've had heart problems for over 20 years now. They've tweaked my pacemaker/medication and touch-wood everything has settled down again. Unfortunately it places me in the "at risk" group in relation to the Corona/Corvid-19 virus storm we are all weathering at the moment.

Goes without saying, I hope everyone is well and is keeping themselves and family as safe as they can.

[Ricmondo]

I just pip you there Wolfie, 27years. I’ve got a bi ventricular ICD. It’s working well but I’m currently suffering from chronic atrial tachycardia which totally overwhelms the normal low voltage pacing so I’m back to full heart failure symptoms.

I’m waiting to be admitted for some tricksy surgery, we know who will do it but not where or when so I’m even harder to live we than usual!

Meanwhile the Polo is enjoying an intimate relationship with a CTEK trickle charger, you can hard wire them in then leave them to keep the battery in good health, unlike you and me!

[wolfie]

I just pip you there Wolfie, 27years. I’ve got a bi ventricular ICD. It’s working well but I’m currently suffering from chronic atrial tachycardia which totally overwhelms the normal low voltage pacing so I’m back to full heart failure symptoms.

I’m waiting to be admitted for some tricksy surgery, we know who will do it but not where or when so I’m even harder to live we than usual!

Meanwhile the Polo is enjoying an intimate relationship with a CTEK trickle charger, you can hard wire them in then leave them to keep the battery in good health, unlike you and me!

Yeah, a soulmate!
Same here, I have CRT-D (Bi-ventricular, combined ICD/defibrillator.) The heart attacks/bypass damaged my heart muscle and screwed up my electrics. Left me with LBB (Left bundle branch block) and severely brady-cardic, among other things. They implanted the ICD in 2016 and I instantly developed ventricular tachycardia, so more recently I've had an ablation to try and fix that. I've got more scars than Frankenstein's monster..

As the car looks like it's going to be standing for the next 12 weeks or so, due to the Corona lock-down, I quite like the idea of a trickle charger. (for the car not me... ) It's been on my wish list for years.

[RUM4MO]

I cleared the paint off the dome nut that fastens the battery earth to the chassis at the LHS of the car - ie next to the battery -VE, after using it, I smear it with Vaseline to stop it rusting, I had hoped to buy a better form of nut, ie the same as my 2011 Audi S4, which has a hex top with a "-" pressed into it, but so far I can't find the part number, that car has what looks like plating on both its +ve and -ve charging terminals under the bonnet (battery is in the boot).

That Audi S4 only ever gets used for longer journeys, so it is mainly sitting in the garage connected to a CTEK charger/maintenance unit and after 9 years, its AGM battery is still very nearly showing 100% in internal health checks and checking it using a CTEK battery analyser - so I'd a CTEK sharpish, even one that can run a desulphating program on that battery to waken it up properly, these EFB versions of batteries are nasty things, ie not really fit for long term stop/start and smart charging applications - but they are cheaper than AGM batteries - which, by the way, you can fit when/if this one fails and change the battery technology type in the programming of the CAN-Gateway.

Edit:- I hope you guys can stay safe!

[Ricmondo]

We could form a club! First implant 2002, a pioneering bi-vent, now on number five. I’ve asked for a zip but
They insist on sewing me up each time.

My charger is on its third car and still does the biz. With all the electrical bits that play amongst themselves when you put the car to bed you’d think they’d build one in as standard. I had a Bristol for a little while back in the sixties, that had a hard wired Lucas charger. I kept contact with that car and in the early seventies the charger still worked and the battery had not been changed. I was sad to hear last week that Bristol have gone belly up yet again, I fear that this time it is for good.

Odd times we are living in!

[wolfie]

I quite fancy a CTEK - MXS 5.0

My mate has one and has had no issues whatsoever. Easy to use and I think they come with a 5 year warranty. I'll start hunting round to see who has the best deals. My polo is 2011, and still on it's original battery so I can't really complain.

5 devices is pretty impressive. I'm on my first, but being lucky Eddie I picked up an infection when I had it implanted, so the first one was quite a rough ride for 2-3 weeks. I'm told I'm good for another 12-18 months yet.

[RUM4MO]

That CTEK model will do the job, handy as it includes "recond" option, my first CTEK purchase was the "test and charge" version of that, so a bit more expensive, it has been supporting my 2011 Audi S4 since mid/late 2013.

My justification for buying that version was that I was looking after my older daughter's late 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16V while she worked abroad - and it developed a nasty draining battery habit (which I worked out was a S/W issue in the BCM but my SEAT dealer would have none of it and just replaced the steering angle sensor under the steering wheel, which annoying for that car is only fitted to activate the foglights when turning the steering wheel - all in £285 wasted). So I was checking absolutely everything, and that CTEK allowed me to prove that the battery was past its best - only trouble being, that battery never ever failed to start that car if it was not discharged heavily - but when using the test function of that CTEK to give a GOOD or FAIL indication, the starter dragged the battery down to 8.5V while cranking - and the test side of that CTEK needs at least 9V to stay operating, a bit of a design boo boo there - but at least having the CTEK switch off in test mode let me see that that battery even if freshly fully charged, was on its last legs!

I had been given some "love to shop vouchers" or had been given some sort of useless voucher from my employer - well useless to anyone living above MK in UK, so I converted them into "a serious number of Love to Shop cards" - so I took the easy way out and bought my first CTEK from Halfords, then bought a rubber buffer and a wall mounting bracket and a maybe 2 meter extension lead for it.

Next CTEK purchase was a battery analyser, that was bought online where cheapest for a new one - that was worked out to be a very handy tool to have, probably again prompted by the late 2009 Ibiza giving me grief until another SEAT dealer accepted my story and logic and requested an update patch for the BCM for what was at one point in time, a well known issue for many VW Group small cars manufactured in late 2008>late 2009, and I think that many people just put up with "will it start today" if not using it for maybe 5 days, so never reported or got that issues resolved - but I'm a stickler for when things don't work as I intend them to work!!

Next CTEK purchase has been a charger/support unit that works as a stand alone 20A 12v supply for the car either when running extended diagnostics with out the engine running and the battery fitted or without any battery fitted - constant voltage is best for some "basic setting" procedures - that was my 70th birthday treat to my self, bought maybe rashly from some one selling off stock that had slightly damaged outer boxes - so far so good as they were not official CTEK vendors, at a very good saving!!

[RUM4MO]

Quite a few sellers describing these CTEK items, any/all of them "fitted with UK plug" - as far as I worked out, these items are being bought were they are sold with the cheapest retail price from CTEK and are being brought into UK in bulk and sold on with a good mark up but still well short of the official CTEK UK retail price

What exactly can be wrong with that I'd think is if the product fails within the original warranty period, CTEK will tell you to get lost and charge you for fixing it, but CTEK do tend to make reliable products - so the chances of needing to use that warranty might be slim, or you might just end up unlucky.

I deliberately chose to avoid using any of these vendors, but have probably ended up doing exactly a similar thing by buying from a 3rd party and not an official CTEK UK vendor - but time might tell!

[Mikeso51]

The CTEK smart chargers get a good press, but are quite expensive for what they are. I bought a S4 Smart Charger from Liberty Batteries (www.Liberybatteries.com), and it seems to have most of the features of the CTEK device for a fraction of the price. Currently about £25 quid for the 4 amp version, and about £30 for the 7 amp. I’ve had mine for a couple of years, and it’s been excellent. No connection other than happy customer.