Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:46 pm  

Big Graeme wrote:

Without wishing to be too technical, your battery is shagged.

This.

You're fighting a losing battle and burning pennies trying to prolong a failing battery's life, especially buying gadgets. You'll need a new battery sooner rather than later either way.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:26 pm  

Doesn't your battery lose 25% of its life everytime it is jumped?

Baldrick should be able to sort you out!

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:44 pm  

Go buy yourself a new battery . I will only put Bosch S3 or S4 batteries on my own cars . Some of my cars don't move for weeks at a time , but they never fail to start .
Have you had a sparky check the car for anything draining the charge such as an interior light ( especially the one in the boot) , or the radio ?
A flat battery can be boost started as many times as you want without shortening it's life , but it takes around THIRTY minutes of actually driving the car to get it fully charged . Just leaving it idling will take longer , and if you are having to do it every few days it is going to cost you more in fuel than a new battery would cost .
As mentioned above it is not a good idea to leave your car sat running . It can cause allsorts of problems .
Booster packs are a great idea , but you have to pay a great deal of money for a decent one . One I use cost nearly £400 . It is big and heavy and not really suited to be carried around in the boot though .

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:21 am  

I drive our second car to and from the train station, and have had to replace the battery a couple of times after it went flat following periods when it wasn't being used. The last time seemed weird as the battery was only a year old and I hadn't used the car for only a about week before having to call the RACQ.

The guy tested my battery and found it was being drained way too much when everything was switched off. Without going to an auto-electrician (hardly worth it for the old thing), he suggested I disconnect the battery every time I leave the car for any time. I've been doing this for a year now and the car restarted perfectly after being left for 3 weeks. I understand with more modern cars this may be a poor solution, but in my old banger its fine.

On chargers you do have to check apparently as the one I bought a few years ago basically only 'tops up' a battery - it won't recharge it once the charge is below a certain level and apparently (according to same RACQ guy) is useless for more modern batteries. Have no idea on the technicalities of this, but chargers can be expensive, so best get the right sort.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:54 am  

Bomber's tash wrote:

Hi,

Basically my car is getting used 2 or 3 times a week at best and as a result is now losing charge after 3/4 days being unused. Had the AA out last week who said the battery is fine etc but due to lack of use the battery is not getting chance to recharge fully.

I am looking to get a battery booster / jump starter but am unsure as to which one would suit my needs:
- Must be portable i.e. not require a mains connection or power supply whilst delivering the charge.
- Must be rechargable via a 240V mains socket.

Any suggestions...........sensible ones, not just get a new car as that is my next course of action but need to just be able to get by for a few weeks.

Cheers

Your battery is snookered mate.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 7:59 am  

Just to add my finale - the wifes car wouldn't start again yesterday so she called out the AA, he measured the charge in the battery and it was holding 72amp instead of 300, started it with his techno-car-starter-gizmo, measured it under charge and it was up to 120amp - she went out and bought a new one.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:48 am  

BaldRick wrote:

...
Have you had a sparky check the car for anything draining the charge such as an interior light ( especially the one in the boot) , or the radio ?
...

Dunno what juice they use, but a fortnight in a secure car park near the airport would always flatten the battery of the last car I had, and the bod in the car park who started up all the cars with dead batteries (almost a full time job that, he said!) told me that it is the car alarms with their sensors that drain the battery.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:35 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Dunno what juice they use, but a fortnight in a secure car park near the airport would always flatten the battery of the last car I had, and the bod in the car park who started up all the cars with dead batteries (almost a full time job that, he said!) told me that it is the car alarms with their sensors that drain the battery.

Theres a user of these forums who's almost brand new Honda CRV had a flat battery when we returned to it after just four days at Stanstead Airport - mobile phone battery charger left plugged in with or without mobile phone attached is what did for it.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:09 pm  

McLaren_Field wrote:

Theres a user of these forums who's almost brand new Honda CRV had a flat battery when we returned to it after just four days at Stanstead Airport - mobile phone battery charger left plugged in with or without mobile phone attached is what did for it.

My first question is where had he plugged it?
Most cars no longer come with a cig lighter they actually have a chargeing point instead and all the cars I have seen with them are dead if the ingition is off

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:55 pm  

Anakin Skywalker wrote:

My first question is where had he plugged it?
Most cars no longer come with a cig lighter they actually have a chargeing point instead and all the cars I have seen with them are dead if the ingition is off

That's how my front one works, the one in the rear seats and the one in the boot both require the engine to be running, as does my mobile hands-free kit