Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:17 am  

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

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:24 am  

If you're car's not garaged I think you can get a solar panel trickle charger which sits on the dash board and plugs into the cigarette lighter outlet to trcle charge the battery. Try a google search.

Might get you over the problem?

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:15 am  

You'd be much better just going out and leaving it running for 15 mins, Your alternator will give the battery more charge in 15 minutes than a portable jump start ever can.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:40 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.

Then they AA bloke is a fooking idiot, I bet he never did a load test on the battery. Running a battery flat is the easiest way to kill it, yes it can be re-charged to 12.7 volts but it won't last long. The more it happens, the weaker the battery becomes.

For the short term, I'd go with the previous suggestion of a solar trickle charger or failing that, disconnect the thing everytime you're going to leave it.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:14 am  

cod'ead wrote: Then they AA bloke is a fooking idiot, .... This. Back to your question, you can buy just this item from Halfords at around £80 or other toolhire type places for maybe a bit less, just keep it in the car, when you want to go, plug into cigarette lighter and bruuuuummm bruuuumm. Just keep the charger itself charged up as per manufacturer's recommendations. I'd go for the model which has an inbuilt compressor and pressure gauge, just the job when stuck in the middle of nowhere with a slowish puncture. Also they have a cig-lighter-out socket and those can come in very handy eg camping trips etc., you can get (probably already have) a cig-lighter charge lead/power lead for most electronic items I've also seen what they describe as a "heavy duty" on at Argos for £90 - from the pic it looks to have a standard 3 pin socket on it which could be handy! (Argos seem to stock half a dozen models). Maybe time to trade my old one in . . . Can't recommend it as no idea of manuf. etc but you can get one for around £30 on Amazon

cod'ead wrote: Then they AA bloke is a fooking idiot, .... This. Back to your question, you can buy just this item from Halfords at around £80 or other toolhire type places for maybe a bit less, just keep it in the car, when you want to go, plug into cigarette lighter and bruuuuummm bruuuumm. Just keep the charger itself charged up as per manufacturer's recommendations. I'd go for the model which has an inbuilt compressor and pressure gauge, just the job when stuck in the middle of nowhere with a slowish puncture. Also they have a cig-lighter-out socket and those can come in very handy eg camping trips etc., you can get (probably already have) a cig-lighter charge lead/power lead for most electronic items I've also seen what they describe as a "heavy duty" on at Argos for £90 - from the pic it looks to have a standard 3 pin socket on it which could be handy! (Argos seem to stock half a dozen models). Maybe time to trade my old one in . . . Can't recommend it as no idea of manuf. etc but you can get one for around £30 on Amazon

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:23 am  

I had a similar problem to that described by the OP, i.e. If I got a jump-lead start the car ran fine.
Even if I stopped and re-started, the battery still seemed OK.
I went through the same thought process as the OP describes and I bought a battery charger ... but I still had the same issue.

In the end, what my car actually needed was a new battery.
The garage had been testing it just after I arrived (when the charge was still high) and kept telling me that my battery was no problem ... but they were wrong, it wasn't holding the charge, I got a new battery and never had the problem again.

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:11 pm  

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.

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

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:19 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

I had a similar problem to that described by the OP, i.e. If I got a jump-lead start the car ran fine.
Even if I stopped and re-started, the battery still seemed OK.
I went through the same thought process as the OP describes and I bought a battery charger ... but I still had the same issue.

In the end, what my car actually needed was a new battery.
The garage had been testing it just after I arrived (when the charge was still high) and kept telling me that my battery was no problem ... but they were wrong, it wasn't holding the charge, I got a new battery and never had the problem again.

Yup, going through this at the moment with the wifes car, just trying to deny that the battery is shagged actually but I know its going to need a new one very soon, like now.

I bought a charger (plug into mains) for £24 from Halfords two weeks ago, the battery is ok on a full charge for about 7 days but it will go again usually after a cold night, just delaying the inevitable £80 for a new battery at the moment, if it was my car I'd change it immediately

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:22 pm  

Incidently, about fifteen years ago my business used to be located opposite a vehicle electrician who made a living from dead batteries, I bought one from him for a three year old car on which the battery had failed, I moaned a bit over how quickly it had died but he told me that most car batteries had a two year warranty and would die between years two and three.

I'm doing quite well with the wifes low-use car after six years then (its the low usage that does for them).

Re: Car battery booster / jump starter : Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:47 pm  

dum-dum wrote:

You'd be much better just going out and leaving it running for 15 mins, Your alternator will give the battery more charge in 15 minutes than a portable jump start ever can.

That'll keep the battery topped up but it's also a sure-fire way of knackering an engine, especially a diesel engine. Engines are meant to be run under load, not sat idling. Take a look at any moored boat when it's charging its batteries, the owner will keep it tied up but also put it into gear so that the engine is working under load.