Battery Conditioning

[benterrier]

11 hours ago, J.R. said:

That was exactly my problem from day 1, would work after a while & got worse & worse when not used for any length of time.

 

A very easy & cheap repair, ideal Coronavirus project!

Got the Aldi charger apart after struggling to get the triangle head screws out and can see the pcb mounted switch, wow its small, delicate soldering exercise. JR where and what type of pcb switches  did you order can I ask. cheers 

[GreenMachine1.6]

On my Ctek, which looks the same, I put a few drops of isopropyl alcohol into the switch and spun/pressed it repeatedly. Easier if you gently pull off the "top hat". Solved the problem for another year. There are numerous threads on the interweb showing how to fix or replace the switch.

Edited 29 March, 2020 by GreenMachine1.6

[benterrier]

1 hour ago, GreenMachine1.6 said:

On my Ctek, which looks the same, I put a few drops of isopropyl alcohol into the switch and spun/pressed it repeatedly. Easier if you gently pull off the "top hat". Solved the problem for another year. There are numerous threads on the interweb showing how to fix or replace the switch.

You're a good un Green machine!  Switch cleaner fixed it. Cycles through on the button now. Have put it on a leisure battery to see if it works. Will report back tomorrow. Many thanks.

[J.R.]

Yes I also did that for over a decade before it finally let go.

 

I bought the switches on e-bay, searched for PCB mount tactile switch or similar.

[Scotty72]

12 hours ago, BigEjit said:

Generally, a battery in good condition will still start a vehicle after 30 days stand time. That’s the usual spec for OEM battery performance and electrical architecture. They can go for 6 to 8 weeks in some instances and still crank it over but the risk of a non start increases. After this, there are no guarantees and best not to push it this far.

 

AGMs can be discharged below the point they will crank an engine and be left as long as 30 more days and still be recovered with a full 24hr charge but it would be better to check and charge all battery types once per month with a mains charger to be safe.

 

Short trips to and from local supermarkets won’t provide enough engine run time to recover a discharged battery. Revving up the engine does not add more charge.

 

i reckon if lockdown continues for 3 months or more, breakdowns and RAC/AA call outs will rise in about 5+ weeks time. 

So after another week of very short journeys I'll go and plug my ctek charger in.. it's sitting in the garage waiting to go I personally prefer to be proactive than need to call anyone out. My motorbike for which i can't currently get a mot (expired/sorn in Feb) was planning pre Corona to bring it out of hibernation this month has been on my aldi xs charger for more than 6 months in the garage.

[RonRoss]

The Aldi one mentioned above was reduced from £12.99 to £9.99 today instore.Thought they may have bumped the price up rather than reducing it :)

[benterrier]

19 hours ago, benterrier said:

You're a good un Green machine!  Switch cleaner fixed it. Cycles through on the button now. Have put it on a leisure battery to see if it works. Will report back tomorrow. Many thanks.

Success. Green light on this morning battery fully charged. 

[cheezemonkhai]

On 28/03/2020 at 10:40, MarkyG82 said:

I've been thinking about this a thought "I can just go out for a half hour run" but that is very much not recommended in current times. Delivery times for ctek chargers on Amazon are end of April! Does anyone have any recommendations for a useful charger that can be acquired in a matter of days from a shop that is open?  I like the idea of a cig socket charger but these don't seem easy to find apart from Amazon.

Halfords own brand automatic chargers are very good, the Smaller automatic ones with agm mode.