Hi,

 

I got a charger yesterday from Aldi (XS) suitable for all battery types (was £10 - hard to pass up at that price).

 

I wanted to top up the cars as they've been standing for some time or doing short journeys.

 

The charger manual suggests disconnecting the negative terminal and connecting directly to the battery terminals but the Skoda owners manual suggests that the negative doesn't need disconnecting for "low current chargers." I think this XS is 4A max.

 

Also, I've seen posts on here suggesting to connect to chassis ground and not the -ve terminal.

 

Anyone have a clarification? ( I guess the obvious thing to do is to follow the charger manual....)

 

Edited 22 April, 20206 yr by briscaF1

Well if you follow the charger instructions to the letter nothing bad will happen, though you might need to correct a couple of things then you next first drive that car.

 

If you follow Skoda's advice then all should be good as long as that charger is genuinely safe to be used when the battery remains connected, so maybe you need to work out if the Aldi supplied charger is safe to use "connected" and if so why are their playing safe in their instructions.

 

Edit:- what if anything does Skoda say in the owner's handbook about recovering from a "disconnected battery" situation?  I'd think if that car has electro-hydraulic steering, that it is only the electric windows that need to be reset.

Edited 22 April, 20206 yr by rum4mo

8 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Well if you follow the charger instructions to the letter nothing bad will happen, though you might need to correct a couple of things then you next first drive that car.

 

If you follow Skoda's advice then all should be good as long as that charger is genuinely safe to be used when the battery remains connected, so maybe you need to work out if the Aldi supplied charger is safe to use "connected" and if so why are their playing safe in their instructions.

 

Edit:- what if anything does Skoda say in the owner's handbook about recovering from a "disconnected battery" situation?  I'd think if that car has electro-hydraulic steering, that it is only the electric windows that need to be reset.

I've changed the battery on the '14 plate car before and nothing required resetting from memory, not even the radio code. The reference to the manual was for this MK2.

 

In this case, I presume it's ok to disconnect first.

 

The other car is a '17 plate SE (4 cyl TSI) with an EFB battery as it has stop/start.  I want aware of this having electro hydraulic steering...

The radios should not need anything and have been like that for many years, the window memory I think does not now need reset for newer/newest cars, but for a MK2 Fabia probably/maybe - so check the electric windows are still okay end stop wise when first using that car after you have removed a battery lead.

Hi, sorry it's a bit late. We have the same Aldi charger and have been using it on our Mégane to trickle charge with cables connected with no probs.

I don't think I would leave a £10 charger connected to my car............🙁

 

"imo" if you disconnect the battery, then any fault that occurs with the charger or battery, should not then affect the vehicle.

 

I would only ever leave a decent smart charger connected with the battery connected.

Edited 22 May, 20206 yr by UrbanPanzer

Fair point, didn't really think about that. Tbh being a Renault Mégane nothing else electrical could go wrong with it, we've had it all!

Seriously tho we have regularly left it on trickle charge all day with nothing detrimental, yet......

 

On 22/05/2020 at 22:59, UrbanPanzer said:

I don't think I would leave a £10 charger connected to my car............🙁

 

"imo" if you disconnect the battery, then any fault that occurs with the charger or battery, should not then affect the vehicle.

 

I would only ever leave a decent smart charger connected with the battery connected.

That is a bit snobbish.

 

Actually ALDI’s stuff is rebranded from well known manufacturers.

 

When you charge / trickle charge with any charger connect the negative to the engine block. It will not upset the battery management that way.

36 minutes ago, 26DIPP said:

That is a bit snobbish.

 

Actually ALDI’s stuff is rebranded from well known manufacturers.

 

When you charge / trickle charge with any charger connect the negative to the engine block. It will not upset the battery management that way.

 

So out of curiosity, which well known brand of charger does Aldi set re-branded?

 

I'd think that Aldi may well have cut a deal with a well know brand of charger and put their name on it, but it will be a lot simpler than the well known higher priced unit it is based on (if in deed it is based on a well known brand) and lots of battery and car safety features will have been left out to make it cheaper, which is why most of these "copied" cheaper smart chargers have different user instructions for use with them.

 

I have bought a few CTEK items and even they can cause slight inconvenience once in a while, like losing the varying preset voltage levels and sticking with the safe low starting voltage of 12.6V all the way through the program - I'd say regardless of which brand of smart charger you buy and use, it makes sense to check what it is actually doing once a week while in the later stages of the program.  I have only just discovered that!

Slightly off topic , but when we jump start the newer hgvs nowadays we are told to turn the engine off and all the lights /electrics on on the supplying vehicle to prevent damage to the ECU. As an older driver goes against the grain doing it that way, still remember my dad swinging the crank handle on his Morris Traveller! 

Have car electrics really improved seeing how touchy they are nowadays?

8 hours ago, 26DIPP said:

That is a bit snobbish.

 

Actually ALDI’s stuff is rebranded from well known manufacturers.

 

When you charge / trickle charge with any charger connect the negative to the engine block. It will not upset the battery management that way.

 

Nothing snobbish about it at all, I have purchased things from Aldi and Lidl and been more than happy with them............................however I don't see how you could produce a quality battery charger, sell it for £10 AND make a profit, it does not add up.

 

I have a Halfords battery charger which was probably £30 ish when I bought it, would never leave that connected to my car either.

 

On the flip side more than happy to leave my CTEK connected (and have done) for however long because it manages the battery charging properly, and offcourse this comes at a price.

 

 

Edited 24 May, 20206 yr by UrbanPanzer

Maybe Aldi do it as a loss leader knowing you will purchase other items in store. Read somewhere that bookshops were aggravated by the likes of Tesco's selling new hardback books at cost or less knowing people would buy other items even tho they'd only came in for the book.

Regarding Halfords products think they may have improved. Their cooler boxes are one of the most commonly used by hgv drivers away all week. We had ours running 7 days a week day and night . 

2 hours ago, Cheapas said:

Maybe Aldi do it as a loss leader knowing you will purchase other items in store. Read somewhere that bookshops were aggravated by the likes of Tesco's selling new hardback books at cost or less knowing people would buy other items even tho they'd only came in for the book.

Regarding Halfords products think they may have improved. Their cooler boxes are one of the most commonly used by hgv drivers away all week. We had ours running 7 days a week day and night . 

 

Wishful thinking I'd say on your part, I've got an "RAC" charger that switches from a max of 8amps into trickle charge mode as the connected battery is reaching fully charged - but as said @UrbanPanzer, when that was my "best" charger, I would only use it under supervision on any car, though leave it connected overnight on a jump pack of much less value.

 

I think as long as a cooler box has a built in fuse, as well as the supplying socket, the worst that could happen there is not chilled food, a charger connected to a car for long periods going wrong could have really bad outcome, as usual these failures usually happen in USA!

I disconnect, remove and charge the battery in my back garden. I do however, have a coverd porch there and park "On street".

 

That said, I think I would still remove the battery in order to charge it. I have mentioned in other posts, I keep my old one as a spare. Charge that, fit it and then charge my current healthy one every say, three months, to be sure it has a FULL charge. The swapping over is reasonably simple and it is only the window auto function  and the clock that needs re-setting.

The trip meters will re-set themselves but i have been driving for over 40 years... How gives a sh1t3 about the occasional re-set trip?

I use an Aldi charger on my Fabia with no problems. I just connect the terminals to the battery, without disconnecting the battery,  and plug the charger in. 

Hi John, yeah we've had no problems but I get the other points tho. 

Tbh this Renault has given us so much grief I just can't be bothered with the poxy  thing, it's been one step from the breakers for years.

The other reason I don't disconnect is the wife loses her radio stations , the radio defaults to  Russian , more agg to be avoided.

On 24/05/2020 at 21:14, UrbanPanzer said:

 

Nothing snobbish about it at all, I have purchased things from Aldi and Lidl and been more than happy with them............................however I don't see how you could produce a quality battery charger, sell it for £10 AND make a profit, it does not add up.

 

I have a Halfords battery charger which was probably £30 ish when I bought it, would never leave that connected to my car either.

 

On the flip side more than happy to leave my CTEK connected (and have done) for however long because it manages the battery charging properly, and offcourse this comes at a price.

 

 

Have you ever looked at the cost of things like plastic injection moulds, OLED screens or high strength glass? These things can add a great deal to the price of a product, and are the sort of things you'll find in premium products (or be the differentiator). Paring back to a simple core product can cut a lot of cost without compromising safety/usefulness. If I had to guess, I'd say the difference between the Aldi/Lidl one and its premium stablemate is fewer charge programmes and simpler casing, LCD screen & fewer buttons.