Parked Up (4-5 weeks)

[StephenK]

Any advice on parking up for 4-5 weeks? Going on holiday for 4-5 weeks and normally I would disconnect the Battery on a standard car. Will a CT200h Battery hold out for 4-5 weeks? 

[Herbie]

13 minutes ago, StephenK said:

Any advice on parking up for 4-5 weeks? Going on holiday for 4-5 weeks and normally I would disconnect the battery on a standard car. Will a CT200h battery hold out for 4-5 weeks? 

Probably not.

You can sort of work it out approximately though. Even in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep there's still a draw on the Battery for the clock, alarm, radio presets, memory seats and so on. This is roughly around 50mA or 0.05A.

Have a look at the capacity of your Battery - it'll be labelled as xxAh. Just as an example, we'll say that it's 50Ah, which means it can supply 50A for one hour, or 25A for two hours and so on.

We'll also assume that it's brand new and fully charged (which yours almost certainly won't be).

50Ah / 0.05A = 1,000 hours or 41.66 days, or 5.9 weeks - and that is to go from brand new fully charged to fully discharged. However, remember that for the purposes of starting the car, the Battery will be useless for that well before it's fully discharged, so you won't get all 1,000 hours or 5.9 weeks that a 50Ah Battery would give you.

You may just be lucky but....

[rhosneigr]

I carry a small buture jump start pack in the glove box. No worries aout leaving the car for weeks and I also use it for powering my tyre inflator and charging up phones etc. 

[royoftherovers]

13 minutes ago, rhosneigr said:

I carry a small buture jump start pack in the glove box. No worries aout leaving the car for weeks and I also use it for powering my tyre inflator and charging up phones etc. 

I carry one too John. A must have I feel.

`Twas Herbie that make me see the light.🤣`

[Herbie]

I have a Tacklife T8 that I got from amazon although they now say it's currently unavailable. I think this model may have been superseded by a later model.

[Beamish]

 

+1 on the power pack.

You might also double check that the manual key is working as it should as sometimes the locks can seize from lack of use. You don't want to find yourself completely locked out of the car!

Dec.

[LenT]

10 hours ago, StephenK said:

Any advice on parking up for 4-5 weeks? Going on holiday for 4-5 weeks and normally I would disconnect the battery on a standard car. Will a CT200h battery hold out for 4-5 weeks? 

I’d certainly recommend having a power pack.  We have a small 4x4 which is getting very little use lately, and the power pack kicked it into life with no problem at all.

But unless I’ve missed it, has no-one suggested a trickle charger?  Of course the location of the car may rule one out.  Or possibly this is a Battery that is unsuitable for trickle charging - glass mat would that be?

But otherwise you can leave a CTEK permanently connected and there’s no risk of overcharging.

Now I look forward to being enlightened as to why that can’t be done. 😊

[StephenK]

If the 12v Battery dies, will this cause the alarm to sound? - I have assumed that the alarm might have a small capacitor to allow this to happen but equally if the alarm is powered solely from the 12v Battery, then it won't of course. 

[Brian R]

5 hours ago, LenT said:

But unless I’ve missed it, has no-one suggested a trickle charger?  Of course the location of the car may rule one out.  Or possibly this is a battery that is unsuitable for trickle charging - glass mat would that be?

But otherwise you can leave a CTEK permanently connected and there’s no risk of overcharging.

Now I look forward to being enlightened as to why that can’t be done. 😊

Len, I'm with you on that and probably the simplest solution unless, of course, it is not physically possible.

[Herbie]

9 hours ago, StephenK said:

If the 12v battery dies, will this cause the alarm to sound? - I have assumed that the alarm might have a small capacitor to allow this to happen but equally if the alarm is powered solely from the 12v battery, then it won't of course. 

The alarm has it's own back-up Battery but of course, if it's left too long then even that will go flat too.

[Poundy]

On 4/21/2022 at 5:45 PM, Herbie said:

I have a Tacklife T8 that I got from Amazon although they now say it's currently unavailable. I think this model may have been superseded by a later model.

I bought the same one a couple of years ago great bit of kit. I have started about 8 cars with it but never one of my own lol! Still it is nice finding the occasional bottle of wine in the porch from thankful neighbours.

I use it to power the tyre inflator or the dash cam if I am going to leave the car parked up for an extended period and want the cam left on. The lamps and phone charger are nice touches too and stored alongside a Ctek smart charger seems to cover most of my needs.

[Poundy]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:14 AM, Brian R said:

Len, I'm with you on that and probably the simplest solution unless, of course, it is not physically possible.

Ctek is suitable for all car batteries, it's just that the reconditioning feature is only of use on wet cell batteries.

I have a CTek comfort lead in the boot for quick connect it is also useful for checking Battery voltage across the pins with a multimeter instead of pulling the trim out to get to the Battery terminals

[sinktip]

I use a small 7 Watt solar panel on the dash to keep my Battery topped up when I won't be using a vehicle for a few weeks. While booster packs certainly work, it is far better to keep a Battery charged than to let it go flat then boost it to start. Even one time depleting a Battery that much damages it and shortens the life. 

[Poundy]

14 hours ago, sinktip said:

I use a small 7 Watt solar panel on the dash to keep my battery topped up when I won't be using a vehicle for a few weeks. While booster packs certainly work, it is far better to keep a battery charged than to let it go flat then boost it to start. Even one time depleting a battery that much damages it and shortens the life. 

Have you a buyers link for that?

[Rabbers]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:01 PM, Poundy said:

… it is nice finding the occasional bottle of wine in the porch from thankful neighbours. 

Reading this brought back a nice memory.  Some years ago my wife and I were waved down early one morning close to our house by a man standing next to an Audi A6.  We didn’t know him but had previously noticed the car parked in that same spot for at least a couple of weeks.  He told us he had a flat Battery and asked if he could start from ours using the cables he had on board.  We duly took pity and agreed. The car started at the first turn of the key and, after a final exchange of civilities, we went our separate ways.  We thought no more about until a package appeared on our doorstep a few days later.  It contained not one but two bottles of Dom Pérignon and a thank-you note signed “Flat-Battery Man”.

[Poundy]

So today I bought a cheap 5w solar panel from amazon and after searching in my odds box, found an old ctek connector.I  removed the croc clips of one of the solar supplied leads and soldered the old CTek connector on.

I already have the quick connect lead in the boot so am now able to quick connect the charger or panel. For the time being I have put the panel in the rear side passenger window, the darker tint doesn't seem to reduce the numbers much looking at the multimeter.

I am just hoping it will reduce the need to connect the Ctek every few weeks to top up for standing charge lost. I will leave the panel permanently connected for the time being and check the Battery state further down the track

 

[royoftherovers]

Try to ensure that the Solar Panel faces South during the day Norman so as to maximise its exposure to daylight..

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, Poundy said:

So today I bought a cheap 5w solar panel [...] the darker tint doesn't seem to reduce the numbers much looking at the multimeter.

I am just hoping it will reduce the need to connect the Ctek every few weeks to top up for standing charge lost. I will leave the panel permanently connected for the time being and check the battery state further down the track

 

Ohm's Law says that I = P/V, so I = 5/12 = 0.41A, which I would imagine is the absolute maximum output of the panel in bright sunlight, so the reality will probably be somewhat different.

If quiescent current is 0.05A (50mA) then hopefully it should work, but you'll have to measure the current supplied by the panel in 'real world' daylight. It was supposed to be wall-to-wall sunshine here today but although it's not cold, the clouds are grey and miserable-looking.

[Poundy]

6 hours ago, Herbie said:

Ohm's Law says that I = P/V, so I = 5/12 = 0.41A, which I would imagine is the absolute maximum output of the panel in bright sunlight, so the reality will probably be somewhat different.

If quiescent current is 0.05A (50mA) then hopefully it should work, but you'll have to measure the current supplied by the panel in 'real world' daylight. It was supposed to be wall-to-wall sunshine here today but although it's not cold, the clouds are grey and miserable-looking.

Cheers Herbie

The cars in first thing for suspension rubbers ( under warranty 😄) so I will do some checks when I get it back.

The spec states 0.3A  short circuit current and 0.28A maximum working current, not sure of the relationship of the 2. It would appear however it may not be up to doing the job required. I should have bought the 10W model I guess, as that is 0.61A CS and0.56A MWC.

Think it was the compactness of the 5w model 20 x23cm V  36x23cm that tempted me, still at £14 it's not a big loss if it's not fit for purpose and the 10w is only £23. 

[Poundy]

13 hours ago, Poundy said:

Cheers Herbie

The cars in first thing for suspension rubbers ( under warranty 😄) so I will do some checks when I get it back.

The spec states 0.3A  short circuit current and 0.28A maximum working current, not sure of the relationship of the 2. It would appear however it may not be up to doing the job required. I should have bought the 10W model I guess, as that is 0.61A CS and0.56A MWC.

Think it was the compactness of the 5w model 20 x23cm V  36x23cm that tempted me, still at £14 it's not a big loss if it's not fit for purpose and the 10w is only £23. 

So when I tested the panel on a bright day today I got readings of   .135A and 21.49v ???

Thoughts appreciated Herbie 😉

[Poundy]

So after 2 weeks of leaving the 5w panel on the dash while parked up. I have found that although there is very little, if any increase in Battery voltage, there doesn't seem to be any voltage loss from being stood with the occasional door operation etc like I would have previously experienced.

It's still early days and the weather has been mixed but it looks like I should be able to extend the time considerably  before any hook up to my CTek takes place.

On reflection, I should have done a full charge first and paid a little extra for the 10w version, but it is what it is lol!