Explain trickle charging to me!

[Concrete]

Right I'm off to China for a month, and as the Skyline has a Micra battery in it with a tracker and alarm drawing from it I think it's unlikely to last the whole time. The last thing I want is for my alarm to start going off when I'm 8000 miles away, so I thought I would put it on trickle charge.

I have a mains powered battery charger that has two settings, one is low power charge that never seems to do anything and the other usually gives it enough juice to start after 20 minutes. Can I use this to keep the battery charged while in the car while I'm away?

Cheers for any advice!

 

[Janesy B]

trickle charging is just charging the battery with a very small current to keep it topped up. Its a lot safer than leaving it on proper charge because it will overheat whearas the trickle charge will put just about enough in to stop the battery from going dead.

 

[ste_bla]

Not the same but my old vectra lasted 6 weeks while in NZ, it has an alarm/internal sensors and there were no issues when I came back.

 

[Bear]

Not the same but my old vectra lasted 6 weeks while in NZ, it has an alarm/internal sensors and there were no issues when I came back.

I have a micra battery in my 200 due to having a FMIC that comes up through the battery tray and the battery is close to being flat in two weeks with the alarm on, it just has enough juice in the battery to start the car once.

 

[ste_bla]

I have a micra battery in my 200 due to having a FMIC that comes up through the battery tray and the battery is close to being flat in two weeks with the alarm on, it just has enough juice in the battery to start the car once.

Ouch

 

[Dureth]

Take a look out for battery optimisers, very popular amoung bikers as they tend to leave them unused for months at a time. Optimate do some very good chargers, you simply leave them connected to the charger and the charger will decide if the battery needs charging and keeps it in a perfect ready state for as long as you require.

 

[Westyfield2]

Optimate do some very good chargers, you simply leave them connected to the charger and the charger will decide if the battery needs charging and keeps it in a perfect ready state for as long as you require.

Seconded
We've got an Optimate for the Westfield (tiny Gel battery) and it's been very good, AFAIK it switches between proper charge and trickle charge depending on the battery's level and can also recover a 'deep discharged' battery.

 

[Dogbreath]

As said you need one of the proper automatic battery conditioners if you want to leave it connected for long periods. They will keep the battery fully charged but won't overcharge it as 'dumb' battery chargers will if left connected.

The Oxford Oximiser can be had for just over £20 which is excellent value compared to most of these chargers. I've had one of these for a couple of years and it's excellent. One of the best features for me is that it works correctly with sealed lead-gel batteries such as those used in the portable jump start packs. The crappy chargers that come with these (or at least the two I have) take literally a few days to charge the battery from flat, and don't prevent overcharging beyond this.

 

[Concrete]

Cheers guys, the Skyline will kill a battery in just over a week if not used So would the 20 quid Oxford charger that Dogbreath linked to be suitable for my car?

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Cheers guys, the Skyline will kill a battery in just over a week if not used So would the 20 quid Oxford charger that Dogbreath linked to be suitable for my car?

Yes. Provided you can plug it into a mains socket (ie in a garage) then it will keep your battery in tip top charged condition, regulating the amount of juice as nessecary.

I wouldn't expect a small a solar trickly charger to do that much, although larger variations might work.