Charging GEL car batteries.

Seems hard to believe any decent manufacturer like VW would make a battery difficult to change.

I'm also not sure what you mean by the complexity of the wiring. Batteries have two.

There is a plastic moulded distribution box covering most of the top of the battery which has 6 or more wires connected plus fuses and devices that I can't identify. All of the wires have to be disconnected to get the battery out to the best of my limited knowledge.

There are pictures at the Brit Skoda site

Of course I don't know the actual model, but by that pic you only have to disconnect the battery terminals and move the top which is a connector block out of the way - anything else would surely be a nonsense?

If you want to find out the correct battery for your model go here. You'll also get the technical spec. A quick glance for the Octavia range shows them all to be conventional wet acid batteries.

Thanks for the link Dave. Very useful.

Stryker

Come to that I've not seen a Gel battery that's any good for starting current that isn't prohibitively expensive & bigger than the wet cell or an OPtima Red top.

Yup. It's a fundamental that a gel battery can't produce the same peak current, like for like.

the battery in my MX5/ roadster (gray import) has a gel battery - In fact it's one of the very few differences between the grays and "legit" imports. It;'s still fine after 5 years of use with me -It was 3 yrs old and flat when I got it - I just got a jump start and drove it 30miles to re-charge and has been fine since I was told that its smaller and lighter than a normal battery so is sportier (allegedly) However get ready for the worst winter for a couple of decades - let's see if it lasts a "COLD" winter - we barely get a frost in winter on the south coast in the last few years so no real test so far I guess So - keep choc/fluids/ warm coat and a full tank of petrol - you are warned !

You were told wrong. ;-)