Trickle - Charging "In Situ"

It's what I would do.

Chris

Thanks. Whilst I had a lady friend here to help out by plugging in the mains lead etc I checked the off-load PSU voltage as 14.2, and also verified that the croc clip with the + painted on it was the negative lead. :-) Needs some attention...

Then I fired up the engine and she started first time, of course...

TBH, running it once a fortnight is probably the best thing to do if you can.

Chris

I've never bothered disconnecting the batteries from my car or my bike when charging from the mains, and I've never had any trouble.

Trouble is, I can't even drive it in and out of the garage, and I don't trust anyone else to back it in to my garage again. Bit of a tight squeeze.. :)

What about using a battery conditioner? Some info here:

In message , Nick writes

If I already had one, maybe... The PSU is a voltage stabilised one, and on the very rare occasion I have used it for battery charging, if I set it up to charge at 1 or 2 amps on a depleted battery, I notice that the charge rate gradually drops as the battery becomes charged. I very much doubt whether such an arrangement will do anything other than keeping the battery in good condition and avoid plate sulphation..

Anyway, I should be able to drive within a few weeks, so this is maybe much ado about nothing. :)

Just make sure the charging current is zero before you remove the clips from the battery. Every year, a few people get hospitalised with acid burns to the face and eyes because the hydrogen from a gassing battery explodes, triggered by the spark from disconnecting.

Personally, I'd prefer the long-term charge to be less than 500 mA.

John

Can you give some hard evidence to back this up (when using a trickle charger)?