Is this a bit dodgy with a charger?

N

northernchappy

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Could i cut off the croc. clips off the charger, and fit a ciggy lighter plug? the socket is always on, even when engine is off & key out ignition.
 
All about convenience really. I park the car overnight in garage with very limited space. Will be easier to sit charger on dashboard with window open a bit for power lead.

I drive lots of short journeys , ok in summer but winter with wipers n lights heater demister on is another story
 
I've just bought one of these charger/maintainers for my summer car while it's in storage over winter, they all come with a compact plug in lead that can be permanently wired quite discretely.

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Both my car and my wife's do loads of short (less than 1 mile, crawling school runs) journeys, summer and winter, using aircon, demisting etc - modern alternators are very good at rapid charging The only time we've ever had problems is when the battery or electrical/mechanical system (alternator, starter motor, glow plugs, fuel pump or parasitic drain etc) is faulty.

We've never, ever, had a failure to start a modern car caused by short journeys alone - we've had plenty over the years, always cured by repair or replacement, never by long term overnight use of trickle chargers - although it will usually keep you on the move for a few days or weeks till you sort out the real problem.
 
Another solution is to have a second battery and swap that in when the one in car becomes weak. The one out of the car can be perma-plugged-in. I have this arrangement for the winter using an 18v 200ma AC/DC adaptor. The £1.50 china adaptor produces less than 200ma with the power fading in and out but does the job. In the car, I have a perma-connected solar panel that produces 50-200ma. This works OK spring to autum. At around this time of the year, the sun is too low in the sky to reach the panel because of shadow from opposite side houses.
 
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My jump start pack has a cig socket to cig socket lead, and with the wallmart charger it will bring both start pack and car to fully charged, but it is in the main easier to use Smart charger direct onto battery.

It does not do the battery any good to be over charged, so the smart charger alternates between 12.8 volt and 14.4 volt, well at least mine does. So once the battery drops to 12.7 volt it auto turns on until battery at 14.4 volts then turns off or down depending if set to under or over 12 amp/hour.

Max output is 3.8 amp, but in the main charges at 0.8 amp, which is good, as batteries take time to charge, with the Jaguar if battery low then the stop/start system stops working, so easy to work out when it needs a charge, but the other cars hard to tell if they need a charge or not, but in my case it can be 3 weeks between runs, or longer.

But short runs does not seem to be a problem, its the sitting for weeks unused which causes the problem. Or not closing the boot properly and the boot light stays on.

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ericmark said:
It does not do the battery any good to be over charged
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How would you know? While my factory battery was at 17 years old, I charged it to 16v with the solar panel. I have been unable to reproduce it since. At 18.5 year old, the battery still limps along fine spring to autumn. It is currently perma connected to the ac/dc adaptor for winter emergencies. The internal resistance dropped from 14.5 to 13.3 mOhms indicating it is reviving. A new battery would have an IR of 4-5 mOhms. From a youtube video, an industrial expert in the known said when the IR doubles from new, the battery should be replaced. He's somewhat right, but not exactly, because if you could tolerate limping, 3x IR from new is do-able. Limping means the engine hesitates to start.
 
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robinbanks said:
Perhaps by googling "what happens if a lead acid battery is overcharged", though your subsequent description of your battery behavior also lends weight to Eric's argument
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If you google monosodium, they say don't use it. Yet, all food companies use it. See if you can work it out? Lack of knowledge means, they can fill your brain with anything they want.
 
If I Google smoking, I'm sure I'll get a raft of hits saying not to do that either.. yet people still do it.

I'm having a thick day and can't see the point you're making
 
The point is keep googling if you wanna. Real reality is observation.

You lie about the smoking. I see few people do.
 
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