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My thinking exactly!Recently bought an Exide from Tayna as it was more reasonably priced
If pennies did not need pinching, I'd go for Bosch or Varta without hesitation.
My thinking exactly!Recently bought an Exide from Tayna as it was more reasonably priced
That's interesting. I have a smart charger (Ring). I also have an old car that is rarely used. A couple of years ago, I replaced the battery, because it kept going flat. I've a feeling it was a "Lion" branded one. Can't remember what the current one is, (Exide, I think), but I've been disappointed with it. The other week, after the car had been unused for a fortnight, it was down to 11.6 volts.During Colvid the cars were not used much, but the car still contacts Jaguar and runs things even when switched off, so the battery slowly discharges.
I found some completely flat batteries when moving house, and tried to recharge them, one failed, but around three recovered, but the smart battery charger will not charge a battery under around 7 volt as it assumes it's a 6 volt battery, and at around 15 volt it auto turns off, as it assumes the battery is disconnected, so only way to charge a completely flat battery is to connect it in parallel to a good battery.
This allows the charger to work, and since interested I plugged the charger into an energy monitor so I could see what happened over time.
So to start with the charger toped up the good battery, then turned the charge rate down to zero, with a few blips, when the good battery had slightly self discharged, but the discharged battery seemingly was doing nothing, this went on for around 10 days, then as if a switch had been flicked, the battery charged and the energy monitor showed it had accepted around it's full AH capacity. This was then repeated with other batteries found, so not a one off.
The point of the story is it takes a long time for a sulphated battery to recover, and the same applies to a part sulphated battery, so every so often I will put the smart charger on the cars battery to remove the build up of sulphur on the plates for around a week, once a vehicle battery has been discharged, the alternator is simply not running for long enough to fully recharge it in most cases, we would need to be doing some silly mileage to have the engine running for that long.
The Jag is easy, if battery fully charged the engine stops at junctions, if it does not stop at junctions, I know it needs a charge, the other cars I normally do after doing the Jag, often only leave on charge a day or two, not the full 10 days, but since retiring I simply don't use the cars enough to keep them charged.
As to selling names, and parts of a company, yes some parts of the British Leyland Group were bought and the name continues, but only the name, I have a bottle of Lucas upper cylinder lubricant made in the USA by Lucas oil products inc. Clearly not the Joseph Lucas we all knew those years ago. The Lucas trademark is currently owned by ZF Friedrichshafen. It though it's life changed with links with CAV and Bosch and combined and split many times, so hard to now work out what bits are what.
But we are talking about the name, not the product, and my updates to my Lucas work shop manual and data manual stopped years ago in spite saying it had a live time update system.
For the chargers I have, I've long felt this accelerates battery discharge, but I've never put an ammeter in circuit to check..it lives in the boot, permanently connected to the battery
I've no experience of Lion, but the general opinion seems to be that 'you get what you pay for'That's interesting. I have a smart charger (Ring). I also have an old car that is rarely used. A couple of years ago, I replaced the battery, because it kept going flat. I've a feeling it was a "Lion" branded one. Can't remember what the current one is, (Exide, I think), but I've been disappointed with it. The other week, after the car had been unused for a fortnight, it was down to 11.6 volts.
Lion. Avoid at all costsI've no experience of Lion, but the general opinion seems to be that 'you get what you pay for'
I had a new Exide on my old BMW, never had faith in it & replaced with a Bosch a couple of years ago. There are some good deals out there for quality batteries, just a question of seeking them out
Should I be charging it, disconnected from the car? The car will be drawing some small current (clock, radio and ECU memories, etc) all the time. Will that "confuse" the electronics in the charger, that are trying to sense the health of the battery?
I worry about setting the car (and garage!) On fire, leaving things permanently on in there. I know people say it's safe to leave these smart chargers permanently switched on, but is it? (On al older (and Italian!) car?
Will the charger be consuming any power from the battery by being permanently connected to it, but not plugged into the mains?
Ive just replaced a Lion battery in my Alpine tractor that was 9 years old with another of the same from Euro car parts via ebay which was cheaper than going to store.I've no experience of Lion, but the general opinion seems to be that 'you get what you pay for'
Self discharge dose not equate to average 50mA draw of a sleeping car.On, or off the car - it will not make much difference, because batteries have inbuilt self discharge anyway.
I think that might have been a "bug" - I have two chargers made by AutoXS, Aldi's brand - the older one behaves as you describe, the newer one goes straight to motorcycle mode (0.8A)the Lidi one I used if power is removed will not auto restart
That's some recommendation! You can only speak as you find.Ive just replaced a Lion battery in my Alpine tractor that was 9 years old with another of the same from Euro car parts via ebay which was cheaper than going to store.
I also have a Lion in another vehicle which is 7 years old and still good.
One thing I've noticed with the Ring charger. If I disconnect it from the car battery, I have to push the button to re-start the charger when I next connect the charger to the mains. However, when I leave it permanently connected to the battery, (including driving the car with it connected to the battery), I don't have to press the button to start it when I plug it back into the mains again. It just sets off charging as soon as mains power is restored. Not sure if that's significant?