Battery Chargers

[mrjohn]

I don’t use my car very often, about once every two weeks.

The other day the battery was flat for no apparent reason.

We live out in the sticks so I was thinking of buying a battery charger just to keep it topped up. I went into the town near where I live and all they had were expensive ones (would be cheaper to buy a new battery) or cheap ones which they assured me were not good enough for a car. Now to my mind a 12 volt charger will charge any 12 volt battery. Am I wrong?

I always assumed that the bigger ones just do it faster.

The last one I used was a very cheap looking thing I borrowed from a neighbour which worked perfectly well.

So can anybody who is using a cheap/small charger give any advice?

[katabeachbum]

To charge a 12 Volt battery full, it needs to deliver 14,45 Volt. More kills battery rapidly, less kills battery slowly by not using it fully and thus oxidising.

Cheap chargers are often not accurate on this.

Size of charger does not really matter much, large Amp charges faster, small Amp slowly, but its voltage and pulses/cycles making battery healthy. 4-8 Amp is fine for most car/pickup batteries

Excellent quality charger, CTECK, low Amp, can be connected for months. from 1500 baht as I recall

[transam]

Buy yourself a trickle charger that you leave connected all the time, until you use the ride again. Battery will last for years longer too.

[mrjohn]

Yes I looked at trickle chargers on the internet. Seems to be the solution Are they available in Thailand?

Certainly not in our "one horse town."

Might have to go to the big city.

[katabeachbum]

Yes I looked at trickle chargers on the internet. Seems to be the solution Are they available in Thailand?

Certainly not in our "one horse town."

Might have to go to the big city.

CTECK sold by VVP4x4supply or something similar in BKK, mailorder

also sold by quiet a few big bike dealers all around the country

a Boliden battery connected to CTECK couple of nights a month, lives more than 5 years in TH. hard to beat, and total cost lower than cheap 1,5 years batteries