Trickle Charge over Winter

[gmartin]

Hi - is it advised to keep a trickle charge on the battery in the winter? May drive a little, but car will definitely be sitting a lot from December - March/April.
Thank you,
Greg

[Stutzdriver]

Get a proper battery maintainer, not a true trickle charger. I love it that my car is ready to go anytime! I hard wired mine in so it just has to be plugged in easily.

[gmartin]

Thank you Jay! Appreciate the fast response.

[tirwin]

I have one that is a Battery Minder brand. It's probably 10-15 years old at this point but works great. It has settings for 2, 4 & 8 Amp charging. It also has different setting for regular lead/acid and AGM and a third one I can't recall right now because I never use it.

On the battery side I wired in a quick charging port and a temp probe (safety thing - prevents battery from over-heating).

I'm sure there are other brands out there.

One thing I would look for is one that can desulfate the battery like the Battery Minder.

[gmartin]

Thanks Tim! Great details. I think 2A is correct for maintaining??

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by gmartin

Thanks Tim! Great details. I think 2A is correct for maintaining??

2A is fine. Higher amperage is good for resurrecting a dead battery or when time is of the essence.

[Quickstep192]

I have this one:

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-158-Automatic-Battery-Charger/dp/B000FQBWCY/ref=sr_1_6?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs4rgxZuw5QIVA4TICh2F3 AvrEAAYASAAEgLRXfD_BwE&hvadid=177565628094&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9007849&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=587362249420106279&hvtargid=kwd-4194184102&hydadcr=7515_9880906&keywords=porsche+battery+maintainer&qid=1571759274&sr=8-6

It works great and can be setup to have a plug wired to the battery for easy connection/disconnection

[kent olsen]

Curious. I have three cars I leave alone over the winter. Basically Dec thru around the first of April. All I've ever done is disconnect the batteries and set the cars on jack stands. When I come home I hook up the batteries set my charger for 2 amps overnight and they are good the go the next morning.

[Bill Douglas]

I use one of these.

[NYNick]

Originally Posted by kent olsen

Curious. I have three cars I leave alone over the winter. Basically Dec thru around the first of April. All I've ever done is disconnect the batteries and set the cars on jack stands. When I come home I hook up the batteries set my charger for 2 amps overnight and they are good the go the next morning.

This is a good plan. Batteries do fine when not connected.

FYI for my water cooled friends. Make sure you leave your hood popped open when storing the car. Once your battery dies and your hood is closed, it's a bit of a project to open it back up....just saying.

[No Sweat]

I hooked my battery maintainer up to a 120volt timer. Set it to charge 6-8 hrs a day, that way it wont burn up my battery.

[Mike Andrew]

The last several years I trickle 2A about once a month for several hours. I do disconnect the battery so the clock is not draining it during winter storage.
Never had a problem with charge or battery life. I think that perhaps the new batteries are more resilient than they were years ago when they seemed to die if not kept charged. Same technology but....

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by kent olsen

Curious. I have three cars I leave alone over the winter. Basically Dec thru around the first of April. All I've ever done is disconnect the batteries and set the cars on jack stands. When I come home I hook up the batteries set my charger for 2 amps overnight and they are good the go the next morning.

Obviously nothing wrong with this approach. That works for you, but not for me.

I never put up a car for the winter because of where I live. But I travel quite a bit for work so I may go several weeks without starting the car when I'm not home. When I get home from a drive, I connect the charger. It literally takes 30 sec. And when I go to get in the car the next time I don't have to reset the clock or all the radio settings that get lost. I just disconnect it, get in and drive. Plus the charger I use has a setting for the AGM battery I use. When it goes into float mode, it pulses the charge to prevent sulfation, which improves the battery life (or prevents premature failure -- I guess it depends on how you look at it).

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Mike Andrew

The last several years I trickle 2A about once a month for several hours. I do disconnect the battery so the clock is not draining it during winter storage.
Never had a problem with charge or battery life. I think that perhaps the new batteries are more resilient than they were years ago when they seemed to die if not kept charged. Same technology but....

The difference that I'm aware of is traditional wet lead-acid batteries are usually toast if they get completely discharged whereas an AGM can usually be resurrected from the dead.

Some references I've found say that traditional wet lead-acid batteries can only handle 50% depth of discharge and AGM can handle 80%.

[kent olsen]

Well my youngest car is 26 years old and the oldest of the 3 is 54 so no modern conveniences. Their all manual from the transmission to the door locks.