Hi all, If your car is not used for long periods, how often do you put your battery on charge?
Being in lockdown we have hardly driven our MX and I am topping up the battery about every 2 weeks, just wondered how often you put yours on charge if it is not used?
I also start the engine occasionally and let it run until normal temp reached.
Youâll get different opinions on this, some leave it connected 24/7 infact whilst itâs in storage/off road.
Mine, I just flick the switch for the charger every third day, itâs on charge now, from around 8am until around 10pm.
Depends what you are connecting it to. If itâs something designed for battery maintenance such as an Optimate or CTEK or one of the cheaper Aldi/Lidl lookalikes then it can be left on.
Normally I would put my CTEK on for a few days a month but at the moment when the car is likely to be unused for months Iâve just left it on. Not worth the risk of forgetting, batteries never seem to be the same again after theyâve been completely flat. They can also freeze when very flat and that will do them in.
I have Optimate smart chargers permanently installed in my garage and these are connected to the cars whenever theyâre not in use.
Ctek all the time
CTEK fixed to garage wall and normally connected all the time the MX5 is unused.
Just lately, though, Iâve made up and extension cable so I can connect the charger to the Audi for a day or so if itâs not been used for a while.
JS
My trickle charger is always on.
My NA in the garage is on a CTEK all winter but I put the ND on for a couple of days as, recently, after a week being unused, it was sluggish to start. I also turn the interior alarm off on the ND via the key fob.
I donât have a maintenance trickle charger, car did a total of 1500 miles last year, otherwise just parked in garage (2010 2.0 SportTech PRHT) in that year, I put the car on charge once in the year, using the trickle charge function on a conventional charger. I did some work on the gear change last week so dropped the roof while engine not running as I didnât want to gas myself. That was enough to take enough out of the battery for it to require a second charge in a year! Not too bad at all IMO. 
Barrie
There you have it. Countryboyâs solution is the ideal, I think.
Unfortunately, I do not have a garage, but I do have off-road parking spaces at the back of my garden for our cars, and in times of light usage / lockdown, I plug in my smart charger to give the batteries on both our cars a few hours âconditioningâ charge once a week. I guess both batteries are in quite good condition, because two to three hours is enough for each of them - the smart charger turns off automatically.
An owner who has to park their car on the road though, does have a bit of a problem. Leave a mains lead to your charger unattended across a pavement, and youâre asking for trouble - either someoneâs gonna steal your charger, or trip over the lead and sue you !
Leave a battery, especially an old one, to go flat in the depths of winter is likely to kill it. The last time I had to buy a new battery for my 5 it cost almost a hundred pounds - not something you want to do more often than necessary.
Hi all and thanks for the replies.
I used to take our last (Mk2) off the road during 6 months over Winter and would take the battery out and keep it charged in the garage.
Our current MX lives outside on the drive, (garage too full of cr@p), so I canât really leave a charger permanently connected. (This one is not taken âoff the roadâ for Winter).
I purchased one of the cheapie Aldi smart charges which I think works in the same way as the Ctek type. I put this on for a couple of hours every other week it is not used.
Our Mk2 had a Panasonic battery that lasted about 13 years, replaced it with a Westco that only lasted 13 months, (1 month outside warranty), I then replaced that with a ânormalâ battery for about ÂŁ60âŚ
Whilst my Abarth 124 Spider, Mk1 MX5 and Exocet kit car are off the road through winter I disconnect the batteries and charge them when I remember.
I have heard good reports about Ctek, although I have a Clark charger and conditioner from Machine Mart. It comes with three connectors, crocodile clips. O rings and a 12v internal plug (cigarette lighter type).
I have fitted the O rings to the battery so it is easy just to pop the bonnet and plug in.
When charged it goes into a cycling maintenance mode (green light) and keeps everything good. I am on my 4th winter with it and it works well.
Last year we had a power cut and I had forgotten it had tripped the RCD circuit breaker in the wall socket so it remained off for over a month, battery went completely flat and died. New battery and lesson learned.
Why not? As long as you have power sockets in the garage to plug the charger in then you can get extension leads for the CTEK which you the run under the garage door to the car on the drive. I have two cars sat on the drive at the moment both connected to CTEKs.
The only trick is not to drive off with the charger still attachedâŚ
I use an Optimate 4 ,same as Countryboy Ieave it permanently connected through the winter months . If and when we get a dry spell I get it out for a run ,but havenât been able to do that this winter letâs hope better times are just around the corner.
I attach a âremove before flightâ key ring tag I got at Duxford IWM to the steering wheel, just in case of a brain-f*rt.
Iâm a CTEK user here. Fit and forget for the winter. I use the official CTEK extension cable. As said above, you can run that under the garage door and to the boot of your car no problem.
I leave mine hooked up to an Optimate when not in use , the OE battery went completely flat and would not take a charge so one new battery later , and not letting that happen again,also got an Oxford optimate wired up for the motorbike.
I have a maypole smart charger, actually have 3 of them in the house, motorbikes, sons vehicles etc, but got them from MPD a few years ago and they work extremely well, automatically detects 6v/12v, and different battery types etc, but personally I dont like to leave them on all the time, maybe once a week for a day. I got a cheapie battery over 5 years ago and it still seems perfect.
My Mk1 is connected 24/7 to a CTEK.
The Panasonic battery is now 14 years old so must be working!