There is an ancient Renault 5 parked at my bro-in-law's French country retreat near Troyes. The car stands for weeks, sometimes months at a time before being called into service so, as one might expect, a few times he has come to it and found the battery flat. The last time he needed assistance a villager connected up one of those massive wheeled battery booster things and trashed the old battery. A new battery was bought and fitted by the local garage for an extortionate quantity of Euros. This tale of woe was related to his sister, Mrs H.
When I next visited I gave him a Lidl battery charger (with a French plug attached), showed him how to use it and told him to plug it in before he left for his town flat, knowing that it would keep the battery fresh for the next time he wanted to use the car.
I really like the Renault with its comfy seats and lots of suspension travel and use it during our visits for the morning bread run when I don't feel like cycling. Mrs H gets a bit irritated when I hang my arm out of the window and loll sideways in the driver's seat thinking I'm driving like a local. I digress.
Yesterday my b-i-l left a handful of anguished messages on our phones. The Renault's battery was flat and he had eventually located the Lidl charger; could I call him back and remind him how to use it as he needs the car to collect his partner from the train station? I haven't spoken to him yet, and when I do I won't be able to explain what maintenance battery charging is, will I? Telling him to plug the charger in and leave it for 12 to 24 hours (it puts out less than 4 amps at full throttle) isn't going to go down well. The battery may not come back to life at all; I've no idea how long it's been flat.
I need to prepare my defence; can any of you help?
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A further complication is the Lidl 'smart' charger will not charge a dead flat battery, which this one probably is.
To charge one of those, you need an old-fashioned 'stupid' charger.
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You need to tell him as politely as possible that he should have listened to you when you gave him the charger, that if he has killed the new battery it's his own fault, and let this be a lesson to him.
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You need no defence Hawkeye. Other than fit the the thing at the time what more can you do? Anyway Anglo French relations are always strained :-0
The battery charger (conditioner) you bought will probably not kick a completely discharged battery back to life. It will need a charger with a bit more whoomph to do that and then connect the conditioner to get it up to full charge. The other issue is that a completely discharged battery may have sulphated and will no longer be capable of supplying the maximum ammount of voltage.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 3 Jun 12 at 11:52
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Oh, I dunno about that.
Just a few weeks ago a mate and I resurrected his MG TF's battery from "dead as a doornail" (with the merest hint of a few volts across the terminals) to fully charged, using a cheap 'n cheerful supermarket charger. Took 48hrs at those amps mind you......
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i did similar on a dead car battery using a 1.8 amp motorcycle battery charger...it took about 100 hours but it did the trick
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Should have gorn to Spec Blacken Decor.
This is smart (like moi) will charge at 2 / 10 / or 30 amps and even 80 Amp high rate to reboot a phlat bat:
www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Decker-Auto-Battery-Charger/dp/B0013242IA
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My neighbour has had a Mk 1 Golf (in reasonable visual condition) parked in her private roadway for all the ten years we have been here. I don't think it has ever moved and no-one goes near it. Yesterday, while I was weeding outside, she came out of the house, got in it and, after half a dozen attempts, it fired up and sounded reasonable. The battery seemed to have plenty of life. She then drove it up the road, turned it round and parked it again without even warming it up!
I'm still puzzling over that one.
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>> Should have gorn to Spec Blacken Decor.
>>
>> This is smart (like moi) will charge at 2 / 10 / or 30 amps
>> and even 80 Amp high rate to reboot a phlat bat:
>>
>> www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Decker-Auto-Battery-Charger/dp/B0013242IA
>>
I have one of those - very happy with it. It even managed to recharge a battery which had dropped to 3v when the aldi charger said 'no'
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Interesting review here from Amazon's site:
"Review of Black and Decker Smart Battery Charger 30 Amp Fully Automatic Electronic Battery Charger - South African version: 12V charger at 220/230V:
Excellent value for money. I use this battery charger mainly to charge 105Ah deep cycle 12 batteries from a low output generator when camping at places where there is no power.
The red clamp gets a bit hot when in 30Amp mode but a wet cloth solved this problem.
This Charger can be set for gel or acid batteries. It can analyze the battery for voltage as well as the alternator of a motor car.
When you for example set it on the 30 Amp mode,
it first analyze the status of available charge and then automatically start at the highest safe amps that will not damage the battery and lower it in stages until it stops at the full setting. It can charge at 2 / 10 30 Amp settings and there is also a 80 Amp setting, not for charge but to boost for a quick start of a vehicle with a flat battery. It can charge a completely drained 12 battery of about 50 Ah in a little over 2 hours to completely full.
It can give you a digital output of the available voltage left in the battery.
The feature that originally persuaded me to buy this charger apart from the strong Amp output was that the manufacturer claims the charger to draw only 550 Watt.
I run this charger successfully from a small 650Watt 220V output generator which completely charge a 102Ah 12 deep cycle battery from 25% to 100% in just 5 hours on a relative hot day (about 30 degrees of C). The generator did not suffer and I am now secure of my power when camping.
The unit is not very big and light due to the exterior made of B$D's durable plastic.
If I must go out now to buy a charger again, I will make the same choice, and I am a very demanding buyer before I make my choice.
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>I need to prepare my defence; can any of you help?
Do you have, or failing that, are you able to borrow one of those laughing bag things?
Inconvenience, expensive replacements, helpful gifts and commonsense have all failed - maybe mockery will get the message through?
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Get the first blow in. Abuse him roundly for his gross stupidity as soon as he picks up the phone.
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Better still - cube the automotive dung-beetle of a car.
Then leave the cube on the drive.
If you lean your arm out the window while cornering in a R5 you're at risk of scraping your knuckles.
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Drove round the lanes here four up in a Renault 4 with a freshly shot deer on the roof once, quite a long time ago. I was a passenger and no one, driver included, was wholly sober. There was a bit of body roll from time to time.
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The LIDL charger won't charge at all if the battery's below 7.5V. It'll enter 'pulse charge mode' if the battery's 7.5 to 10.5V.
I've recovered a couple of flat batteries recently. The first was below 7.5V and I had to connect a second battery (with a headlamp bulb in series to limit the current) to bring it up enough for the charger to work. The second one was in the pulse charge range, but I disconnected it from the car as there was a regular, pulsed current draw from something.
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I am still using a "Bradex Eight" 6v/12v switchable, 8A "dumb" charger that I bought when I was 17 years old. Has never failed me yet. Recovered my S60's battery from a point where it was so flat it wouldn't even put the dash lights on, and a colleague used it recently on his SLK which had been standing for the best part of a year, and whose battery also recovered nicely.
Apart from the ability to leave them permanently connected, I've never understood the point of these so-called "smart chargers". The old school ones seem to do a sterling job.
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I have two smarties...Lidl and Aldi. One is on the Jowett and the other keeps a spare battery on the bench up to speed. My booster pack is always on charge and I have a couple of dumb chargers, one 6/12 for flatties. The 6V one copes with the old bike.
Ted
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>> Apart from the ability to leave them permanently connected, I've never understood the point of these so-called "smart chargers".
>>
Leaving them permanently connected is the point. I have one on the caravan battery and the one in the garage does bicycle lights and the motorcycle. You can't connect a smart charger the wrong way round and the clips aren't live until you press the start button therefore don't spark . Ideal for non-techies, so I thought.
Not heard from b-i-l so I'm assuming the panic has blown over.
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>> Not heard from b-i-l so I'm assuming the panic has blown over.
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Or blown up?
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It sounds as if there is something permanently drawing current, in which case it would be best just to disconnect the earth lead when not in use.
A decent battery will hold its charge for weeks if not months, there is no need for fancy chargers.
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>> It sounds as if there is something permanently drawing current, in which case it would
>> be best just to disconnect the earth lead when not in use.
>> A decent battery will hold its charge for weeks if not months, there is no
>> need for fancy chargers.
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Agreed. But at this distance I tried to fix the symptoms rather than find the cause. If b-i-l can't connect a battery charger what chance do I have of getting the battery disconnected? Arty b-i-l when he's not teaching or singing opera might be described as spannaphobic. And I wouldn't call a £13.95 box from Lidl 'fancy'.
Last edited by: hawkeye on Wed 6 Jun 12 at 18:42
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The little-used Renault 5 and the battery charger - Iffy
