12v chr battery charging

[john soulsby]

Hi everyone I think it is now general knowledge that if you only achieve low mileage in every week that there can be a problem with the 12v Battery discharging and unable to start. I have had this problem and was informed by the toyota dealer after fully charging my Battery that a trickle charger should be used on an occasional basis I have done this and successfully charged the Battery. But it can be very inconvenient if you need to use the car and it fails to start either having to call the RAC etc and having to trickle charge which can take several hours. I have seen recently that a compact powerbank is available that will charge a 12v battery instantly  are they safe to use on a chr 12v battery stop start please any advice and recommendation of a suitable powerbank 

[Mooly]

You can not charge a Battery instantly John, it takes quite a long time (several hours) to fully recharge a flat Battery. A booster type Battery (power bank) that is effectively added across or in parallel if you prefer to the flat one will get you going but the flat battery then recharges at its own set rate once the vehicle is operational. The booster battery will not add any appreciable charge to the flat one though.

Also you can not safely fast recharge the battery (and certainly not with it on the car and connected up) without more specialised equipment. The only way a battery can be fast charged is to apply a significantly higher voltage to it to literally increase the energy input vs time rate.

[TonyHSD]

Hi, to prevent discharge of your 12v Battery you can use a solar powered car Battery charger, the solar panel can be mounted on the inside of the car windows, dashboard or rear parcel shelf and the plug connected to the car obd 2 port while need to recharge your Battery. This is helpful for when the car does not get regular use or been left for some time, like you are going on holiday etc. When you use the car you have to disconnect the plug before you start then car but you can leave the panel on if placed on a safe place that doesn’t obstructs your views. Other options is power bank and trickle charge. There are various options on Amazon and there are reviews there too, you can buy from other places as well. I personally never used any of these and can not recommend exactly which one to buy, some other members may do as they have been using similar devices. 
Regards 

[Yugguy1970]

The 12v only needs to be powered enough to energise the computers that will then allow the hybrid Battery to do everything else.

[Roy124]

I bought the neatest little booster you could imagine.  eBay, cost about £34.  It has a zipped clamshell case, a Battery about the size of a cell phone, 12v jump leads and a 4-way USB connector. It has a torch and can charge a phone too.  Just 4 tiny charge state LED, over 75%, 50-75, 25-50 and under 25%.  I set an alert to check state every month. Four months on still over 75%.

Here it is now :the

30000mAh Car Jump Starter Pack Booster Battery Charger Emergency Power Bank UK
£29.99 each

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393398194847

[Catlover]

Hi John, where is the car parked in relation to your house? If the car is close to your house you could put the slow charger on for an overnight charge. Depending how often you use your car you could connect up charger to suit.  How often do you use the car, and for what sort of distances when you do use the car?

[john soulsby]

19 hours ago, Mooly said:

You can not charge a battery instantly John, it takes quite a long time (several hours) to fully recharge a flat battery. A booster type battery (power bank) that is effectively added across or in parallel if you prefer to the flat one will get you going but the flat battery then recharges at its own set rate once the vehicle is operational. The booster battery will not add any appreciable charge to the flat one though.

Also you can not safely fast recharge the battery (and certainly not with it on the car and connected up) without more specialised equipment. The only way a battery can be fast charged is to apply a significantly higher voltage to it to literally increase the energy input vs time rate.

Hi many thanks for info much appreciated

 

John

[john soulsby]

18 hours ago, Catlover said:

Hi John, where is the car parked in relation to your house? If the car is close to your house you could put the slow charger on for an overnight charge. Depending how often you use your car you could connect up charger to suit.  How often do you use the car, and for what sort of distances when you do use the car?

Hi thanks for info yes I can trickle charge the Battery parked close to my house used every day but some days maybe 5/6 miles I have stared to turn off the air con etc now and this seems to help

 

best regards

 

John

[Catlover]

The days you do 5/6 miles is not of use as it probably not replacing what it has used to get that journey started, never mind add to the Battery.            
Hopefully you have a slow charger. It will take probably up to 6 hours to change a Battery up, but it’s best not to let a Battery go flat. Your battery is only two years old (approx) so should be fairly healthy. A healthy fully charged battery should last more the two weeks in the summer. Pick a day when you not going anywhere. Put the car on a slow battery charge early in the morning (by 9am) and by 5pm the battery should be fully charged. In the summer do this on a monthly basis and the car should be ok. In the winter do it every two weeks.

 

[Haliotis]

Hi everyone,

I bought my 2021 C-HR in April 2023.  When I was sitting in the vehicle and “playing” with the various controls, the Battery suddenly went dead, and the sales guy had to rapid charge the Battery before I could take a test drive.  They did fit a new Battery prior to me taking delivery of the car.

But we are in our 80’s, and the car can be subject to short journeys, as well as standing for several days at a time.  With same conditions, I have never had any problems with my previous conventional diesel cars (all VW) over a 20-year period.

Rather than wait for trouble to arise, I am looking to buy a smart charger to maintain the health of the battery, and connect this on a weekly basis for a day or two.  I assume the 12v battery is of the conventional sealed lead-acid type.

The car goes in for its annual service this September and I will probably have a word with their technicians, although comments from owners already familiar with the C-HR hybrid would be appreciated.

Regards with thanks.

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

When I was sitting in the vehicle and “playing” with the various controls, the battery suddenly went dead

The chances are that you were sitting in Accessory mode ... the simple golden rule is to NEVER leave the car in Accessory mode (for more than a few seconds). If you want / need to have an extended 'play' with the controls put the car into Ready mode and leave it in Park - it can then charge the 12V Battery (so it won't never run flat) and run the engine as necessary to maintain the state of charge of the traction Battery (so preferably not in a closed garage 😉 ).

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

But we are in our 80’s, and the car can be subject to short journeys, as well as standing for several days at a time.  ...

Rather than wait for trouble to arise, I am looking to buy a smart charger to maintain the health of the battery, and connect this on a weekly basis for a day or two.  I assume the 12v battery is of the conventional sealed lead-acid type.

Short journeys aren't a problem per se - what matters is the amount of time that you use the car each week. How many minutes or hours would that be?

Toyota recommended at least 60 minutes per week - and then when people's cars were stuck going nowhere during lock-down. If you exceed that 60 minutes per week you shouldn't have any issues at all ...

If you use the car for a really short time each week then you have two options:

1. Leave the car in Ready mode to make up the difference to 60 minutes per week.
2. Use a smart charger on, say, a weekly basis to maintain the state of charge of the auxiliary Battery.

If you do decide to take the smart charger option you need (want) only a lower capacity charger - 5A is more than enough ...

[jthspace]

Aldi/Lidl often have "smart" chargers and I use it to keep my dry-weather only MX5 topped up. It could be 2 or 3 weeks between runs sometimes.  It's laid-up November to March each year and it gets a charge one day a week.  Battery has never let me down.

Lidl £16 charger

[Harters]

My commute is only 3 miles each way and I do not have any issues.

During lockdown I bought a smart charger off Amazon and had the car connected to that and it worked fine.  I am out of the country for a month in September, so I will connected the charger and have it on a smart switch to come on for 8 hours every other day.  I know smart chargers are designed to be left on 24 hours, but I would rather it wasn't.  I have used this process whenever I am out of the country and it has worked well for me.  

The car is over six years old now and still on the original 12v Battery.

[Gray86]

Me & my dad (he has a 2.0 CHR) both use CTEK MXS 5.0 smart chargers to keep our 12v batteries topped up. Fantastic charger, and will look after our EVs in future (as these too have 12v batteries). 

Mine has saved quite a few neighbours batteries that have been totally discharged, bringing them back to full heath with the recondition feature 

[Tony Wagstaffe]

Hello Everyone, At last!! Common sense answers to the same problems I've encountered since owning my 2017 reg  CHR Hybrid 1.8.... The car is great to drive, except for this one design fault 🙄... I invested in a power pack start up charger which is fine and does the job, but a pain in the rear end having to do this if I leave the car for more than 24 hours, when its pouring cats & dogs!!... Some 9 months ago I replaced the original Battery with a Bosch equivalent and it was fine... Now I'm back to square one!!... Now I know the auxiliary Battery can be trickle charged with a suitable charger, I hope it will "cure" this unfortunate problem ....  I will just have to make sure in future, I give it an overnight charge to last a few weeks!!  🤬 🤞🙄👐

[wildtapholer]

Hi Tony how often do you walk past the car with your key in your pocket, the problem is the car is always looking for the key and that is what runs the Battery down and if you walk past with your keys in your pocket it finds it a turns the interior light on. I always have my key in my pocket and walk past it a lot until I noticed the light on one night after I'd had a flat Battery, interior light now turned off for now. While at a dealership this came up in conversation about a flat Battery and how to charge it when the car keeps stopping and starting. He told me that the Hybrids were always flat on the forecourts and to combat that they would start them up once a week and turn the aircon on hot flat out and it would keep the engine running to charge the battery.

[Tony Wagstaffe]

7 hours ago, wildtapholer said:

Hi Tony how often do you walk past the car with your key in your pocket, the problem is the car is always looking for the key and that is what runs the battery down and if you walk past with your keys in your pocket it finds it a turns the interior light on. I always have my key in my pocket and walk past it a lot until I noticed the light on one night after I'd had a flat battery, interior light now turned off for now. While at a dealership this came up in conversation about a flat battery and how to charge it when the car keeps stopping and starting. He told me that the Hybrids were always flat on the forecourts and to combat that they would start them up once a week and turn the aircon on hot flat out and it would keep the engine running to charge the battery.

Strangely enough my key fobs are kept in  two antitheft "wallets" which I always put into a kitchen drawer.. I have a hard stand at the bottom of my rear garden so that should be eliminated.  Here's the thing, before switching off all the electricals, which could possibly drain the aux Battery, also checking no lights left on etc, I still get to it the following day and find its either flat as a pancake or not able to start, necessitating a power pack boost to get the dam thing up and running... However, I found out from a Toyota Assist AA mechanic that he's called out to start CHR hybrids on a regular basis!!... I also wrote an email to the CEO Toyota UK... But he/they just said to run it daily!! ... To be honest its a complete farce to not admit it IS a design fault!!... Period!!... Had I known that before buying it, then I would've stuck to a diesel!! But all this save the !Removed! planet stuff was in vogue, so I thought, yeah OK I'll do my bit!! I've paid the price... Now adapt and buy a !Removed! Battery charger!!  Such is life... 👐🙄

[wildtapholer]

Just a thought Tony if you haven't already done this, get in the back of car and put the seat down to check if the light in the boot is off, it shouldn't go flat overnight. I don't have a CHR Hybrid I have a Lexus CT200h Hybrid which has the same problem, but I can leave the car for 2 weeks at a time now. I'm going back to petrol as I don't use my car enough 2014 with 48k miles, if I can sell it that is.

[PAISLEY1903]

If have a driveway the easy option is to just have it switched on in ready mode for 1 hour a week and it will be fine. 

I just do this with my Rav4 and will with wife's new CHR.

Just have it locked and go about your business :-) 

[Tony Wagstaffe]

On 9/27/2024 at 4:09 PM, wildtapholer said:

Just a thought Tony if you haven't already done this, get in the back of car and put the seat down to check if the light in the boot is off, it shouldn't go flat overnight. I don't have a CHR Hybrid I have a Lexus CT200h Hybrid which has the same problem, but I can leave the car for 2 weeks at a time now. I'm going back to petrol as I don't use my car enough 2014 with 48k miles, if I can sell it that is.

Yes WT, Thanks, but Ive checked it all, taking the parcel shelf out to see if the boot light stays on. It doesn't...  So now I'm going through the rigmarole of going through  Battery checks with the charger I've bought...   hopefully this should eliminate the issues I'm having...🤞🙄