12 Battery Charging

[Allan S]

Is it ok to charge the 12 volt Battery under the bonnet of a 1.8 CHR using a OPTIMATE Smart Charger.

I usually use this charger and a CTEK charger for maintaining the batteries on my motorbikes. I am having a hip operation and won’t be able to drive for about 4 weeks.

Thanks for any replies.

[Roy124]

Allan any smart charger will do what you want. 

[Allan S]

20 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

Allan any smart charger will do what you want. 

Thanks. The Toyota dealer was very noncommittal.

[Derek.w]

HI Allan any one of you smart chargers will do I use the one with Bike mode option selected.

[Bernard Foy]

58 minutes ago, Allan S said:

Thanks. The Toyota dealer was very noncommittal.

That’s what’s known as rear end covering.😂. (Covering my rear end with the spelling police)🤣😂.

[Graham47]

39 minutes ago, Derek.w said:

…… I use the one with Bike mode option selected.

Why ?

[Derek.w]

You leaving it connected for days so you in no hurry so use it like a trickle maintance charger is best for Battery.

If you need car charged quickly use it in car mode only.

 

[Simone80]

AFAIK cteck connected with Car mode, once fully charged it checks charge every week like Bike mode

[philip42h]

25 minutes ago, Simone80 said:

AFAIK cteck connected with Car mode, once fully charged it checks charge every week like Bike mode

Any good smart charger (like the CTEK) will have a Maintenance mode which kicks in once the Battery is fully charged. On my Noco the wording states:

"After the Battery is fully charged, the charger will continue monitoring the Battery, and provide ongoing maintenance and optimization. The 100% Charge LED will pulse “on” and “off” slowly during these cycles. The charger can be left connected to the battery indefinitely."

So it monitors the state of charge continuously (rather than weekly) and only when the charge has dropped does it top it up again - and then drops back to monitoring ...

[Gray86]

With the CTEK (and likely others) you can leave it for MONTHS on the charger, on ‘float’. A lot of supercsr owners do this when they aren’t using their cars for prolonged periods 

[Cyker]

Yeah, as long as the float voltage is set correctly for the type of Battery (Flooded/gel etc.) then you can maintain it at that almost indefinitely.

Some batteries prefer cyclic charging (mainly AGM I think), so they are charged and then allowed to discharge slightly before being charged again.