Hi everyone,

I just picked up my car from the AM dealership this morning....got a few warranty repairs done and also got some clear tail lights
Anyways, I explained to my service advisor that my car would sit in a public garage most of the week and only get taken out on the weekends. He said to try and drive it more often or make sure to use the battery conditioner. According to him, if the battery voltage gets too low, it begins to cause all sorts of electrical problems which lead to other problems and so forth. According to him, a car that sits goes to sh*& and this is especially true of Astons. He also said it doesn't help much to simply flip that switch on the passenger side trunk area.

So my problem is this. I am out of town frequently so I really can't drive it much during the week. And, I also park my car in a public garage where there are no electrical outlets for me to plug in the battery conditioner.

Is there some sort of portable battery conditioner out there (i.e., one that runs on batteries so I can charge it at home and then leave it in the trunk of the car plugged in during the week)?

Any other ideas out there?

Thanks in advance,

 

not that i know of.

you can try:

- putting in a quick disconnect battery switch
- hooking up a portable jumper battery to draw less from the car battery (not sure if it works)
- use a solar battery maintainer
- drive more

sounds like solar maintainer may be good if the car has any sun exposure

 

Get yourself one of those big portable jumpers and plug it into the socket in the trunk. You'll have double the battery capacity to draw from when the car is idle so the battery voltage should stay up twice as long.

 

Hmmmm, my car sits in a garage all week, should I plug in the battery tender? I have the AM one sitting in my truck.

 

Absolutely. I plug mine in the moment I pull it into the garage...every time.

 

I would do that. It will prolong the life of the battery

 

So what do you fellas think about this, since I have no access to an electrical outlet where I store my car?

I can purchase either a 400w or 1800w portable power system that charges up at home and can sit in the trunk of my car providing power to the battery conditioner.

Link for the 1800W system: $400
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200465190_200465190?cm_sp=Upsells-_-Top%20Sellers-_-Product%20Page

Link for the 400w system: $170
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200465189_200465189?cm_sp=Upsells-_-Top%20Sellers-_-Product%20Page

Assuming I let the car sit anywhere from 1 week to 1 month, do you guys think the 400w system would keep the battery conditioner going for a full month? How much juice do the battery conditioners take?

Thanks again,
Eric

 

I would say battery conditioner is a must.. I left my car for two weeks on a trip, was drained dead, after restarting it, I got all sorts of failures.. ABS, DSC, traction control failures.. they said that the battery never was charged back up to the limit not to give me these failures.. so had some warranty work done, and placed a new battery, and asked me not to ever let it drain..


On your question.. I think it is very hard to find a solution.. frankly I don't know how comfortable I would be putting a fully charged power system in the trunk and closing it and leaving it.. I will be worried the whole time of something might go wrong, I don't know, maybe I am paranoid, but the thought of knowing that there is the slightest chance of fire makes me a bit nervous.. I am sorry I am not trying to put your idea down, but I would like to raise the question of safety with putting a 400W or even 1800W portable power system inside your car and closing it.. it's a different story if you leave it out side the car with few feet apart..


That's my two cents.. I know I have no solution, but I hope this would help..

 

Wait a minute. You're not going to use the battery conditioner and plug it into the portable power source and then into the car's socket are you? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Look, the portable source is just another sealed battery that's convenient to carry and charge. Plug it directly into the trunk socket. Now you've got 2 batteries in parallel so the voltage will stay up longer (depending on the Ah capacity of the portable vs the Ah capacity of the car batt).

The trickle charger that comes with the car is only useful if plugged in to an infinite AC source. You don't use it when you have an already compatible DC source. All you are trying to do is increase the apparent size of your battery from the car's point of view by adding the portable source in parallel.

 

^^ I think his idea should work as well. It's a sealed battery that can be connected to a battery tender to keep the car battery charged.

Other way is to hook a portable battery to his car battery to take some of the power drain.

Anyone tried one or the other methods?

 

No, that idea is insane. All this would accomplish is to drain the portable battery quicker. There are losses associated with the battery tender, which is why it gets warm. That would be lost energy from the portable battery for absolutely no reason, thereby draining it quicker.

Please do not encourage this ridiculous idea. Just connect the portable battery in parallel to the car's battery via the trunk connector. How simple is that?

 

Thanks guys I will start doing that. (rep points given!)

OP: GL with your solution!

 

And BTW, DO NOT BUY either of these. Not only does the battery tender waste battery power, these things have inverters which also waste energy going from DC to AC.

Buy a plain ol' portable 12V DC car starter pack with a DC outlet that you can connect to the trunk connector. Buy the biggest one in terms of amp-hours that you can find/afford/carry. You don't need any AC outlets.

 

I don't have a battery tender but I have a Sears battery charger with three levels of charge. Could I hook that up to the terminal under the hood and charge the battery that way until I get a conditioner?

 

I never bothered with this unless it was over 3/4 weeks of non use, with both cars no issues with the battery.

I know quite a few people on the AMOC forum that regularly go weeks & weeks without hooking it up to the trickle charger.

Honestly, for a week your fine.