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MG MGF Technical - Charging Battery

The F is no longer getting used on a daily basis, so it spends much of its time tucked up in the garage. A few months back members were complaining about their battery being flat when they returned from holiday and the advice was if its in a garage put the battery on a trickle charge. My question is, do you have to disconnect the battery or is it OK to put the charger on low and connect it to the battery without taking the leads off.

Any other things that I should be doing if the car is not used for a few weeks - never had the luxury of a spare car before.

David
David Clelland

David

No need to disconnect battery.

I would check out the battery maintenance type of charger that are safe to leave connected for long periods of time. They constantly charge/discharge the battery to ensure that it is in prime condition.

I use a unit from Optimate for my motorbike battery but I know others use similar with a rating suitable for the higher capacity battery found in a car.

HTH (currently sitting @work waiting for an IBM hardware engineer. Should have been 09:30 but has just phoned to say early this afternoon!!!!!)
JohnP

Hard luck John:-)

Sitting at home with me tea & toast!

Seriously - like John I use an Optimate 'Battery Tender' and find it does the *F* just as well as the bike.

Ted
Ted

Ted / John,

I didn't realise that I might need a special charger. I've already got two in the garage and I thought that if I connected one of them and put it on low for say eight or ten hours on a Saturday then that would be OK. The car will be taken out for runs every couple of weeks or so. Should this be alright?

If I do need a special charger, where is the best place to buy one and how many hard earned pennies will I have to spend.

David
David Clelland

David, a weekly overnight with a normal charger should be OK, however the specially designed permanently attached versions are 'connect and forget' - except when you start up and drive off :o)
Airflow is a common brand and are about 40 quid, I think B&G and Moss stock them. I'm very pleased with mine.
David

Try Maplins ,no not Hi De Hi, the electronics people, cost about £20 from them, must get some in stock and 'charge' double for 'em;-)
Mike.
mike

David, I use a normal charger and leave it on overnight every 4 weeks or so, if the car has not been used. Once a week is a bit too often for battery charging.
Brian

Just spent an hour searching for the Cd with the AIX User Manuals but found the web address for Optimate

www.tecmate-int.com

HTH
JohnP

info about the CSI Airflow product at
http://www.unicornmotor.com/airflow__battery_conditioner.htm
David

Thanks guys for the help. Bearing in mind that the car is not in storage over the winter (it will be used from time to time), I think I'll just use my ordinary charger every few weeks to keep the battery topped up. The important thing is that I now know that I don't have to disconnect the battery.

David
David Clelland

Ted,
Am I correct in understanding that your motorbike optimate charger also works fine on the F?
I am just about to buy a new Optimate 3 and was wondering if I coudl use it on the F!
Jason H
Jason H

Yep

I use it both of my vehicles - but remember they are designed to keep the battery topped up, if you have drained the battery flat you will need an ordinary charge to get some 'juice' back into it before fitting the 'Optimate' or any other tender.

Ted
Ted

BTW

If you need the extra amps the Accumate is better as the Optimate is suitable for batteries up to 28 amp hour rating whilst the sister unit the Accumate is up to 66 amp hours still only arounfd £35.00 SEE:-

http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010001.html

Ted
Ted Newman

This thread was discussed between 09/11/2002 and 13/11/2002

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