Darlo

[QUOTE=Amuse Boy,May 29 2007, 09:11 PM] New battery from Honda will cost

euan

You can check if a battery is charging properly or not.

Remove the caps/cover over the cells and put it on charge - if there are no bubbles rising from the plates during this process, the cell is stuffed.
(take care - no naked flames etc, wear eye protection)

atomcrusher

The Optimate charger I use only has an output of 1 AH, but it I leave the S on charge whenever it is parked in my garage - I only use the S over weekends. The Optimate is also an "intelligent charger", i.e. it can not overcharge, and assists in desulphating the battery plates. I use these conditioning / intelligent chargers on my m/bikes, and vehicles .. they really do extend the life of batteries in vehicles that are not used regularly.

The C-Tek range of chargers are also excellent ... I use the big XS25000 model on the 3 x 105 AH batteries installed in my Land Cruiser. This model has an 8-stage charging / recond / maintenance mode cycle. I never have warm beer when in Namibia / Botswana in 50 deg C ambient temperatures!

The smaller C-Tek chargers would be great for the puny 35 AH battery in the S2K.

eSeM

My battery went flat when COG were working on the car ....... but it is only a little battery.

During the winter it would go flat in a week if I didn't use the car

WiRED

Connecting a conditioning charger with the car's electrics still attached goes against the advice in the handbook, namely, to disconnect the battery when using any type of charger. Having said that, I don't, and it seems that few owners on here do either. Is this just an @rse-covering warning on the part of Honda or is there a real danger of doing some damage?

GeoffMM

yes it most definately is arse covering. however any horrible cheap batt chargers may destroy your electrics but something reputable such as an optimate is fine so i believe!

Bibbs

and mind possible sparks from the charger clips.

Dembo

I bought the C-Tek XS800 in the end. I left it for 8 hours this afternoon, and after that the car started fine. Seems like a worthwhile bit of kit to have.

Where does everybody connect these things to? Reading the instructions (after I'd used it ), it's fairly specific about connecting the -ve to the chassis and not the battery, which is odd. I just stuck the clips on the battery.

Anybody think of an issue there?

Lurking Lawyer

I've always connected my own CTEK that way and haven't had any problems with it.

It even came with a loop connector which you can attach to the battery terminals as a permanent fitting and just plug in when needed - not sure why they'd ship it with that if you weren't supposed to connect to the terminals.

atomcrusher

The only reason they recommend that the -ve is attached to a chassis earth point is to negate the risk of sparks when attaching it. The positive should be connected first to the battery, and then the -ve to a good chassis earth point.

But I have often attached both clamps direct to the battery (carefully though - no sparks ... )