Tips: Give your battery some good loving
Lights, wipers, fans, demisters, heated seats all help make winter motoring a far more comfortable affair. However, winter motoring exacts a heavy toll on your vehicle’s electrics. The battery and alternator provide the storage and the re-charging capabilities for your car. Modern maintenance free batteries are fantastic devices which go uncomplainingly about their business – until they don’t…
Like all of us, sometimes they need a little help – particularly if your motoring includes short runs that don’t allow the battery to recover its charge. A battery charger is your friend, and modern devices don’t demand the safety glasses, rubber apron and gauntlets of your grandparent’s days.
Devices like the CTEK
They have connectors available for easy access via your vehicle’s 12V accessory socket or permanent connection in the engine bay. There’s no danger of sparks with these connectors and even the conventional crocodile clips are spark protected.
Despite their diminutive proportions these clever devices can bring a dead battery back to life in as little as 30 minutes, although full recovery may take hours depending on its capacity. Also, you can’t overcharge your battery, they automatically go into a maintenance mode when the battery is fully charged.
Buy one