Parasitic Battery Drain

[bobpace]

Hi All

AAA World magazine ran an article on parasitic battery drain. Basically it says that todays cars consume a lot of battery just sitting due to all the microprocessors currently in the car.

They recommend putting the car on a "smart" battery charger if it's not driven a lot for lon lengths of time (short trip don't fully recharge the battery can can actually be worse for it).

We have a Plum Crazy Daytona that doesn't get a lot of regular mileage and I'm wondering if I should hook it up to a low amp charger.

What do you folks think? Is this an issue worth worrying about? Anybody else out there with a similiar sit?

Thanks for any input.

[BrilliantBlackHemi]

A battery tender can't hurt if you are sitting for extended periods of time. I sit for a week or two at a time without one and have no problems. In the winter would be when you'd need to worry the most as the cold limits battery capacity a bit.

[cadzilla74]

My Mag RT is going on 3 years old and the only battery it ever complained about is the one in the key fob being weak ... but my car is a daily driver and I must admit I'm not looking forward to the expense of replacing this car battery in the near future...

[crazy_luck]

Last winter, my car was parked all winter. I started it up once every 2 weeks and let it run for about 20 minutes. After about 10 minutes of idleing, I'd back it to the end of the driveway and back into the garage. It started just fine and I didn't have a battery tender on it. I'm following the same procedure this year.


On the other hand, my buddy used to have a 2000 Prowler and if he forgot to pull the fuse for the factory alarm, the battery would be dead in 3 days. He even switched to one of the deep cycle Optima batteries and even that didn't last a week and only survived about 2 months of being recharged all the time.

[RedAlert]

The first year I didn't do anything but occasionally start the car while it was stored for 2 months & everything was fine. But over the summer, even with more driving being done, the battery actually died after one week of non-use.

After that I got a Battery Tender Plus and it's been a non-issue. I leave it hooked up to it whenever the car is not in use. You can tell when you crank it that the battery is fully juiced. If nothing else, it's good maintenance for the battery to help extend it's life. I installed the plug so I don't have to fiddle with the clamps.

If you go that route don't forget there's battery terminals under the hood so you don't have to do anything in the trunk area.