[viXit]

Was looking at the Bosch C7, costs Rs. 6570.

We have three cars and two bikes. I'm not too worried about the two wheelers since they have the kick start provision and no other electronics on them.

Two cars see reasonable usage, Safari 3 times a week and i10 once a week minimum.

But the Honda city diesel is idle most of the time . It was fine throughout the lockdown, almost 2 months of no starting yet it fired up on first try.

But late last year it's battery gave up and set me back 8k for the new Exide one. The car had decently regular usage during the period of it's first battery(SF Sonic) . It's primary user is no more, hence the running will be quite low during it's second battery's life.

Should I expect a shorter life for the new battery now and is it worth spending 6k on a charger? I have a power socket in my parking now, hence the thought.

I'm thinking about the cost benefit analysis.

How many years can the Charger extend the life of my existing battery by?
I got 5 years of use from the first battery.

Safari battery lasted around 6 years

i10 battery lasted almost 6 years too.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by viXit

Was looking at the Bosch C7, costs Rs. 6570.

Should I expect a shorter life for the new battery now and is it worth spending 6k on a charger? I have a power socket in my parking now, hence the thought.

I'm thinking about the cost benefit analysis.

How many years can the Charger extend the life of my existing battery by?

Surely a battery charger will save you lots of pain when the car does not start. You will need one if you do only short trips.

The alternator will never manage to replenish the juice you use to start the car. Using a trickle charger overnight about once a month will keep the battery healthy and give it the maximum life.
You dont need a fancy trickle charger. Just a cheap one will do

I have 7 of them. I have so many because I forget where I put them and they turn up after some time after buying new ones. Right now I have control over 5 of these.
If you have a socket for the charger, just get one

The number of years your battery will last is like asking how long a piece of string is but it will save you lots of trouble.

[GTO]

You would have seen a lot of us happy Bosch C7 owners on the dedicated thread (Ownership Review: Bosch C7 Battery Charger). I now have TWO of them!

Like me, you clearly have more vehicles than you need, and a ready power socket in the parking spot. Go for it. Forget the cost benefit analysis as it will reward you with convenience, and also save you from a dead battery or two.

[ajayc123]

Three cars, two bikes. How many driivers? What compels you to keep all of them? Maybe you could reduce your inventory if you are really concerned about cost benefit analysis.

[androdev]

I consider the charger to be a useful tool to keep the batteries in good to go condition. Prolonging the battery life is a bonus - not sure it will save you much money unless you are talking about BMW category cars with AGM type batteries which are expensive and don’t last long without regular usage. Flooded batteries in regular cars seem to cope better with lack of regular usage.

[mygodbole]

Vehicle batteries die out for one simple reason: sulphation.

Details here (it is a sales site, so there is a sales pitch at the end): https://www.power-sonic.com/blog/wha...ou-prevent-it/ (Mods: Please remove if not adhering to Team-BHP rules)

I first used a charger-cum-desulphator to fix the battery on my Triumph, recommended and sold in 2009 by Triumph, after the new battery 'died' after about six weeks of non-usage.

From then on, I have been using this kind of a charger/desulphator on any car that I have used, ranging from sedan/4x4/suv in temperatures ranging from 10 Celsius to 50 Celsius. Twice a year, start of summer and start of winter, I plug it in for about 48 hours and the battery is as good as new.

Not had to change a battery due to battery 'dying out', had to change one after an accident in 2015 caused the battery to crack.

If using a trickle charger, please monitor the battery to prevent overcharging.

[greenhorn]

If you're balking at the cost, c3 should do fine if you just want trickle charge capability, and not a charger that can restore a car with a dead battery in a few hours.

I have a c7, my brother in law has a c3 for his bike, one time my car died at his place, i was able to restore my battery with the c3, just that it took a day. This is for my indica diesel.

[Nrulz]

i bought bosch c7 charger which restored my car (50ah), bike and alternate home inverter batteries (150ah), all of which were seldom used during covid. i was able to revive batteries even from below 4v (what i did was, connected two batteries in series and c7 thought it was 12v mode; c7 can revive only from 7.5v in 12v mode and >16v in 24v mode). above batteries are in top notch condition now, which instantly gave me return on my investment. c3 has a lower max ah capacity. read their user manuals online before purchase. check your exising battery ratings and invest accordingly.

[JitendraK78]

C3 charger is sufficient for keeping the battery at 100% using trickle charging.

I have even used it couple of times to charge drained battery of our Tata Nano in past. It took almost two days to charge the battery in that case.

[irdevanand]

I am in a similar situation and with my Honda City Petrol. It is idle for weeks and then i do one hospital run or something for 100 KMs and then it is back to idle for weeks again. But there is no power socket in the underground level car park, for me to connect the trickle charger. So i disconnect the terminal when the car is idle. Doing this from march 2020 till date. Hope this practice wont create any adverse effects on the battery state. Please advise if this is a wrong practice.

Regards
Dev

[Mortis]

You guys could try those solar trickle chargers if you don't have covered parking for your car

[Chhanda Das]

There are basically 3 ways that you can do this.

Firstly, you can get the Bosch C7 charger and use it once a month to top up the battery power. However, it is the most expensive option. Additionally, the amount of current pushed out by the C7 may in some cases exceed the values recommended by the battery manufacturer and that will result in heating of the battery plates leading to reduced life of the battery. To avoid this you can use the Bosch C3 charger instead of the C7 one. The current values pushed out by the C3 are approximately half of the C7 and those current values are well within the recommended maximum current ratings of car batteries. This makes the Bosch C3 more suitable for trickle charging compared to the C7. The only downside to the C3 is that it is approximately 50% slower than the C7 but on the plus side, the C3 will not damage the battery as much as the C7 on the long term.

Your second option would be to get/make a solar trickle charger. If your car parking space is exposed to the sun then a small solar panel rated at 10-20 watts placed on the dashboard and connected to a cheap PWM (pulse width modulation) solar charge controller should be easily able to trickle charge the battery. You would just need to set the charge controller in SMF (sealed maintenance free) battery mode, low voltage cutoff at 12.6 volts and the charging voltage at 13.7 volts. Since the maximum charging current would be very low at approximately 0.5-1 ampere for the 10-20 watt solar panel respectively, battery degradation would be minimum. This setup would cost approximately INR 1100-1200. You can keep this setup plugged in continuously unlike the first option above.

Your third and cheapest option would be to get a cheap 220v AC to 12v DC 1 ampere battery charger with auto-cut feature once the target voltage (approximately 14v) is reached. This will cost approximately INR 300-400. Battery degradation will be minimal here just like the second option above due to the low amounts of current involved.

I hope this helps

[Sumedik]

Originally Posted by Chhanda Das

Get a cheap 220v AC to 12v DC 1 ampere battery charger with auto-cut feature once the target voltage (approximately 14v) is reached.

Do you have any product recommendation and its availability in Kolkata?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by androdev

I consider the charger to be a useful tool to keep the batteries in good to go condition. Prolonging the battery life is a bonus - not sure it will save you much money unless you are talking about BMW category cars with AGM type batteries which are expensive and don’t last long without regular usage. Flooded batteries in regular cars seem to cope better with lack of regular usage.

Just checking. Typically how many kms do you run every month in each of your cars and hence how long do the batteries last in each? Whats the general average time period in which you have needed to replace the batteries?

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by Sumedik

Do you have any product recommendation and its availability in Kolkata?

I do not want to recommend any brand names since an overwhelmingly large majority of them are either cheap Chinese imports or rebadged Chinese imports made to look as if they were manufactured here in India. You can find them both online and offline in a lot of shops in the Chandni Chowk Market area in Esplanade especially in and around the Naba Bharat building. I hope this helps