i drive a subaru 07 sti. i use to drive it very often and never came across this problem. but now i have a commuter car, so i dont drive it long periods of time, such as 1 month or even 3 months.

my issue has been with the battery going flat. when trying to start, it barely has any life in it left, but it would eventually kick in and start the car. it has happened at least 2 to 3 times now, i know its getting pretty bad.

so now i am looking at battery maintenance/ charger.. but i am having a hard time figuring out what a maintenance charger or a multi-stage battery charger is. also which brand or which ever to pick.

what i need to know is:
- what voltage (if this is relevant) for the charger should i buy?
- what brand do i buy?
- what is the cheapest?
- what can i buy, if it is cheap, to test the battery life condition it is currently in?
- would i need to buy a new battery?


thank you for reading, hope to hear from you soon

 

I have great results with this: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger from Amazon.com

my situation is that my car is garaged, but when leaving on extended trips, just have an extension cord over to the hood, and plug this up. starts up perfectly after the trip, no hesitation.

btw, if you've drained your battery low several times, you may want to replace it (unless you have one of them fancy batteries / AGM etc.) even though you buy the charger. regular acid batteries don't take kindly to deep discharges IIRC.

good luck!

 

i got my battery tender at kragen and it works great 10 yr warranty lol

 

Put a quick disconnect on the negative terminal. I have a72 GMC sprint in the garage and depending on how lazy I want to be it can be 3 months between drives. It always starts fine.

 

You don't likely need a new battery, although batteries do start to die after 5 years of use. As you have surmised, you're not driving the car enough to keep the battery charged. Any 12 Volt trickle charger should work. One with a 10 year warranty sounds great because a lot of these cheap electronics have a high rate of immediate failure.

I bought one of these which is supposed to de-sulphate your battery but I'm not so sure how true that is after using it for a while. Maybe the battery I am trying to revive is too far gone.

BatteryMINDer Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator System — Model# 1500 | Battery Maintainers| Northern Tool + Equipment

Hope this helps...

 

This, or just disconnect it. Only takes a few minutes.

 

i will look into these chargers and get back to you guys with more questions!