Buying Car Battery Chargers and testing your car battery.
Testing the voltage when the car is not running should give a reading on a voltmeter of around 12-13 volts, this should rise to just over 14 volts (14.4v to be exact) when the car is running, we sell a multitude of different battery and alternator testers for performing this test, starting from under £10, they will give a good guide about these two essential measurements.
If your test is good but have been caught out on the odd cold morning, it may be that your battery is starting to fail, as the output of a battery falls considerably in the cold. If you only do short trips it may be that you battery is not faulty but is not getting fully charged due to the vehicles charging time being too short to replace the considerable amount of energy it takes to start the engine in the first place. In that case an overnight charge on a car battery charger may solve the problem, but may need recharging regularly, or at least during cold weather.
If you have accidentally left something turned on (like an interior light) for several hours and your battery is flat, a jump start is probably all you need. You can either perform this in the usual way using jump leads and connection to another car or a boost pack. A good tip for this method is to leave the vehicle you are jump starting from running for several minutes before attempting to start the flat battery car. This will allow a surface (instant) charge to accumulate in the flat battery making to car easier to start and not putting as much load on the battery and jumps leads. If you need to change a battery, we sell a large selection of battery tools to help with this chore, even including a battery carrier. If you are concerned about losing radio codes whilst you change a battery the Sealey Memory Master attaches to a 12V slave battery and provides power via the cigarette lighter socket to on-board electronics whilst vehicle’s own battery is disconnected.
Some general tips to keep
your battery in fully charged in cold weather...
*Each time you start the car, try to run it for a minimum of 10 minutes to replace the energy it took to start the car.
*Turn off lights, heater fans, heated rear windows whenever possible. (This helps the battery and fuel economy)
*Check the battery terminals for corrosion and check fluids levels if possible.
