Battery

[Chris C]

I have a 420R & the current (no pun intended!) Banner battery seems to be getting tired & needs lots of trickle charging if the car isn't used for more than a week.

Can the POBC suggest a more powerful battery I can install?

Thanks

Chris

[Jonathan Kay]

EDITED: see below.

Private Message sent.

[rj]

Jonathan,

You're missing an "s" in "message"

 

 

[Jonathan Kay]

Thanks.

Now corrected.

Jonathan

[Golf Juliet Tango]

A new Banner is ok.

But Odessy gel type battery is good too, particularly if you have deeper pockets and wish to reduce the weight of the car a little.

I wouldn't consider Lithium Ion as an installation but they are very popular as emergency jump starters.

[SM25T]

Do you isolate the battery if the car is left standing ? The immobiliser will drain the battery to levels too low for starting and powering the ECU within 2-3 weeks.

[rj]

How much are you prepared to spend?

Red Top batteries are better than the Banner, but the ultimate would be a proper Lithium battery. You just need to be aware that the marking often is the equivalent CCA capacity battery rather than the actual capacity of the Lithium battery.

This has almost the same capacity as the Banner, but a lot more cranking juice. (Unfortunately in Denmark, but that's a detail to overcome)

 

[Piers300]

What sort of battery charger are you using. There are "Battery Chargers" and there are "Battery Chargers" .

They do different things. Some have control, some don't. Some battery types require a special chargers.

1) Constant Potential Type - i.e. fully automatic and can be connected all year. Good for lead acid. Maintains the battery by monitoring the voltage and automatically increases and decreases current. When the voltages are equal - no current flows so it is on but not charging. If the internal battery voltage changes, the charger automatically starts charging again. There are a number of excellent products you can buy for this type of charger.

2) Standard Trickle/Boost Chargers. These should only be used short term (and monitored often) as they will keep on charging till it boils your battery. Don't use these on the 7 long term, unless the battery is flat as a pancake. Once fully charged, disconnect.

I've been out of the Battery Charger industry for a few years now and things have changed. Plenty of good kit out there. I've got a Banner AccuGuard 1800 and it's been on the same battery for the last 10 years. No issues at all.

 

Piers

[Geoff Brown]

Does not matter how careful you are with the maintenance of a Banner from my experience they can die as quickly as three years. Unless very lucky.

2013 car now on my third !  First lasted three years, second four years 

I have a CTEK charger/conditioner/analyser & even with that they fail. If you do not intend to drive the car for more than a week then disconnect the battery.

[gileshudson]

Even though battery conditioners are better than constant battery chargers, I've still killed batteries on them.
I've now bought a cheap £5 B&Q timer switch which I plug my Optimate 4 battery conditioner into, set so that it only gets power to check and maintain the battery for one hour a day, not 24.

 

[7 wonders of the world]

That's exactly what I do for my Li-on mine gets 4 hours on a Thursday !

A simple daisy wheel timer for my Noco Genius charger

[TomB]

Get a gel battery, no nasty acid to spill and drip into the footwell ruining the ali floor.  

[Alan Reeves]

PGM sell the Odessey 535 ? which is smaller and they produce a top and bottom via

a printer to secure the battery. Its neat and I have one...not cheap

whatever I dont see why one would buy an acid battery and in particular a non sealed battery.

A

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Re #11, a funny story about daisy wheel timers:

Back in the 90s when Windows 3.1 was the operating system of choice for many software developers we had a satellite system for receiving natural gas futures trading information. This system would regularly freeze due to the operating system hanging. We put in a daisy wheel power timer to cycle it off for 15 mins every hour. Some bright spark named it CTOPS "Canadian Tire Oscillating Power System" as we had bought the daisy wheel timer for $10 or so on sale at Canadian Tire.

CTOPS became part of the trading system technology diagram and was prominent yet oddly un-explainable by the CEO and CFO for what the acronym meant, when they negotiated the sale of the trading exchange to US buyers when it was moving $6bn of natural gas through the system in the late 90s.
 

[L777JDP]

I've got a AGM style battery from PGM, who do a kit so it fits perfectly in the original battery tray, with a top to retain the strap that goes over the top. Super happy with it, with very high cranking amps. They are just 10 miles down the road from me by the way.

[John Vine]

Does not matter how careful you are with the maintenance of a Banner from my experience they can die as quickly as three years. Unless very lucky.

I must be inordinately lucky as my Banner is almost six years old and still starts the 7 easily.  Mind you, it lives on an AccuMate, which itself is almost 13 years old.  I do check electrolyte levels frequently, although they barely drop.

JV

[Piers300]

JV. I have to agree with you completely. My Banner is now 8 years old and is connected to an Accumate too. It is connected 24/7.

Piers

[StevehS3]

Has anyone used one of these (Enduroline EC680)? 
It seems to be a close equivalent, but perhaps slightly better spec., to the much loved Odyssey PC680 but at a lower price. I think it is Tayna's own brand battery. https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/enduroline/ec680/

[HeMan]

Hi,

Did you (or anyone else for that matter) try the ENDUROLINE EC680 in the end?  My PC680 goes flat at a moments notice now, so need to replace it and the ENDUROLINE EC680 is quite a bit cheeper, and supposedly slightly better (on the specs at lease).

[Jonathan Kay]

I try to keep two threads up to date with specifications, prices and experiences:

"What's the best battery these days?"

"Li ion batteries"

Jonathan

[Drumster]

#19

I fitted the Enduroline EC680 in July 2021 to my 2l Zetec and so far have had no issues with it. the car is fitted with a battery master switch which cuts all power (including to the Toad/Sterling immobiliser) so there is no battery drain. I rarely need to plug the battery conditioner in these days. It gets the  from me.

[HeMan]

Just a quick update, in case it helps anyone; I bought a Enduroline EC680 from Tayna for £88 inc delivery in May. The terminals take slightly smaller bolts than the PC680 Odyssey that came with my 620S, but that doesn't really matter as the new battery came with a set of bolts.  Otherwise it slipped straight in and has worked perfectly.  I can't confirm longevity yet, nor the claimed specifications, but I can confirm it works just fine, and is quite a bit cheaper than the Odyssey option.