mleskovar

Correct. Low SOC promotes sulfation that reduces capacity and will ultimately kill a battery.

Yes. Every couple of weeks I trickle charge it overnight. It accepts a full charge and slowly goes down until the next recharge. I have my charge port easily accessible from outside the car without having to open the hood and the charger is permanently mounted in my garage so it's a 10 second operation.

starbrite

The link works fine for me Arrie. Here it is again :http://www.phillipsind.com/upload/re...1236015433.pdf

Just Google AGM batteries and you'll see the differences.

thefisch

Where is the charge port you installed? I may do the same.

Arrie

Well, in your reference site it gives three options for the AGM battery load testing. The first one "Carbon pile" I think is the most used for all battery testing. The third one requiring the specifically programmed tester is the one done with "Handheld micro processor based tester".

The instructions further explain how to pull half of the CCA rating amps from the battery for 15 seconds and monitor the voltage. If voltage is at or higher than 9.6 volts the battery is good.

There is nothing special in this.

starbrite

I guess I put too much stock in the MB training manual. I'm no battery expert, so thanks for clarifying the info for me.

Arrie

Guess what, they are in business to sell you a battery too.


I let my dealer service to change the battery for me just to keep good relationship going while the car is still under warranty. It probably cost me $100 or so more than if I did it myself.


Next time I will change it myself and it does not have to be an AGM battery either. It probably will though.


Normal flooded lead acid battery will work in our cars just fine too. Just need to have it at the same or higher CCA.

mleskovar

It's at the passenger end of the cowling outside. Close to the battery, easy to attach (don't even need to bend over), the hood line keeps away the air blast,water, and FOD, no extra anything required but I did zip tie it around the hood bracket just in case. I spliced some wires into the trickle charger (black&decker) plug, covered the splices and a good part of the wires with shrink tubing. I permanently mounted the charger in the garage above the spot and the cord just drops down to plug in. Multiple plug variations come with the chargers so you'll see which one you want to use. I'd stay away from the clamps though. I posted some pictures here somewhere. If you can't find them I'll take some more.

thefisch

I searched for the pics and didn't see them. If you get a chance to point me in the right direction, that'd be great.

mleskovar

I couldn't find them either The 1st one shows the trickle charger connected. For convenience mount it in the rafters if you have to and extend the cord. My cord lifts out of the way and is kept up when not in use. The 2nd one shows how it exits into the cowl from the battery. No hole added it just fits under a rubber seal. The 3rd shows how it snakes from the battery. The 4th shows it again in the cowl. The last is another view of the wires coming from the battery posts and going up.

You don't even notice the plug outside the car unless you know where to look and it's pretty protected from the elements. I knew if I didn't make the process easy I probably wouldn't do it as often.

thefisch

thanks for the pics. I will look into doing this for charging convenience.