Trickle Charge

[Moonlanders]

I confess to having no technical knowledge on cars (or anything else for that matter) so please be gentle with me on two fairly straightforward questions.

1. Due to the current low use of cars, many posts have made reference to leaving their cars on trickle charge to protect the battery. I do understand the concept of trickle charge. However, what equipment do you need for this, and do you leave the battery in the car when you do this, or do you have to disconnect it?

2. Unrelated question. For the past few weeks I have driven about 4 miles a week on my round trip to the supermarket. This has all been on electric. I have a full tank of petrol. Does any harm come to the petrol or the connecting pipework if it is just sitting there completely unused? Would it be advisable to use the ICE every now and then to keep everything flushing through?

Thanks for the advice!

[john.wigley]

Hi 'Moonlanders'. I can't speak for others, but on my 20 year old V70, I leave the battery in situ and connected. I use an old 6A charger that has served me well over the years. On connection, the charger usually indicates 5-6A, quickly falling back to 3-4A as the internal regulator adjusts the charge rate as the battery charges. It will normally show a constant 2A when the battery is fully charged. I find doing this for a day (c8-10 hours) every two to three weeks sufficient to keep the battery in a healthy state of charge.

My battery is at least 4.5 years old (it was on the car when I bought it). If you have a more recent car and / or battery, you may wish for a second opinion, as I understand that they may require a different treatment.

I'm afraid that I am unable to answer your second question.

Regards, John.

[Director76]

Originally Posted by Moonlanders

I confess to having no technical knowledge on cars (or anything else for that matter) so please be gentle with me on two fairly straightforward questions.

1. Due to the current low use of cars, many posts have made reference to leaving their cars on trickle charge to protect the battery. I do understand the concept of trickle charge. However, what equipment do you need for this, and do you leave the battery in the car when you do this, or do you have to disconnect it?

2. Unrelated question. For the past few weeks I have driven about 4 miles a week on my round trip to the supermarket. This has all been on electric. I have a full tank of petrol. Does any harm come to the petrol or the connecting pipework if it is just sitting there completely unused? Would it be advisable to use the ICE every now and then to keep everything flushing through?

Thanks for the advice!

T8 effectively trickle charges the 12v battery continuously anyway if the hybrid battery is charged and the car plugged in periodically.

Given the complex electronics at play, I wouldn’t be connecting any kind of charger to the T8, other than through the type 2 socket!

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Moonlanders

I confess to having no technical knowledge on cars (or anything else for that matter) so please be gentle with me on two fairly straightforward questions.

1. Due to the current low use of cars, many posts have made reference to leaving their cars on trickle charge to protect the battery. I do understand the concept of trickle charge. However, what equipment do you need for this, and do you leave the battery in the car when you do this, or do you have to disconnect it?

2. Unrelated question. For the past few weeks I have driven about 4 miles a week on my round trip to the supermarket. This has all been on electric. I have a full tank of petrol. Does any harm come to the petrol or the connecting pipework if it is just sitting there completely unused? Would it be advisable to use the ICE every now and then to keep everything flushing through?

Thanks for the advice!

volvo recommend the battery is charged every 2 weeks in this current low use period we are going through . so leaving a small charger on for 24 hours every 2 weeks would be fine . Be sure to use the posts under the bonnet for this however. driving the car is not a good way to charge the battery . The fuel you have will be fine for a year and beyond ...

[bluebarchetta]

The car monitors the age of the fuel and the ICE will start to run even in Pure mode when it starts to become too old.

[gaby]

Originally Posted by bluebarchetta

The car monitors the age of the fuel and the ICE will start to run even in Pure mode when it starts to become too old.

Do you have any details how this works?
Some info about the "ageing" of fuel:
https://www.livescience.com/58117-do...ne-go-bad.html

[bluebarchetta]

There is a theoretical age of the fuel which I believe is based on a calculation made taking into account:

• the day of the last fill up
• the volume of fuel in the tank before the fill up and
• the volume added.

You can see this with a code reader.

Once the car considers this is getting too old it will prioritise the ICE. Not sure of the exact threshold - I think it’s between 6-9mths.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Clan

volvo recommend the battery is charged every 2 weeks in this current low use period we are going through . so leaving a small charger on for 24 hours every 2 weeks would be fine . Be sure to use the posts under the bonnet for this however. driving the car is not a good way to charge the battery . The fuel you have will be fine for a year and beyond ...

It is a T8 Clan so not relevant.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Director76

T8 effectively trickle charges the 12v battery continuously anyway if the hybrid battery is charged and the car plugged in periodically.

Given the complex electronics at play, I wouldn’t be connecting any kind of charger to the T8, other than through the type 2 socket!

Exactly ^^^^^^^^^^^^. Leave it plugged in to the charge socket and the car will look after everything else. Another advantage of a T8.

Our V60 was showing "battery low" so I had to give it an "Italian tune up" and take it on 2 95 mile round trips to work last week to get it charged up again.

[jarm]

Originally Posted by bluebarchetta

The car monitors the age of the fuel and the ICE will start to run even in Pure mode when it starts to become too old.

More than that, it will even display a message on sensus. Don't remember the exact message, but it said fuel degraded or aged fuel and something about using ICE. Sofar has happened once, after I hadn't used the car for a month or little longer.

Would like to know how the age of the fuel is measured? I assume it's based on refill intervals.