Battery Drain Rate
 

Some of the newer cars can drain the battery in a few weeks when not operated due to all the installed electronics.

I am curious if our cars have high battery drain rate?

I have a 2010 and have been deployed the last 5 months and the battery died. I had a friend starting the car weekly and letting it warm up to operating temp for about 20 minutes. It lasted about 2 or 3 months. I don't think it was getting the proper charge without being driven.

Depends on what you call "high." Condition of your battery is probably the biggest factor. Some people can go all Winter without problems. If you are going to be storing the car and can't run it every month or so, get a battery tender.

Yep battery tender is key

And just stating the car to 'charge' not a good idea. Ull need to drive it to rid moisture from exhaust and oil

you're right about the condition of the battery. I'm curious about how much it would drain after a week or two in term of percentage?

I'd like to estimate how often I should hook up the battery tender before it drops below 70%.

Depends on the condition of the battery, battery capacity, battery type, .... If it starts strong, then a week or two shouldn't be a problem.

Get a battery tender (not charger), hook it up when you store the car, disconnect before starting. No need to disconnect during storage.

I'm routinely deployed for three-four month stretches every year. The idea of a battery tender when I'm not there to make sure everything is functioning as it should makes me nervous. I don't want to come back to a burnt out car/garage/home because something malfunctioned and went unnoticed for three months.

I've been using a portable car jumper twice a year for the past five years without issue. $100 from Amazon. The battery gets low enough after three months that it can't turn over the engine, but not so low all of the electronics lose their memory (clocks, radio settings etc all remain). Quick jump, drive the car for a half hour, and everything is back to normal. Still using the original battery that came from the factory.

A good-quality unit is no more likely to start a fire than many others items you probably leave plugged in (clocks, TVs, &c). Probably less of a risk than a refrigerator which has a fairly high current draw when the compressor starts up.

But if it makes you sleep better at night, that's what counts. :tiphat:

Grab a good name-brand battery tender and you should be fine. Don't go the cheap route as some of them don't know when the battery is fully charged and won't stop charging them leading to damage.

I got the 4-bay battery tender from Amazon on my Muscle Car, both of my motorcycles, and my 4-wheeler. My muscle car alone is worth more than twice what a 370Z cost brand new and I've been using it for more than a year now without any issues. If I use it on my collector car, then it's pretty safe. I'm extremely OCD about it...

Also: While you are deployed, it'd probably give you some peace of mind to invest on a $50.00 wifi or ip camera as well. It can be focused on your car and you can view it anytime you want. For extra precaution, give the login info to a local friend as well so they can view it on their phones as well.

Hope this helps...

I have the battery tender jr for my Z. I check the cord once a week for nibbles but other than that... I have had 0 issues with it.

As a matter of fact, I do throw the breakers on everything but the fios and ip cameras. Seriously lowers the electric bill.

I do have a camera trained on the car as well, but from thousands of miles away, I don't think I would be able to spot a problem until it's too late. Yes, I'm probably being overly paranoid.

Anyway, the portable jumper works fine, and it hasn't affected the performance of the battery; it'll hold enough charge to start the car after it's been sitting for a month, and it'll be five years old in October.

battery drain
 

I have a 2011 and still have the original battery, so far so good! I use a battery maintainer when not driving the car.. I don't use it for a daily driver and comes out to play on sunny days. If your car sits a lot, I highly suggest a float charger/battery maintainer.

The first year I had the car it could last a month and fire no problem, 5 years later it was about 2 weeks.

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