No Electrics but battery fully charged

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YOG said:
I would argue that disconnecting the battery for long periods of time, is the wrong thing to do. I doubt when you disconnect your battery, that it will be fully charged, and when disconnected, it will continue to gradually lose charge.

The way to get the longest life out of lead-acid batteries, is to keep them fully charged, or as fully charged as possible.
Your driving pattern is like mine, as my Puma is a second car, so it is used very infrequently, and I keep it connected to a battery charger, via a permanently attached connector.

There are plenty of charger manufacturers in the market, but I have used CTEK for many years(In fact, I have 3 different models!):
The one I would recommend is the CTEK MXS 5.0:
https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/mxs-5-0
This model has automatic charging and a float/pulse system, which is the most efficient maintenance mode when a battery is connected for long periods. In addition, it also has a recondition mode, an automatic desulfation program and can also charge the more modern AGM batteries, which you will probably have on your next car.

Under my bonnet, I have the battery terminals permanently connected with a CTEK Eyelets and Indicator Panel (2 sizes of eyelets are available) to check battery status. I also use these on our other 2 cars, which are driven more regularly, and are there to check the battery condition, at the same time as oil and screen-wash bottle. With the Puma, I just leave the charger connected for ‘connect and forget’, and just disconnect when I go for a drive. In this way, the battery is kept charged with the float/pulse system. This allows for the alarm to be working, as well as the central locking.
https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/indicator-eyelet-m6

With the lock-down, I am also ensuring the other 2 cars are kept fully charged!

This is what I do, to make my life easier I don't even connect the battery maintainer directly to the battery. I have a attachment on the end of the charger so that all I need to do it plug it into the cigarette lighter socket and charge it that way so I don't even need to open the bonnet. I've owned the car in question 10 years and its still on the original battery.
 
I was under impression the cigar lighter socket is only live with ignition on - is that right or not?

FWIW I use a solar charger at the moment as there's plenty of sunshine
 
grogee said:
I was under impression the cigar lighter socket is only live with ignition on - is that right or not?

FWIW I use a solar charger at the moment as there's plenty of sunshine

Usually Ford cars have a permanent live to the cigarette lighter socket. The car I mentioned in previous post is a MK3 Mondeo and that has permanent live to the lighter socket. Not tried it on a puma but sure it will be the same, pretty sure the mk5 fiesta has.
 
On the MK3 Mondeo it was possible to configure the cigar lighter to be live direct from battery OR live only with ignition on. There was a fuse that could go in one of two positions to choose which. I'm not sure whether this was an earlier innovation or new to that car. For some reason I'm certain my puma cigar lighter is ignition only but I'll have a check when I'm next in it.
 

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