This looks great. Now I live in Hokkaido, I’ve been worried about batteries more.
Ditto those. Absolutely great to have around for an emergency.
As for the batteries, I’ve left my car for a month in January here in Chicago and it’s started up with no issue after coming back from a trip to India. Same with my wife’s car on the same trip.
If a 2-year old battery fails in just two weeks, it is defective and needs to be replaced because that just doesn’t happen. You should have absolutely no worries whatsoever.
I don’t think its a question of does the battery fail by not being recharged in two week because it is defective…
Its more that “is there some unknown electrical draw that will discharge the battery over that two weeks.” If there is, then even a new perfectly working battery could go flat.
True, but is there any reason to suspect a problem with the electrical system? Again, something like that is a relatively rare occurrence. Nevertheless, that’s why I would prefer gauges over failure lights, but gauges are pretty rare these days.
Sadly, no time to order one (we leave in the morning) but I’m definitely getting one just to have. Thanks for the suggestion!
There was a story in the Interweb news a few months ago where a guy kept finding his battery discharging while the car was sitting unused for short times. Took it to a mechanic who discovered that the dealer he bought it from has installed a tracking device (without telling him) and it was draining the battery.
Plus there can also be problems where a factory component is misbehaving and draining the battery.
So, nothing to worry about. Unless …
If a car is used daily then a small current draw can be masked (hidden), because the alternator charges the battery. But if the car isn’t run in a couple of weeks, even a new battery can go flat like @Sigene and I have said.
My experience with those small chargers is that they are good for a couple of uses. I have a two of them and after a couple of jumps, they don’t seem to have enough strength anymore. They still say they’re charged to 100%, but I can’t get the car to start. It’s providing some power since the lights and accessories come up, but it doesn’t seem to provide enough juice to actually start the car. When they work, they work great. The car starts right away. But maybe something happens to the battery and it can’t provide that same level of power on subsequent uses. Something to keep in mind after it’s been used it a couple of times. It may not be as reliable the more times it’s used.
If you have concern, & it’s possible in the garage as some are head-in angle parking only, 1) back your car in, which will make the hood/battery more accessible. & 2) pick up a set of jumper cables. It’s possible someone will be willing to assist but w/o cables, there’s not much they can do. If you have cables anyone else in the lot could help you.
-*Well, anyone with an ICE; can an EV jump an ICE battery; do they have attachment points for jumper cables?
I don’t drive much so the car sometimes sits in the garage as long as a week, and also when I do drive, it’s often for very short distances. Despite this, I’ve had no problems, it seems to have lots of cranking power after sitting for a week (but the battery is fairly new). You should be fine after two weeks. Getting a set of jumper cables as someone suggested might be worthwhile if you’re worried, or if you want to spend a little more, one of those lightweight portable lithium-ion booster batteries might give you some peace of mind.
My car is 12 years old and it frequently goes two weeks without driving and the battery seems fine (maybe a little weak on the start but it starts no problem).
Of course, YMMV…different cars, different batteries and so on. Maybe because it is a 12 year old car it has less current draw when parked. I really do not know.
ETA: I think the battery is six years old…I forget.
You beat me to it! I bought one last year and took it on holiday with me when we drove from the UK to France. Whilst queueing to get onto the ferry, a car a few doors up from us got a flat battery because the owner was idling whilst streaming TV on his ipad. We loaned him our jump starter and were basically heroes to everyone else in the queue.
Agreed with the recommendation to buy a portable car jumpstarter. Even a medium range cost one (and slightly oversized versus what is recommended for your vehicle) is cheaper than calling a tow truck to come charge up your battery, and faster than digging out charger cables and finding someone to give you a jump. They should be considered safety/self-rescue equipment always kept in the vehicle just as much as a flashlight, tire wrench and jack, and a first aid kit, and even if you never use it for yourself, it can be a lifesaver to aid someone else in need, and most of them can also serve as a power bank to charge up a phone (assuming you also have a compatible cable with you).
Vehicle batteries can seem to work fine even though until the suddenly fall below the voltage threshold that is required (especially if one of the cells starts to leak, or you accidentally leave on an accessory and drain the battery) and then fail to deliver the cranking amps required to turn over the motor. You will often get little more notice than a couple of hard starts, and a portable jumpstarter will give you at least a few starts per charge to get you where you are going, or at least to an auto parts store or garage to swap out your battery.
Stranger
I have a Honda CRV of similar vintage, so I can tell you that your car probably has a very minor current drain even if everything is off – it powers the flashing light on the dash that is supposed to tell thieves that the car is armed (fake). There is no way to turn that off from a consumer POV.
Besides that (probably trivial and ignorable) current drain, there is the self-discharge drain as in any battery. All are probably of no concern for two weeks if your car battery is fairly new. However, the solar trickle charger and the battery-powered jumpstarter described/linked above are pretty good ideas for extra insurance.
As long as we’re talking about jump starting cars, be sure to check how to jump start your particular car. Don’t just assume you can hook up battery to battery. Some cars should not be jumped by hooking up the batteries directly. Instead, there may be special posts under the hood that should be used when attaching jumper cables. I know some BMWs are like this. If you jump start a BMW from the battery, it may fry some of the computers (learned from personal experience). Instead, they have a special positive post under the hood that can be used with jumper cables.
Cars should never be jumped battery-to-battery.
Always connect the ground lead last, and to a point on the frame, away from the battery. There’s often a dedicated post for this.
Connecting directly to the battery carries a small (but non-zero) risk of a hydrogen explosion, throwing Sulphuric acid in your face.
Just to be clear, in the car like the BMW, you’re not supposed to attach any jumper cable to any post on the battery directly. It’s not that you’re putting the negative on the body. You’re not supposed to put either the positive or negative cable on the battery at all. There is a special (+) post under the hood which won’t fry the computers when jumped. This differs from the standard way of jumping batteries where you attach the positive clamp to the positive post and the negative clamp to the body. When I fried my BMW’s computer, I had the positive clamp on the positive post of the battery and the negative clamp on the body.
I agree that you should never put both clamps on the battery directly or else you could get dangerous sparks too close to the battery.
+1!
My mantra has always been: positive to positive, negative to ground.
Which means:
@ the dead battery, connect positive terminal to the positive of the good battery
Still at the good battery, connect the negative terminal to a ground at the dead battery. ‘Ground’ is any metal in the engine bay on the car body that is some distance from the dead battery.
Positive to positive, negative to ground!
Last week I returned from a one month trip and the battery in my 2007 CR-V was almost dead (enough power to run dash lights and radio, but not enough to turn the starter motor). I had cables and asked one nearby driver for a jump, and he was willing to do so until he realized he had a hybrid and wasn’t sure how to do it. I asked a long term parking shuttle bus driver, and he sent out someone with a battery pack. Started right up.
I had noticed possible battery issues with the car a few weeks before, but didn’t think too much about it. I did buy a new battery last week, and when I pulled the old one out I realized it was eight years old, so I really did get my money’s worth out of that battery considering it’s subject to southern New Mexico heat.
One thing that I have learned these last few years is that buying an OEM battery from the dealer is now cheaper than from an auto parts store, and comes with a better warranty as well.