Battery Conditioner

[Geoff_Fields]

The red light on mine will come on as soon as I open a door, which illuminates the interior car lights. It will then stay on for a while after the lights have gone off again. If your battery is at a low state of charge it can take several days before the red light goes out, depending on which model you have. Th small black model is only a conditioner and will struggle to charge a fairly flat battery.

 

[chrisH]

I started using one of the Porsche Conditioners recently.
I used it on my new Cayman after it hadn't been used for 3 weeks and it took 3 days for the red light to go out and the voltage got to 13.8v when it went out. Since then I used the car a couple of times but the red light no longer comes on and the voltage reads 12.6v. I know this is the correct fully charged voltage. I checked the cigarette lighter and its powered OK when trying the lighter.
I tried it on the wife's car which only does short runs and the red light came on, but for less than 1 hour.
When I asked the OPC about this they said it's working correctly and it will only come on when it needs to.
Does anyone know how you can check it is working right?
The Optimate has lights that tell you this but the Porsche one has one red on /off only.

 

[Nicks]

ORIGINAL: chrisH Since then I used the car a couple of times but the red light no longer comes on and the voltage reads 12.6v.

I had that on a failing boat battery. A new replacement battery works fine with the conditioner.

 

[chrisH]

ORIGINAL: Nicks

ORIGINAL: chrisH Since then I used the car a couple of times but the red light no longer comes on and the voltage reads 12.6v.

I had that on a failing boat battery. A new replacement battery works fine with the conditioner.

I doubt the battery on a new Porsche is dud. I am questioning the Conditioner as being faulty as the red light always came on before when I plugged it in but last week or 2 it never does. The OPC said are you sure - it probably comes on in the night? Of course it could be the battery is now fully charged whereas it wasnt before.

 

[chrisH]

This is now resolved. As Geoff997 already commented, if there is no drain like alarm on, or lights on, then the conditioner sees the battery as fully charged. After setting the alarm the voltage dropped after one day enough to put the conditioner back on (red light on). Don't leave your alarm set for more than a week or two without using a battery conditioner or it wont start without a recharge and your battery will need replacing if it gets discharged below 10.5 volts.