How long off tender?

I generally leave mine off the tender during the fair weather months here, because I drive it 2-3 times per week. It's been just fine. If you're driving it every day I wouldn't give it a second thought as long as the battery is in good shape.

 

My Cali is my daily drive. I have had it for a year now and have put 4K miles on it. The battery is the original on the 2014 I have left town for a two week period and left it off the tender and all was fine.

 

Tom, with a healthy battery you should be OK if you drive your car decent distances on a regular basis. However, the caveat is always the condition of your battery. It doesn't matter how much you drive or charge a battery, if it's on its way out, it will still soon fail.

If you're really concerned, you can have your dealer check the state of the battery with their EXP-899 battery tester. It's a special tester specifically made for Ferrari by Midtronics. Regular battery testers will give an inaccurate reading unless you know how to factor in the extra draw our Fcars put on their batteries when you run the battery test.

It just takes 5-10 minutes to test the battery and I imagine your dealer would be happy to do it for you. Just ask them what would be a good time to swing by. You get a paper readout and a very clearcut report from the device.

Here's a picture of one hooked up to my car.

BTW, you can sometimes make out a date of service marking or sticker on the battery. Check to see which battery is in your car, look for the sticker and ask the manufacturer how to interpret it.
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You are good for 3-4 weeks, I've done 8 weeks on my F12B and was not an issue.....

 

I'm unsure if the Cali has bigger parasitic draw than the other current gen cars, and the comments above about battery condition are spot on

FWIW we've done multiple road trips, and if you're driving the car 1-2 hours a day, you should have no issue. Remember, even when you're driving the car, the alternator and battery take some time to fully charge up, as most "charging effect" takes place when the car is being driven.....much less so than when idling or in slow traffic.

Our road trips have been up to 7 days and zero issues. The tender comes in handy (and is a necessity) for cars that can go weeks or more without a "proper drive". Our cars stay on the tender whenever parked in our garage, which is likely overkill given how much we use them, but better safe than sorry.

 

Once it goes to the green light status should you disconnect.

Also does the length of time the tender takes to go to green reflect the health of the battery.

I recently had to have my battery replaced. I noticed that the length of time it took to go to green status was increased to over three hours.

 

The battery on my Cali failed in less than 3 years, and I kept it on a tender when it would sit for 2 days or more. I think it must be the combination of a not very good OEM supplier and the high heat and vibration where it sits so close to the engine. If you're about to head off on a trip, perhaps wise to get it load tested beforehand.

 

There is green, and then it trickle charges from then onwards.

Even if it is green, you disconnect, and then reconnect, it will not go to green for a while as it builds up slowwwwllllyyyy

 

Tom when I bought my Cali at one of the biggest Ferrari dealers in Europe located in Germany, I asked them which kind of problems I could expect with the car. The answer was quite interesting because they told me the Cali in general was a non problematic model but one of the weak points is the battery. According to them, Calis are supplied new with an Italian battery which can't be left for long periods without the tender connected otherwise, when it looses charge and is recharged again quickly by the alternator, has a tendency to fail or have voltage fluctuations. They only advice they gave me was to have the tender always connected if I didn't want to have electric/electronic issues.