Battery Drain?

Alarms, trackers and all the other ancillaries. They are getting as bad as smart phones. Soon, you won't last a day without plugging in to recharge.

 

This is why Ferraris are kept on battery tenders. They are not frequently driven and batteries don't like that. Regular auto batteries are starting batteries. They aren't marine batteries that have deep cycle ability, so they need to be kept fully charged.

 

Also depends on driving. If he fires it up and drives one mile to the coffee bar, then fires it up and drives back, the battery is not recovering from the starting and will never get fully charged.

 

a deep cycle or RV/ marine battery would be a good choice... since the internal ( technical ) construction is skewed to deliver power over a longer period of time... the battery technology has advanced over the years where a deep cycle battery can deliver adaquate power for starting and still offer power over a longer period of time...

batteries have two ratings... CCA which is a start rating in amperes per second, its a large number but good only for a few seconds as in starting a car... RC / reserve capacity which is a smaller number, it is a low drain like 5 amps over hours in time

technology / contruction in a starting battery... surface area ( of the plates ) is the principle way to generate a lot of power ( amperes ), as a result starting batteries have a large area and plates are thin, the down side is that the charge at the surface is quickly depleated... this is OK since a start lasts only a few seconds anyway...a graph of available power for a starting battery looks like a drawing of a cliff, power is available for a few seconds, then it literally crashes... once the charge at the surface reaches a certain level it crashes...

a deep cycle battery construction is the opposite... thick heavy plates are able to release power slowly over a long time... golf cart batteries are good example... the power graph is
a gentile slope... current generation deep cycle or hybrid batteries can deliver enough power for a start, although they don't produce the high surge of a dedicated starting battery... the limiting factor for car manufactureres to use deep cycle technology is that they are heavier and larger in physical size making they less attractive... there is a new hybrid battery coming to market that addresses the qualities of both

 

that is another valid point... charging a battery is like stuffing feathers into a pillow, the first few handfuls can visibly fill the pillow, but to get it full, the feathers need to be pushed hard until no more can be "forced" in... a battery does not charge at a level or constant rate, a 50 amp charger will deliver at that rate initially to a flat battery, but as the battery gets close to full, the rate at which the battery takes a charge goes down, the 50 amp charger could be down to charging only at a few amps. Also chargers are rated in amperes per hour at peak capacity without resistance from the battery... replacing 50 amperes of charge could take several hours of driving... then there are other technical
limitations on getting battery to a full charge... restoring a battery to full charge is a time consuming process...

 

Apparently, you don't understand rolling computers. You don't understand deep cycle marine batteries either. The choices are to either buy monitors or shut off the batteries.
All my infrequent drivers are on monitors and they always start. The T-Bird can go forever on the monitor. The 575 can go for a couple of weeks. The 575 automatically alarms itself (a drain) but, the T-Bird does not. A Honda? it is basic and drains very little. Like trophy wives, Ferraris need monitors.

 

current generation car battery drain has nothing to do with who made the car or what it was sold for... it is all about the various accessories that draw power after the engine is turned off. It used to be that all power drain was turned off with the key when the engine was shut down. NOT so any more, as cars have a host of accessories that stay powered up after the engine is shut down... about the only thing the key does is to shut the engine off... there is a lot of stuff that needs power...

radio memories
security systems
remote door locks
remote trunk locks
keyless start
ecu's and other computer memories
clocks
etc

starting batteries ( standard car battery ) no longer meet the requirements of today's generation of cars, look for the new hybrid batteries coming to market that better address the need for long term low power requirements.

 

I have batteries that are quite old still running in my cars that only get driven once a month, at most. They are kept plugged into a $25 Battery Tender when not seeing use and they start up fine. It is a very simple, low cost maintenance requirement for any vehicle not seeing regular use. I even use one on my marine batteries in the off season as even they will drain when not used for an extended period.

 

another thing about batteries... they are not like a gasoline in a tank that can be used down to empty... batteries are considered fully flat or discharged at the 50% of the rated spec of the "reserve capacity"... the CCA / cold cranking ampere rating is a surge rating measured in seconds and has nothing to do with providing sustainable power... a battery with a CCA of 600-800 amp may only have a "reserve capacity" of only 40 AH of which about half / or 20 AH, is actually usable from a 100% charge level...which is not many days of available power on a new battery, which becomes less as the battery ages or does not get charged to 100%... a deep cycle / RV battery in the same physical dimensions can have a reserve capacity of 140AH... which would allow for a few more days of supplying power without the assistance of a charger/maintainer... which may be enough for a start for situations where a maintainer is not available...

 

most cars have a battery condition monitor :=) ... if they have an electric clock...
electric clocks are sensitive to out of spec voltage, if the clock is losing time, it is an indication that the voltage is out of spec... either the car battery is not getting a full charge or the charge is depleated between use... observe how much time is lost between clock resets, as the battery ages and becomes weaker, the resets become more frequent and need a bigger adjustment... when resetting the clock becomes annoying, the battery is close to failing and it's difficult to start the car...

 

its all in the driving and condition of the battery. When I first got my 360, if all I did was short drives around town, the battery would not last a week. If I did some very long drives out of town, then it would last 2 weeks or more. I really think the charging system is not up to par on these cars.

But now that I put a tender on the car, it sure starts right up every time without trying to stall and runs much better when its cold. Before it would often start and drop in revs and feel as if it was trying to stall even though it never actually did, now it just runs like it should.

 

It is already here...My 2003 SL 55 has two batteries.One in the front, just a service battery i.e. starter battery and one in the trunk consumer battery.It runs everything else.Yes the battery tenders prolong the longevity of batteries.I still have original batteries on my SL55.But no such luck with F430.My 08 F430 needed a new battery last week despite on the battery tender.

 

Exactly. My "analog" 328 can sit for weeks at a time and fire up no problem. My Exige with all the electronic doodads goes flat in 2 or 3 weeks. So the Exige now has a battery tender if I know I won't be driving it for a while.

 

One other thing about car electronics.

Electrolytic capacitors (used on various circuit boards) get old and start to leak more and more. So even if the battery culd hold a charge for 3-4 weeks when the car is new, when the car is 10 years old, a battery of the same original quality may have a hard time staying charged for a single week.