How long can you leave it?

[regw]

My old things never been a daily driver but this year
It been standing for long periods unused and the battery has gone flat

After charging it up and making a note of the date, I found that roughly 2 weeks
was enough to dishcharge a new in Nov 2019 100 AH battery.
This has improved as the ambient temps have risen as one would expect
but I am wondering about parasitic drain which I'll check when I get it back.

There was thread about the method and expected quiescent current to look for somwhere but
I forgot to bookmark it, any clues chaps?

[Mirez]

Theoretically about 6 to 8 weeks from a tip-top battery but the reality is you'll be unable to start it after about 4. Buy a Ctek and just leave it on trickle charge as once the battery is flat you've shortened the life of it considerably anyway.

[Alhambra King]

Any help?
https://www.fordmpv.com/smf2/ford-galaxy-common-faults-and-problems/galaxy-testing-for-parasitic-battery-drain-(battery-looses-charge-quickly)/

[regw]

Thats the one, thanks
It probably went flat due to time and low ambient temp but
it was the 38mA after 12 minutes I wanted to use as a guideline just to check.

[SirDavidAlhambra]

Hello friends, now this is one of my favourite topics, Iââ,¬â,,¢m very good at batteries!

In a nutshell, make sure you give it a drive every fortnight. You can probably go a month but the batteries do drain themselves and itââ,¬â,,¢s not BMF old to let them get too low anyway. Just drive the car for 5 miles every fortnight and youââ,¬â,,¢ll be fine.

Also, I recommend changing your battery every 5 years.

[brianh]

Or if you know your going to be leaving it for extended periods, leave the battery disconnected. Mine is alright for around 3 weeks without being started, though the battery on it is of unknown vintage now (The battery in question was originally on another car I scrapped beforehand).

You may find a clamp on meter like this > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multimeter-AP-570C-Resistance-Capacitance-Frequency/dp/B07XBW7DKD useful if your checking for this sort of thing, though if you decide to buy one, make sure it does do DC current on the clamp function, as not all of them do (all the ones I've seen do AC on the clamp, not all do DC)

[regw]

I've got the thing back from MOT/repair now and will put it on the todo list
if it causes further concern.
I suspect that as I mentioned above, it was probably due to just leaving
it too long in low temps.
I did consider getting a current clamp for my scope but the eye watering prices put me off
and I couldnt justify spending so much for a job done very rarely that I can do easily with a meter.

[SirDavidAlhambra]

Also another tip is that the cheap car chargers work just as well as the expensive ones. There is one well known brand that has a totally undeserved reputation in my opinion and has a dodgy mode button, not impressed for such an expensive bit of kit and their customer services fobbed me off which made me real mad and I would only buy an Aldi charger or something like that in the future, itââ,¬â,,¢s basically identical but a tenth the price

[Chris]

If you don't drive your car very often I would really recommend fitting the battery isolator! It is also very helpful when you work on your car and want to disconnect the battery - you just unscrew this black tap and the the battery is disconnected. Cost me just a few quid on Amazon, well worth it.
[attachimg=1][attach=1]

[SirDavidAlhambra]

What a handy looking gadget. Nice choice of battery too, you canââ,¬â,,¢t go wrong with a Yuasa, I have many fond memories of them