I left the car sitting for a while with the glovebox door not fully closed, part of the migration process and paperwork for the local DMV folks I think. Car was covered in the garage so I didn't notice for a while. Battery was pretty darn low when I next went to move the car. This is the Wal-Mart replacement for the previous string of Duralasts.

Looking at this and other threads on smarter battery chargers/maintainers, I bought a CTEK 7002. The C7 Bosch looks great, but the fact that it needs to be manually restarted after any power supply hickup was the deal breaker on that. The CTEK managed to bring the battery back to life handily, something the little Schumacher maintainers weren't quite up to. They are only maintainers after all. Since we have winter at the new place in Oregon, I figured the smarter CTEK might be a better choice for a hibernating car. It offers options for charging voltage and method for Optima and other AGM battery types too. It hurts a little paying almost as much for the charger/maintainer than it cost for the battery it's protecting. No core 'charge' on the charger though.

 

Winter? Hibernating? Let me know how that goes.

 

Morning thermometer was 37º today a 5AM, headed for the high 70's. 928 is sitting on the lift in anticipation of finishing up the cleaning/recovery from the drive up in June. Just too many other things going on with the new house to dedicate a day to the car. Clients are barking too, in spite of the pre-warning that I'd be off-line for a while over the summer. Back in the saddle though from late July, and off to commission another project soon. Three more in the pipeline for the end of the year, so I may not get to experience much of our first 'winter' here first-hand. And we have a ski area across town now too. Climate is just like it was when I lived in Mammoth Lakes, minus about forty feet of snow.

 

At the same time as installing a new (refurb) alternator from 928 Intl, I installed an Odyssey PC1700-A AGM Battery (~$311 online; $365-ish (no core $) at a local battery store here in Hawaii (Battery Bill's in Mapunapuna). Maybe a bit cheaper in Lower 48. (1550 PHCA/810 CCA). Over my most recent 278 miles of driving I've averaged a painful 47 mph average- which I can only guess means more draw from battery than alternator than at higher speeds.

Since my MY84 (US) L-Jet is also my daily driver, I'm still hunting gremlins that are making the pod voltmeter dance a bit, but my battery/electrics are now solid enough for multiple back to back full days of operation without any degradation.

Also- Battery is a snug fit in battery compartment but not in a bad way.

Very happy so far!

 

Sometimes idle rpm isn't enough to make the alternator charge the battery, but almost anything above idle rpm while driving should be fine. Both of mine have drains (electricity flowing even when key is off) sufficient to discharge the battery in a few days, so both of them have disconnect switches on the ground strap. Both are still starting the cars, both measure weak, but no point right now in swapping until the battery is more dead.