Tales of the Battery Masters!

Exide Battery Range Now Stocked!

After months of enquiries from our customers pleading with us to stock Exide Car Batteries we can confirm that we have had our first delivery - and we are impressed with the quality of the product.

The Exide brand is world renowned as a sign of quality and durability and you can now purchase Exide Car batteries from your old favourite - Tayna Batteries. These batteries are available from stock on a next day service. Call us on 0845 2261860 if you have any questions.

If we receive enough demand we may stock the full commercial range and leisure range; if you are interested in these please let us know.

Our First Video Tutorial
How to Change a Car Battery

You spoke - and we listened! We noticed that many of our customers were asking questions about how to fit a car battery. A while ago we posted a written tutorial on how to fit a car battery without losing your radio code, however as the famous quote goes; “A picture is worth a thousand words” so we set about filming a simple tutorial showing how simple it can be to fit your new battery.

See here - Video: How to change your Car Battery

Let us know your thoughts - have you noticed any errors or omissions that you feel are important? If so, please send us your comments so that we can improve our video and bear you thoughts in mind for our next video.

Product Review: Gunson Intelligent Memory Minder

This product is a relatively new concept, and is a new product to Tayna.co.uk. What it claims to do is to retain your radio code and any other presets that may be stored in your car’s electrical system whilst you change the battery.

We’ve previously published a tutorial on how to change a car battery without losing your radio code, however this product aims to make the task much simpler. So how good is it..?

First Impressions

First impressions are very good. The build quality seems very high - made from a tough solid plastic casing - it certainly feels as though this unit will stand the test of time. I wouldn’t like to try it; but it feels as though it would survive a small drop onto a solid floor. The unit has a power cord, leading to a 12 Volt cigar lighter style plug. On the top of the unit is a push switch and three traffic-light coloured LEDs.

Operation

Operation seems very simple, according to the rather small instruction booklet. Simply turn the ignition off, plug the unit into the cigar lighter socket and turn the unit on. So… let’s give it a go.

I popped the bonnet of a Lexus IS200, turned the ignition off and pushed the plug into the car’s electrical outlet. Pushing the black switch powered up the unit and the green LED began to glow. The coloured LEDs give an indication of the charge state of the internal battery of the memory minder. As it was glowing green, it was indicating to me that the battery was in a healthy state and was able to retain power to the vehicle as I removed the battery.

As the unit was powered up, the cars electrical system came to life and the radio turned on. Very weird considering the keys weren’t in the ignition! This is obviously the desired intention - but it was something I wasn’t expecting! I then proceeded to swap out the car’s battery in the usual way.

Once the car’s new battery was in place I pushed the unit’s black power switch to turn it off and removed it from the cigar lighter socket. Then came the big test - had theradio code and all presets been stored..? Having turned the ignition o, the radio once again came to life on the correct radio station I had been listening to. Switching to CD lead to the correct CD playing from the last position I had stopped at. All radio presets were saved too, so the unit worked exactly as described.

Conclusion

The Gunson Intelligent Memory Minder is a great unit which saves the time and hassle of other methods of retaining power to your vehicle as you change the battery. Comparing a small light and portable unit such as this to a pair of jump leads and a secondary car battery instantly makes this a desirable option.

Issues

We also tried this unit with a 1996 Ford Fiesta 1.9 Diesel using exactly the same method described above; but the vehicle did not retain the radio memory. Having looked around the internet it appears as though some - but not all - Fords are known to have this issue. So in summary, I suggest that you ensure that once you have plugged the unit into your cigar lighter and switched it on that your dashboard lights up, indicating that power has been passed from the unit to the car.

Goodwood Revival Photos

The Goodwood Revival turned out to be even better than expected… With quite a few famous faces and some great cars the day was a great success. We were lucky enough to have enclosure passes so we were able to visit the paddock and overlook the pits from our dinner table. We were with a great group which made the day even more enjoyable. Take a look through the first few photos below. Look closely and you might spot Tiff Needell and Jackie Stewart. We’ll post more shortly…..

Goodwood Here We Come!

Some of the team are off to the Goodwood Revival this weekend… We’re not sure what to expect as we’ve not been before but going by the website we should be in for a bit of fun!

One point of interest is that we have to dress in 1940s-1960s attire. This shouldn’t be a problem for Sam - he’s famed for his often Pirate themed fancy dress - but I’m not so sure!

We’ll be taking some photos - so look out for those early next week…

New Tutorial: How to Change your Car Battery without losing your radio code!

After many, many questions regarding this matter from our customers we thought we’d publish this information for all to see.

Many cars these days have complex immobiliser systems or coded radio systems. Cutting the power to these can cause headaches such as a the radio refusing to work until the radio code is entered (often a task in itself!) or an alarm sounding and annoying the neighbours!

We’ve put together a tutorial entitled: How to Change a Car Battery without losing your Radio Code. It’s all rather simple stuff, but the kind of thing that you don’t think to do until prompted by such a guide. Take a look and let us know your thoughts. This is the first in a long line of tutorials we have planned - so if reaction is good enough we’ll publish some more!

Welcome!

Well, it’s been a long time in development… but we have finally got around to creating the Tayna blog! We’re hoping that our blog will give us the chance to communicate with our customers and associates in a less formal manner… helping us to get to our know our customers a little more.

Let me introduce ourselves - we are the UK’s best mail order (and internet) battery distributor. We pride ourselves on offering a quick delivery service, but more importantly, we are proud to be battery experts. Where the likes of Halfords would offer poor - and often incorrect - advice before charging you over the odds, we have the experience to be able to guide you to the correct battery for your vehicle by email or by telephone and sell it to you at a price far below Halfords, even with delivery taken into consideration.Our blog will be another method of contacting us regarding determining the correct battery for your application. Take a look at any of our products - we have posted our customer comments below each product, and almost all give us 4+ stars (out of 5) for our service and reliability.

The partners in the business are Sam Taylor and Jo Phenna. Our staff are Gareth Williams and Sam Steinson. You’ll hear from all of us in time, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or comments please post them and we will help where we can!