Why do you need to charge your battery?

When a battery such as car, bike or leisure battery is stood without being used it continues to slowly lose charge from the electrical items such as the alarm and onboard computer etc. After a while the battery will go flat. When a battery is left in a discharged state, a chemical reaction occurs and a coating begins to build on the internal plates. This reaction is called sulphation and makes the battery resistant to taking a future charge. Symptoms of this are easy to detect; the battery will get warm during charging and a smell of rotten eggs is often emitted. If this is allowed to build for too long the battery will become unserviceable and will need replacing. This is not covered by any battery warranty as it is not a manufacturing defect.

If you can't keep the battery in constant use to keep it topped up, then you need a battery charger to look after it. Modern smart chargers from brands such as CTEK and NOCO have additional features built in to help optimize the health of your battery and can be used with minimal supervision. We typically recommend that you should use a charger with a charge rate that is around 10% of the battery's capacity. For example, if you have a 50Ah car battery a CTEK MXS5 5 amp charger would be a suitable choice.