Battery maintainer

[orange260z]

Hey all, I've done some searches but wanted to get some updated info from G70 owners - have any/many here "permanently" connected an eyelet pigtail for a battery maintainer to your car? Did you do it under the hood, or directly to the battery? On this car I will be using a NOCO G7200 - I use CTEKs on my other cars, but the NOCO is my most powerful unit and has a starting function, so I like to have this accessible in the winter when the other cars are in storage.

With my previous winter car (2016 CTS, also with an AGM battery) I connected a pigtail directly the positive and negative battery terminals in the trunk. If I knew the car was going to be sitting for more than a few days, or if I had driven it a lot on short local drives, I would just put it on the maintainer until my next use. In the summer this car was often put away for a few months at a time, I just left it on the G7200. I was still on the original battery when I traded the car in after 8 years, despite using a dashcam with parking mode.

Obviously, I want to make sure that I comply with any requirements or instructions from Genesis, I'm just not sure that I will get any clear direction from my dealer on this. Hoping for some guidance from you peeps.

 

[Volfy]

For just about every vehicle I have in the garage, car or bike, I install a charging pigtail directly to the battery. Length depends on the vehicle and is kept as short as practical and convenient. For the ones with battery mounted on the trunk floor, I install a 3 or 4ft pigtail (example: Amazon.com), so it can be brought above the the trunk floor (or just outside the car), if necessary, for charger connection. I'm not shy about reterminating the pigtail leads to the perfect length with new eyelet connectors. The ones that come of these pigtails are usually kinda cheesy anyway. You could install it up front under the hood, but the long line to the back of the car means the charger might not sense the actual battery voltage correctly, so the charge might be slightly off.

I don't connect the charger - even a smart one - unless there is a need to charge the batt. Leaving a charger connected all the time will actually do more harm to the battery than if you connect it only when necessary. Chargers have gotten more sophisticated these days, so that concern is less of an issue, but it still holds true to some degree. Charging to "100%" typically requires a "negative delta" voltage sensing for termination, which basically means the smart charger will charge until it senses a voltage drop in the battery that acts as a signal that the battery is starting to overcharge. Good ones won't exceed this limit very far, but it will still exceed it every time it is asked to top off the charge to 100%. Lead acid batteries are more tolerant of slight overcharging than Lithium batts, but it is still an added stress.

BTW, I change out the charging pigtail's inline fuse to one that is just above the current rating of the charger I use.

 

[orange260z]

For just about every vehicle I have in the garage, car or bike, I install a charging pigtail directly to the battery. Length depends on the vehicle and is kept as short as practical and convenient. For the ones with battery mounted on the trunk floor, I install a 3 or 4ft pigtail (example: Amazon.com), so it can be brought above the the trunk floor (or just outside the car), if necessary, for charger connection. I'm not shy about reterminating the pigtail leads to the perfect length with new eyelet connectors. The ones that come of these pigtails are usually kinda cheesy anyway. You could install it up front under the hood, but the long line to the back of the car means the charger might not sense the actual battery voltage correctly, so the charge might be slightly off.

I don't connect the charger - even a smart one - unless there is a need to charge the batt. Leaving a charger connected all the time will actually do more harm to the battery than if you connect it only when necessary. Chargers have gotten more sophisticated these days, so that concern is less of an issue, but it still holds true to some degree. Charging to "100%" typically requires a "negative delta" voltage sensing for termination, which basically means the smart charger will charge until it senses a voltage drop in the battery that acts as a signal that the battery is starting to overcharge. Good ones won't exceed this limit very far, but it will still exceed it every time it is asked to top off the charge to 100%. Lead acid batteries are more tolerant of slight overcharging than Lithium batts, but it is still an added stress.

BTW, I change out the charging pigtail's inline fuse to one that is just above the current rating of the charger I use.

Thanks! Do you connect directly to pos and neg battery terminals? I see some of the other threads recommending isolating the battery from the car removing the neg cable before using the maintainer at the battery.

I’ve always connected the pigtails straight to the terminals, and left the system connected to the car. Am I harming newer electronics?

 

[Volfy]

Thanks! Do you connect directly to pos and neg battery terminals? I see some of the other threads recommending isolating the battery from the car removing the neg cable before using the maintainer at the battery.

I’ve always connected the pigtails straight to the terminals, and left the system connected to the car. Am I harming newer electronics?

Mine are all directly to the battery terminals. No need to isolate the battery to the rest of the car when charging.

I think those that advocate that are concerned that the battery charger might output higher voltage than the ECU/TCU/ABS/etc. electronics can safety handle. Unless the charger is a crappy one, this is no at all likely to happen. Besides, most folks charge their battery when the ignition is turned off, so none of the controller with sensitive electronics should be ON anyway.

The only caveat to that is if a lead acid battery is very weak and might be deeply sulfated, some chargers - including your G7200 - has a desulfation mode that will attempt to recondition the battery back to a serviceable state. Such "desulfation mode" involves higher voltage pulses that are meant to break up the sulfation. Personally, I would just make sure my ignition is OFF, when attempting to recharge a dead batt. However, if it worries you enough, that is about the only time that might be prudent to isolate the battery before charnging.

Also, if you car has an unusually high parasitic current draw when the ignition is off, that might also interfere with the negative delta end-of-charge detection. In reality, if you vehicle has that much parasitic draw, it is gonna eat your battery for lunch and cause more problems for you anyway. You'd be better off finding what is causing that and fix it pronto.