Trickle Chargers + Flat Battery

[Skeeter09]

Good Morning,

I have owned my Boxster 2009 Gen 2 for a quite a few years now and seem to have had the same issue I had 3 years ago.
The car is only used in decent weather April-Oct in the U.K. and is garaged all year round,

I use a Ctek 5.0 all year round,I replaced the Battery with another Bosch S4010 3 years ago as that was fitted when I purchased the car,and Bosch is a good brand.
I check the Ctek weekly and all was good,until yesterday a red light and a flat battery.
I have it connected via the battery Ctek connections.

I switched off the Ctek and back on again the indicator’s all flashed rapidly.
I have ordered another Bosch Battery as it will not Recondition,

Has anybody else had a similar issue ?
I just leave it on the trickle charger to do its thing.

Any suggestions going forward would be appreciated I don’t want to keep replacing the battery,

Many Thanks

 

[Motorhead]

That’s a really puzzling issue! It sounds as though the CTEK is working OK since it appears to have done its job for the past 3-years, and now the battery’s failed completely for some unknown reason. Do you have another car on which you can run the CTEK to confirm it’s working correctly?

I can’t think of any good reason why this has happened, but complete battery failure isn’t an unknown occurrence - even on relatively new batteries. Maybe the fact that the car is unused from November to March has some bearing on battery life because it’s not being discharged and recharged during that period as it would be in normal running?

Jeff

 

[Skeeter09]

Good Morning Jeff,
I suspect you are correct regarding the battery not discharging,the charger seems fine on another battery,I might have to take the car for a spin with the new battery on and see how things go
As I don’t think it will be a good thing to trickle charge it from the outset,

Many Thanks,

Deiter.

 

[Greenman986S]

I had similar errors... turned out to be a faulty connection lead ...where the pins weren't connecting properly

 

[stephentodd]

My Boxster has lived on its CTEK charger for 8 years with the same battery on the car, never had an issue. The battery is an ATS own brand, that was a 1/2 price replacement for the 1 on the car that failed within the warranty.

 

[stephen.robins]

As the Porsche/CTEK chargers are battery conditioners not just chargers, they automatically let the battery discharge and recharge so in theory they should work long term. I have the Porsche charger connected to my 981 and have had no issues. I'm only 4 weeks into ownership though!

 

[jungle650]

CTEK chargers should work fine and many people have no issues. Myself included…. Until 2022.

For some unknown reason the CTEK 5.0 would not and could not properly charge the battery in my 992 despite it being an AGM battery and more than capable of the job and the lights on the actual charger showing green (most of the time).

To cut a long story short I ended up buying a more powerful charger which was cheaper! (after going through 3 new CTEK chargers and scratching my head trying to figure out the charging / draining issue). I also fitted a bluetooth monitor which truly enabled me to see the real state of charge and figure out that the charger was in fact not putting power into the car but seemed to be doing the opposite…I had a drain! …all at a glance on an app.

My recommendation for total piece of mind is fit one, something like the CTEK bluetooth monitor works seamlessly in the background and allows you to truly see the state of charge, not just a green light.

That way you will know if its charging , the state of charge, temperature etc and the true health of the battery.

Hope that helps
Jungle

 

[ianthow]

Good Morning,

I have owned my Boxster 2009 Gen 2 for a quite a few years now and seem to have had the same issue I had 3 years ago.
The car is only used in decent weather April-Oct in the U.K. and is garaged all year round,

I use a Ctek 5.0 all year round,I replaced the Battery with another Bosch S4010 3 years ago as that was fitted when I purchased the car,and Bosch is a good brand.
I check the Ctek weekly and all was good,until yesterday a red light and a flat battery.
I have it connected via the battery Ctek connections.

I switched off the Ctek and back on again the indicator’s all flashed rapidly.
I have ordered another Bosch Battery as it will not Recondition,

Has anybody else had a similar issue ?
I just leave it on the trickle charger to do its thing.

Any suggestions going forward would be appreciated I don’t want to keep replacing the battery,

Many Thanks

You don't mention the age of the battery, these do have a finite life, even when maintained on an battery conditioner/charger like Ctek. There may be an internal fault on your battery which is causing the error. You should try disconnecting the battery from the car while charging in case there is a drain to the car upsetting the Ctek.
Typically good quality batteries last 7-10 years before they become problematic, even when Ctek reports a healthy battery. The Ctek does not detect how much energy is stored in the battery, it simply monitors the voltage stability after full voltage is reached and charging has paused. While the voltage may look OK, the stored energy and the current that can be delivered reduces with age, which will cause problems starting, especially at low temperatures. Car batteries have a CCA rating (Cold Cranking Amps, i.e. how many Amps can be drawn for 30 seconds, before the battery voltage drops to unusable levels).
Like you, I now have a Bosch S40 battery in my 987S. This had almost double the CCA rating of the original Porsche fitment (MOLL) that it replaced six years ago. My car is used regularly, one or two days a week. The MOLL battery had become increasingly poor at starting the car after only a few days so I bought the Ctek. It happily 'reconditioned' and charged the battery with no errors. However, over time, the stored energy and ability to deliver current for starting reduced to the point where, if I disconnect the Ctek to move the car out of the garage, I could not depend on the battery restarting it several minutes later. To date, since fitting the Bosch battery, I have had no need to use the Ctek to maintain the battery although I do connect it when away for a week or more.