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Best Battery Charger to buy help please?

D

donna1to1

First Gear
Hi everyone,
I have a landrover discovery 3 and due to it not starting on many cold mornings I am looking for a battery charger to give it a 'top-up' I guess. But being female (dont laugh) I am overwhelmed by all the different versions on amazon and scared to death to buy the wrong one incase I blow up the battery or make things worse. Im aware it could be the glow plugs but the cost to have them replaced sounds horrible, so want to try this first. Any advice would be great. Ideally something I could charge up inside and then take out to the car incase of dead/low battery scenaros 🙏
 
Good morning, I'd book a battery health check with Halfords, they'll do it for free and it will let you know if your cold starting issues are battery related. No point in buying a charger if it's not going to make any difference?

If it is the battery, likely a replacement is the better option over a charger.
 
If the glow plugs were faulty it would have to crank a lot before it started and then would maybe be a bit rough for a few seconds, if it doesn't crank over fast enough initially then your battery is probably on the way out and you should get it tested as suggested and a decent mechanic should be able to quickly check the glow plugs.
If the battery has not been changed for a long time then now is the time.
or if you are really unlucky it could be the starter.
 
I use a Ctek charger and if you have a white leisure socket next to the socket for your trailer lights you can plug in here to charge without having to lift the bonnet and battery cover.
Here’s a link to the thread I posted on my D4
Guitar Mick

Post in thread 'My D4 Story'

My D4 came with two trailer electrics sockets, a black one and a white one.
Double trailer sockets.webp
The black one is a standard 7 pin that supplies the rear light power (brakes, indicators, sidelights and fog lights) to the trailer. The white one is also a 7 pin socket, but this is a connection point for a 12volt power supply and a connection to the reversing lights, ideal for anyone with a caravan, needing power for lights and a fridge etc.
I have reversing lights on my trailer but the standard 7 pin socket is completely taken up with all the other trailer electrics, so the reversing lights on my...
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I have a Noco GB70 that you charge using USB, and will jump start you a few times, but as others have said, get your battery checked before spending money on battery packs. A new, good quality battery might be all you need.
 
It depends....
I have small solar panel which does a great job over summer
A fancy "smart" (its relative) charger that maintains, floats and tops off (OK that's what the box says) that is good for keeping the pleasure battery good.
An old school metal box with a stonking transformer that works when all else fails and pushes 20A. Absaar, had it donkey's years, it will start an engine from dead flat in about 30 mins.
The "smart" chargers are OK until the battery is really flat, then you just need a transformer a set of big diodes and nothing else interfering.
 
Just to point out the chargers that say you can leave permanently connected, you do have to disconnect before driving away.
I had a friend who had the battery on his P6 Rover on charge, in the boot.
Jumped in next morning without a thought ...
BTW on older type chargers the battery negative should be disconnected.
 
mikeau said:
I have Noco trickle chargers on each battery bank.

Do a fine job of keeping the batteries up.
I leave them permanently connected to the batteries and have a caravan-type mains power inlet on the back of the vehicle so just plug in when Im parked up.
Click to expand...
Just a heads up on this for you.
I had mine permanently connected to the battery and just plugged into mains when not using the vehicle; however, the charger failed after a while. Now I don't know if it failed due to being connected up while driving and the alternator charging, etc., but I am suspicious. Fortunately NOCO honoured their 3 year warranty and provided a new replacement. They do have you cut the cable on the failed one and show proof that you've done so before sending the replacement, but it seemed reasonable enough to get a warranty replacement (I got to keep everything, so useful extra cable, plugs, and crocodile clips).
The genius comes with a clip on velcro strap for installing the charger permanently, so it is sold to you with that intention and should therefore be OK to do so. Having suffered the failure, I've taken no chances with the replacement and have the wiring connected up permanently but I now keep the charger inside the vehicle and unplug it before turning on the ignition.
 
I had a not too dissimilar problem with my solar panel. On a 3 day trip it rained very heard on the first day and at some point I smelled electric burning but didn't think it was in the vehicle. Next day was sunny so I checked the solar charge controlled and it was dead. Followed the wires and found them melted and fused, luckily they had got so hot they had fallen off the battery. Could have been a lot worse. Water had got in the controller and it had then gone closed circuit which should not have been possible. Now (wonderful hindsight) its all fused on both terminals.
 
Roverowner said:
Just to point out the chargers that say you can leave permanently connected, you do have to disconnect before driving away.
I had a friend who had the battery on his P6 Rover on charge, in the boot.
Jumped in next morning without a thought ...
BTW on older type chargers the battery negative should be disconnected.
Click to expand...
If you connect the charger into the trailer socket with a non-latched plug and secure the wire to something firm then you can drive away and it unplugs itself. I used to have to be an "if theres no-one else around you do it" ambulence driverr and all of the ambulences were left on charge overnight like that. I never did get to drive one though.
 
Good point. The mains inlet on mine is a standard 'caravan' type fixed socket.
Something like this
download-3.webp


I drove away a few times with unplugging so now have an EU plug/socket inline so they just separate if I forget;
Screenshot 2025-01-14 at 10.02.31.webp
 
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