Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

demag wrote:Jim is that a sphere tester I spy?
It is ;)
Mandrake wrote:Seems my battery is not being kept as well charged on my daily commute as I expected!
I'm surprised it's not. The alternator should be well up to it... I used to run mine to work and back regularly (6 miles of slow country lanes) and never experienced any issue at all, even in the depths of winter.

Keeping a battery on float is a good idea in your sort of circumstance Simon but it's worth checking it really is correctly floating as an incorrect float can shorten the life of the battery..

When fully charged the float should be just enough to compensate for the natural self-discharge and no more... My charger floats at around 100-150mA into what I know is a battery that's a little past it's best.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

It could be worth taking a look in at Lidls. I was at a branch today, and they had snow chains for sale (although they did NOT have a battery charger, dammit!).
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by harryp »

From my sailing days, I remember that running the engine quickly charges the battery up to about 80%. The last 20% takes many hours hence my use of a wind charger - bit ungainly on a car though :wink: (apparently unless you use a smart charger, but I am always nervous about charging at greater than 10% of the Amp Hour rate causing plate damage).
An occasional weekend 48 hour top-up seems to keep all my battery's going for over 6 years. OTOH never had problems with a 2/30 min each way commute, although come to think of it, the battery's never lasted for more than 5 years; and that on petrol engines with a much reduced cranking amperage and instant starting. HTH? Guess 5 years is OK though....
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Mandrake »

CitroJim wrote:
Mandrake wrote:Seems my battery is not being kept as well charged on my daily commute as I expected!
I'm surprised it's not. The alternator should be well up to it... I used to run mine to work and back regularly (6 miles of slow country lanes) and never experienced any issue at all, even in the depths of winter.
I'm surprised too Jim, however my daily routine looks like this:

Start the car at about 6:50am, let it run for a few minutes while I de-ice (if necessary) and get Joshua bundled into his car seat and into the car. I then have to stop the engine so that I can go back and lock the door and start it again, so that's two starts.

I then drive about 20-25 minutes with the headlights on, rear window heater on, and blower fan on full for a while then medium speed, then stop to drop him off with his Gran. I then start the car again 20 minutes later with lights, fan and rear demister and drive about 3 minutes to the train station. Coming home is the reverse. So that's a lot of cranking and driving with heavy loads.

To fully charge a battery it needs to be able to reach 14.4 volts - on my previous Xantia V6 I found if I had the combined load of headlights, rear window demister and full speed blower fan the best the alternator could do was about 13.9 volts, so if you're doing lots of starts per day and driving with heavy electrical loads all the time as I do in the winter, you can easily see how the charge voltage is not sufficient to replace the energy lost in cranking. :/

I haven't checked the voltage under load on this Xantia but I suspect it will be a similar situation - I'll try to check it this weekend.

After a full charge on the battery charger I certainly notice quite an improvement in cranking. I think with winter driving the battery is not being fully replenished by the alternator alone.
Keeping a battery on float is a good idea in your sort of circumstance Simon but it's worth checking it really is correctly floating as an incorrect float can shorten the life of the battery..

When fully charged the float should be just enough to compensate for the natural self-discharge and no more... My charger floats at around 100-150mA into what I know is a battery that's a little past it's best.
This charger does just that - when it reaches 14.4 volts charging "finishes" and it drops to a 100mA float, allowing the battery voltage to fall to about 12.8 volts.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Gibbo2286 »

Had the most disappointing treatment at Cinderford Lidl yesterday, they had all the stuff in stock that they listed.

The wiper blades for the C5 were labelled up to 11/03, mine's 04, they looked to be the same so I asked if I could pop outside to compare them on the car which was right outside the main window, checkout girl and boy said "no sorry you'll have to buy them first." found a manager, got the same response, I said if you think I'm going to run off with them just pop outside with me, got a blank "No" so they missed the sale.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Simon, I must do the same sort of test on my Activa and 1.9TD and see how it charges with the same load...

I have a small suspicion your alternator may be a bit weak... Let me do the tests and I'll get back to you...
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by white exec »

You only had to go back to the '70s, when any decently instrumented car boasted an ammeter, which spilt all the beans on electrical load.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Stickyfinger »

Has anybody put the Aldi charger on test to see how it works and if it is clever ?
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by harryp »

""You only had to go back to the '70s, when any decently instrumented car boasted an ammeter, which spilt all the beans on electrical load.""


Heaven forbid they did things like back in the olden times :shock: .

Alasdair, yes it works according to the contained blurb. My batteries were not flat , just needed a bit of a boost to top them up fully. Started at 11.7V so not right down. Both on float after 2 days (each) but only checked at start and at 48 hours. HTH
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Stickyfinger »

It has worked for me for sure saving two "duff batteries"...( reminds me....Jim, yours is down here and seems good now )....just wondered what the Electrical wizards thought of it....
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Mandrake »

Stickyfinger wrote:Has anybody put the Aldi charger on test to see how it works and if it is clever ?
Yes.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Stickyfinger »

good :)
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Cars should still have ammeters in my opinion... One of the more useful gauges...
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by white exec »

Seem to remember that most drivers knew what the ammeter was telling them - that the minus end meant that the battery wasn't being charged, and something ought to be switched off. The early Mini and Morris Minor were one of the first British cars to ditch most instrumentation. Basic Mini boasted a fuel gauge and three warning lights (IGN, oil pressure and main beam). Upmarket cars maintained a full "flight deck" for the driver, a mark of a real Driver's car.

All that was back in the era when dynamos outputted 40A if you were lucky (some only 25-30A max), while today alternators of 100-130A are common. Heated rear windows presented a bit of a challenge to many old charging systems, as did extra fog/spot lights.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

My basic C1 had about the same level of instrumentation as the first Mini Chris, albeit with rather more warning lights!

I joke that my bike has more instrumentation on its dash... It even measures my calorie consumption (fuel gauge?) and the level of power I generate...
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