12 volt maintenance. Long term storage.

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webeleafowners

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
1,306
Location
Okanagan Valley British Columbia
Hi folks. We will be storing our 2016 Leaf for four months in a 10 degree celsius garage. I am planning on storing at 50 percent charge. Opinions on that please. As well.

Do I need a battery tender hooked up to the 12 volt battery. And if so, do I just alligator clip it to the positive and negative terminals or is there a better way. I have read conflicting I go on this.

Thanks to all. We appreciate this leaf community.

John and Angela.
 
I disagree - IMHO anything more than a week is going to lead to problems.

I use a Ctek which comes with terminals you can keep on the battery. Plug the charger into the plug (no alligator clips), power it up and when you come back no problems. It desulfates the battery.

I had a 3 1/2 yr old battery tested like new - always used the trickle charger if I was away more than 3-4 days.
 
joeriv said:
I disagree - IMHO anything more than a week is going to lead to problems.

I use a Ctek...
+1
I use a BatteryMINDer at least twice or three times a month overnight, and my battery is over three years old. I also put it on our Mercedes.
 
Jedlacks said:
joeriv said:
I disagree - IMHO anything more than a week is going to lead to problems.

I use a Ctek...
+1
I use a BatteryMINDer at least twice or three times a month overnight, and my battery is over three years old. I also put it on our Mercedes.

So do you go directly on the posts or do you put the ground elsewhere?

What do you think of this one.

https://m.canadiantire.ca/products/productDetail/0111940P/false/false/false?selectedSku=0111940
 
I bought the optional ring attachment, and put them permanently on the battery terminals. Then I drilled a small hole in the plastic through the plastic around the charging port, and put the wire through so that I can plug in both without popping the hood. These are maintainers and will not overcharge....
 
Jedlacks said:
I bought the optional ring attachment, and put them permanently on the battery terminals. Then I drilled a small hole in the plastic through the plastic around the charging port, and put the wire through so that I can plug in both without popping the hood. These are maintainers and will not overcharge....

Howdy and thanks for the reply. Do you mean you routed the 120 cord through to the charge hatch. Don’t suppose you have a pic or two?

Thanks.
 
The OP has a 2016 Leaf. From 2014 or 2015 on, there is no sign of the 12 volt charging issues seen with earlier Leafs. With no telematics "upgrade" to drain power and no known charging issues, what I originally wrote stands. I usually tell people to use a maintainer, but in the above case the very most that should be needed is fully charging the 12 volt battery with an external charger before parking it.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The OP has a 2016 Leaf. From 2014 or 2015 on, there is no sign of the 12 volt charging issues seen with earlier Leafs. With no telematics "upgrade" to drain power and no known charging issues, what I originally wrote stands. I usually tell people to use a maintainer, but in the above case the very most that should be needed is fully charging the 12 volt battery with an external charger before parking it.
I agree with Leftie.. I left the traction battery @ 50% charged. Then I fully charged my 12V battery with an external charger, and parked the car in my garage for 2 months. No problems whatsoever when I returned.
 
derkraut said:
LeftieBiker said:
The OP has a 2016 Leaf. From 2014 or 2015 on, there is no sign of the 12 volt charging issues seen with earlier Leafs. With no telematics "upgrade" to drain power and no known charging issues, what I originally wrote stands. I usually tell people to use a maintainer, but in the above case the very most that should be needed is fully charging the 12 volt battery with an external charger before parking it.
I agree with Leftie.. I left the traction battery @ 50% charged. Then I fully charged my 12V battery with an external charger, and parked the car in my garage for 2 months. No problems whatsoever when I returned.

Well, I have an external charger. Maybe I’ll give that method a try.

Thank you.

John.
 
The car will add charge to the battery either every few days or whenever it needs it, depending on who you believe. With no significant parasitic drains the battery should be fine even if not externally charged first, but it certainly won't hurt to top it off beforehand..
 
I leave my 2015 at approximately 60% charge when I park at the airport or my office for extended time. I did the same with my 2011. I have never connected an external charger to either Leaf. The only time I had an issue with the 2011 was when I forgot to unplug the Bluetooth module from the OBDII port. I have had two instances of returning to a dead 12-volt battery in the 2015 related to the telematics upgrade, but you should not have that issue with a 2016. I recommend that you unplug any devices from the OBDII port, turn off the car, lock the doors (if desired) and enjoy your time in Palm Springs without worry.
 
GerryAZ said:
I leave my 2015 at approximately 60% charge when I park at the airport or my office for extended time. I did the same with my 2011. I have never connected an external charger to either Leaf. The only time I had an issue with the 2011 was when I forgot to unplug the Bluetooth module from the OBDII port. I have had two instances of returning to a dead 12-volt battery in the 2015 related to the telematics upgrade, but you should not have that issue with a 2016. I recommend that you unplug any devices from the OBDII port, turn off the car, lock the doors (if desired) and enjoy your time in Palm Springs without worry.

Thanks Gerry. We'll give it a little charge before we go. Any problem with hooking the leads of the charger straight to the battery? Seems somewhere I think I read that one is supposed to use a special negative post or something.
 
You're supposed to connect the negative lead to a chassis or 'engine' ground, not the negative terminal. The reasons are to prevent sparking at the battery and to avoid damaging the current sensor on the Negative terminal.
 
You can use one of the bolts on top of the part of the motor/inverter stack that looks like an ICE valve cover. That's also a good place to connect a maintainer hardwire ground lead.
 
webeleafowners said:
GerryAZ said:
I leave my 2015 at approximately 60% charge when I park at the airport or my office for extended time. I did the same with my 2011. I have never connected an external charger to either Leaf. The only time I had an issue with the 2011 was when I forgot to unplug the Bluetooth module from the OBDII port. I have had two instances of returning to a dead 12-volt battery in the 2015 related to the telematics upgrade, but you should not have that issue with a 2016. I recommend that you unplug any devices from the OBDII port, turn off the car, lock the doors (if desired) and enjoy your time in Palm Springs without worry.

Thanks Gerry. We'll give it a little charge before we go. Any problem with hooking the leads of the charger straight to the battery? Seems somewhere I think I read that one is supposed to use a special negative post or something.

There is no need to use an external charger (I have NEVER connected an external charger to either LEAF's 12-volt battery). The DC-DC converter recharged the 12-volt battery quickly after jump starting the total of 3 times (once on 2011 due to Bluetooth adapter and twice so far on 2015 due to telematics upgrade) when abnormal conditions caused me to return to a dead battery. I personally would never leave a charger/maintainer connected long term and unattended on any vehicle. That is one of the reasons I like the Leaf for my daily driver (because I can park for long term without worrying about the battery). If you really want to charge the 12-volt battery with an external charger before you leave, it is OK to make temporary connections directly to the battery terminals or connect the negative to chassis ground (makes no difference for charging). Again, I strongly recommend against leaving a charger connected while unattended.
 
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