7 day timer

[Vipar]

Greetings peeps

I am going to put a double outside socket in the front garden.

I want to plug my van into a timer that will switch on Monday night at 11:30 and switch off at 06:30am. Then the same on Thursday. I can’t see the point of have a trickle charge on 24/7
Unless you advise to the better.
So, have any of you got a system set up like this? If so what timer did you buy.

The spare socket will be used to overnight charge my electric car. Which is on a 24 hr timer.

 

[hilldweller]

Unless you advise to the better.

I have seen on intelligent charger instructions that it does a boost charge every 5 times it's connected. So it is possible to harm a battery by loads of short bursts. As far as I know you don't do any harm on constant maintenance.

Have a good read of your charger instructions just in case.

 

[Vipar]

Can’t read. Chinese ?

 

[Bustup15]

Units like the Hive are fully programmable and remote control from pc or phone.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

You can get an immersion heater timer, that is a bit like a central heating one but mains, I once used one to operate an irrigation system for a greenhouse, not waterproof but OK for indoor use with cabling to outside. Or a basic clockwork type timer that just plugs in.

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[Vipar]

I have seen loads on amazon and EBay but which one do I buy? That’s why I asked you knowledgeable lot. I will be plugging the outside sockets into a socket in the garage so it will be connected to an RCB

 

[Jev88]

Diugital display timer plugs are crap in my opinion, I have used about 4 and all went wrong despite no moving parts, whilst my old clockwork one (you press pins in and out around the edge to press on a switch on the bezel) - keeps working faithfully.
Maintenance charger would be safer as they are designed to be left on.

 

[Vipar]

I agree with you on pin timers, had some of mine for years still going strong. Looks like the majority advise is leave it on continuous.
Another £15 saved back to EBay to see what I can spend it on.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Buy a good charger and leave it on 24/7.

I've got a 0.8 amp optimate 2 on our leisure battery. It floats the battery at 13.4v so slightly less as is in line with the latest advice from the battery manufacturers.
It isn't capable of getting the battery hot if there is a fault like shorted cell and it automatically 'rests' the battery every half hour. When I look at the battery monitor, if it's charging it's only usually on 0.1 amps

 

[two]

I charge mine once a month (manually).
I have a number of monthly tasks and try to do them all on 1st of each month.

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[Nasher]

I have an outdoor socket & about once a month I hook up overnight

That way the leisure battery gets a full charge and the Battery Master gives a bit to the cab battery (discount for battery master if you're a paid up member of this site)

In all honesty, it'll probably be fine if I didn't, I think that being retired makes me over think things!

 

[Deneb]

Buy a good charger and leave it on 24/7.

I've got a 0.8 amp optimate 2 on our leisure battery. It floats the battery at 13.4v so slightly less as is in line with the latest advice from the battery manufacturers.
It isn't capable of getting the battery hot if there is a fault like shorted cell and it automatically 'rests' the battery every half hour. When I look at the battery monitor, if it's charging it's only usually on 0.1 amps

I used to use optimates on my classic cars, that spent most of their time parked up. Despite the manufacturer's claims, I found that left permanently connected they got through batteries every 2 - 3 years by either boiling off the cells or sulphating. I changed to just giving the batteries a boost charge once a month and the batteries were still going strong at 6 and 8 years old when I sold the cars.

We also used them on our (police) motorcycle fleet and the batteries were forever boiling dry.

 

[Richard n Ann]

I used to use optimates on my classic cars, that spent most of their time parked up. Despite the manufacturer's claims, I found that left permanently connected they got through batteries every 2 - 3 years by either boiling off the cells or sulphating. I changed to just giving the batteries a boost charge once a month and the batteries were still going strong at 6 and 8 years old when I sold the cars.

We also used them on our (police) motorcycle fleet and the batteries were forever boiling dry.

Wow, must have been a bad batch. My oldest optimate is the old optimate 3 and I've had that since 2001,never had to replace a battery again. It's been on a ZX6R, caravan, Defender, scooter and now the 390 Duke.

At 800ma max I don't think it's capable of doing any boiling, I know some are bigger.

 

[Lot lover]

Low tech is the answer imho. I have a post-it note on the side of the freezer indoors and plug/unplug the battery charger as required.

Plus another post-it as a reminder of course. And so on ad infinitum.

 

[Vipar]

Thanks for all your suggestions

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[Masman]

Mines on charge 24/7.First battery lasted 12 years.This ones done 4 year's and seems ok.Admittedly I use sites with hook up. And only wild around six times a year for 4 days at a time.But never had a flat battery. I o ly have one battery and no solar.

 

[Off da Grid]

Don’t bother with digital timers most of them can’t handle motors or inductive loads.
Some also can’t handle big transformers such as battery chargers when their switched on as you get a large spike that kills the electronics in the timer.
The old fashioned mechanical timers last for years.