Fitting a battery conditioner... Do's and Don'ts

[Rupes]

On the car battery, are you disconnecting the nut(s) with a standard plastic wrench? When the nut nears the pointing of being totally unscrewed, can you finish unscrewing with your fingers?

Super basic, I know, but I don’t want to electrocute myself.

 

[mande110]

On the car battery, are you disconnecting the nut(s) with a standard plastic wrench? When the nut nears the pointing of being totally unscrewed, can you finish unscrewing with your fingers?

Super basic, I know, but I don’t want to electrocute myself.

Should alleviate your concerns

 

[Lear88]

Sorry for some idiotic questions, but I really have no idea about car electrics. Some advice is much appreciated here...

I would like to permanently install the eyelets end of my CTEK charger cable to the battery. If I remove the cables going to the battery, would I lose all setting in the car, like the connection to my phone? I can live with that but just want to know if disconnecting the cables from the terminals causes any other issues.

Negative terminal first, right?

 

[Rupes]

Should alleviate your concerns

Definitely alleviates all concerns. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nick Sticks]

Sorry for some idiotic questions, but I really have no idea about car electrics. Some advice is much appreciated here...

I would like to permanently install the eyelets end of my CTEK charger cable to the battery. If I remove the cables going to the battery, would I lose all setting in the car, like the connection to my phone? I can live with that but just want to know if disconnecting the cables from the terminals causes any other issues.

Negative terminal first, right?

You don't need to remove the cables to fit the CTEK charger cable. Just undo each nut and connect the correct CTEK terminal one at a time, that's the way I did it. There are a few ways to route the cables, the positive (red) is the one that needs to be done carefully so that the plastic cover does not foul it. After that routing the cable into the boot bypassing the battery cover. I found having the cable coming out in the corner at the top the best.

 

[Lear88]

Thanks everyone for the tips, worked like a charm. Plastic cover came off no problem, only had to drill open the diameter of the eyelets a little. Fixed them under the rear nuts, routed the positive cable out through one of the holes of the plastic cover and out of the top of the main cover.

Noticed that the negative battery terminal was almost coming off, so good for checking there.

Alex

 

[Time2Fly]

Installed the CTEK Comfort Indicator into my battery cover. Works great and not intrusive at all.

 

[Andrea]

Installed the CTEK Comfort Indicator into my battery cover. Works great and not intrusive at all.
View attachment 50507

VEry very interesting, thanks!!!!

 

[VT24SEP]

On the car battery, are you disconnecting the nut(s) with a standard plastic wrench? When the nut nears the pointing of being totally unscrewed, can you finish unscrewing with your fingers?

Super basic, I know, but I don’t want to electrocute myself.

If you think that is basic, I couldn't even get the plastic casing around battery off to access the nut to even start on the screws.

Didn't want to break it .
Any ideas welcome .

 

[Rupes]

If you think that is basic, I couldn't even get the plastic casing around battery off to access the nut to even start on the screws.

Didn't want to break it .
Any ideas welcome .

There are two latches on the front of the plastic casing that hold it into place. Once these are loosened (no tools required), the whole unit just pops off pretty easily in one piece.

 

[Lotus Fanboy]

Installed the CTEK Comfort Indicator into my battery cover. Works great and not intrusive at all.
View attachment 50507

The downside is that the cover is now connected to the battery, right?
There is no quick disconnect for the cable?
Thanks
Marc

 

[Beachbum]

I installed the NOCO adapter at the weekend. Getting the cover off the Red terminal the most annoying aspect of it all and then trying to work out how to feed the cable out through the cover.
In the end was pretty simple, but took a good 10mins to work it out
The main cover that hides the entire battery doesnt fit too well afterwards, but its good enough

 

[netsinah]

In case it helps anyone, here's a screen shot of page 250 from the Emira Owner's Handbook, indicating how to temporarily hook up a battery tender, rather than fitting "permanent connections" which looks to be the focus of this thread so far.

 

[Time2Fly]

The downside is that the cover is now connected to the battery, right?
There is no quick disconnect for the cable?
Thanks
Marc

There is a quick disconnect via pulling the two blade connectors. Very simple.

 

[Andrea]

Installed the CTEK Comfort Indicator into my battery cover. Works great and not intrusive at all.
View attachment 50507

Done that last Friday; very easy install and the result is incredibly clean an neat, looks like almost OEM!

Thanks for sharing!

The only “issue” is that it shows an amber light even after only one day of parking and when I’ve installed it, it has been parked for two weeks before the job, it showed red light but….no problems at all with the battery in either cases! The car just turned on like a charm!

Weird

 

[Time2Fly]

Done that last Friday; very easy install and the result is incredibly clean an neat, looks like almost OEM!

Thanks for sharing!

The only “issue” is that it shows an amber light even after only one day of parking and when I’ve installed it, it has been parked for two weeks before the job, it showed red light but….no problems at all with the battery in either cases! The car just turned on like a charm!

Weird

That is weird. Mine shows green even after not charging for a week. My battery is an antigravity lithium though.

 

[Nick Sticks]

Done that last Friday; very easy install and the result is incredibly clean an neat, looks like almost OEM!

Thanks for sharing!

The only “issue” is that it shows an amber light even after only one day of parking and when I’ve installed it, it has been parked for two weeks before the job, it showed red light but….no problems at all with the battery in either cases! The car just turned on like a charm!

Weird

You might get an amber light after one day if the battery wasn't fully charged previously.
CTEK info:

• Red: means the battery charge is below 12.4 V. It’s definitely time to charge the battery.
• Yellow: means the battery charge is between 12.4 and 12.65 V. It’s time to start thinking about charging the battery.
• Green: means the battery charge is more than 12.65 V. OK! No need for charging.

The above numbers maybe cautious as far as warning people about the ability of the battery to start the engine.
Do you have any method of checking the voltage of your battery to see if it correlates with CTEK?

The Emira manual states:
Starting difficulties may be experienced after an unused period of 18 days approximately.

 

[Beachbum]

I installed the NOCO adapter at the weekend. Getting the cover off the Red terminal the most annoying aspect of it all and then trying to work out how to feed the cable out through the cover.
In the end was pretty simple, but took a good 10mins to work it out
The main cover that hides the entire battery doesnt fit too well afterwards, but its good enough

So, using it for the first time today, a test prior to actually needing to use it in about 3 weeks time.
Connected the NOCO 5 up, perfectly ok, but the lights on the trickle charger show only the first light lite i.e. the red one. Seems a tad low, as the car is being regularly used currently for moderately long journeys e.g. 40+ miles.

Anyone know if the NOCO's are that sensitive to a drop in voltage, or maybe I have a duff chgarger, or possibly god forbid a bad bettery

 

[scc.131.fe]

So, using it for the first time today, a test prior to actually needing to use it in about 3 weeks time.
Connected the NOCO 5 up, perfectly ok, but the lights on the trickle charger show only the first light lite i.e. the red one. Seems a tad low, as the car is being regularly used currently for moderately long journeys e.g. 40+ miles.

Anyone know if the NOCO's are that sensitive to a drop in voltage, or maybe I have a duff chgarger, or possibly god forbid a bad bettery

Do you have another car that you can try the charger on?

I'm pretty sure that my Emira has a good battery. What I've been meaning to test and might get to within the next few days, is to fully charge the battery so that the Lotus-provided charger shows full. Then turn on the headlights for 5 minutes, turn them off (make sure the car is off) and see if the voltage drop on the battery is substantial or insignificant. Several people that I trust in the automotive repair business use this simple test to see if the battery has issues.

 

[Pdl2thmdl]

Does anyone know if the CTEK comfort connect indicators are compatible with the Lotus provided Deltran Battery Tender?