LIDL car stuff

[blackbird]

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl ... date=35167

 

[Danblez]

Be careful of that car charger as it wont charge flat batteries only if they are something like 10v.

[ashmicro]

Despite being part The U.K., Lidl in Northern Ireland only do the Republic of Ireland offers. Who won the bloody war anyway?

[Timewaster]

Be careful of that car charger as it wont charge flat batteries only if they are something like 10v.

 

I discovererd that the Sip charger I decided to splash out and treat myself to - won't charge a flat battery!

WTF is the point in a charger that will only charge slightly flat batteries?

[Des]

Do be aware that the rather good warranty with Lidl stuff, where if it goes wrong, you phone a number on the box and a german takes your address and sends out a replacement is no more. It's now a UK call centre of experts in fobbing off.

I've bought a Lidl charger in the past, and then an Aldi one because it had an lcd voltmeter, both went wrong, but easily fixed, a poor solder joint on one and the switch being dodgy on the other. The deep discharge pulse thing really does work incredibly well, will pull a miracle on a dying battery.

[Alexg]

Despite being part The U.K., Lidl in Northern Ireland only do the Republic of Ireland offers. Who won the bloody war anyway?

 

That was one of the more major concessions during the N.I. peace process.

[ashmicro]

Despite being part The U.K., Lidl in Northern Ireland only do the Republic of Ireland offers. Who won the bloody war anyway?

 

That was one of the more major concessions during the N.I. peace process.

 

I wouldn't be surprised.

[Danblez]

Be careful of that car charger as it wont charge flat batteries only if they are something like 10v.

 

I discovererd that the Sip charger I decided to splash out and treat myself to - won't charge a flat battery!

WTF is the point in a charger that will only charge slightly flat batteries?

 

I asked exactly the same question when I phoned up to complain. Unsurprisingly he couldn't answer my question.

[Steve_RS]

Be careful of that car charger as it wont charge flat batteries only if they are something like 10v.

 

I discovererd that the Sip charger I decided to splash out and treat myself to - won't charge a flat battery!

WTF is the point in a charger that will only charge slightly flat batteries?

 

A lot of cheapo car battery chargers wont charge a flat battery.

 

My cheapo charger didnt want to... (however it is about 15 years old and was incredibly cheap.)

 

You have to use a bit of 'auto-electric-shite' ingenuity with these things....

 

Get one rusty 30 year-old round file (or any other small shaft of steel you can find) the thicker the better.

(Dont use aluminium or brass rod - it must be a metal thats able to stick to a magnet, with ferrous properties)

Get one or two metres of suitable cable (look for some thats about the same thickness as your battery charger leads)

 

Leave yourself a bit of slack cable (6 inch or so), then wrap the rest of the cable around the file (or shaft of metal) - so that you coil the wire around the shaft of metal.

Bit like a spring. It doesn't matter if your cable overlaps itself. Just keep coiling... (You're aiming for at least 50 coils or more!)

 

You can hum the 'mission:impossible' theme tune while doing this if you wish.

 

When you start running out of cable, leave another bit of slack at the end (another 6 inch or so).

 

Do not take the coil off the rod of metal. You need both parts to make this work.

 

Now for the exciting bit. -

Connect one end of your homemade coil to the positive lead on your charger.

Connect the other end of your homemade coil to the positive terminal on your battery. (Use a nut & bolt to make it a tight connection)

Connect the negative lead of the charger to the battery as normal.

Flick the charger on at the wall

 

Hey presto - your shite charger will now charge a flat battery! Magic.

 

(*NOTE: Your coil is very likely to get warm and possibly vibrate slightly - this is normal) - its quite nice to hold in your hand at wintertime.

(*NOTE: The rod of metal that the wire is wrapped around will become magnetic when you flick the charger on - this is normal)

 

Leave the battery on charge for an hour or two to put a fair amount of charge in there, then remove the coil from the circuit

(connect the charger as originally intended) to continue charging.

[DSdriver]

Wow, someone on Autoshite who actually paid attention during physics lessons.

[Steve_RS]

Wow, someone on Autoshite who actually paid attention during physics lessons.

 

Nope, school should not be praised for this one... - my dad taught me this trick.

Gave me a full lesson on inductors at the time.

(He's a f'king legend at 'fixing' things and random knowledge like this)

 

In true autoshite style, the man still runs a homemade valve amp as his hifi equipment.

Sounds awesome, too.

 

Also, he's the only person i know that's successfully skimmed a head off a sierra, on the kitchen table, using a large file.

Bolted it back on and it run real good afterwards. He got 250,000miles outta that beast.

And it still wasnt dead when he replaced it with a citroen BX TD. (With the funky suspension)

 

I really should get him signed up on here...