TheRedSnifit
Member
https://www.wsj.com/articles/long-term-parking-can-kill-your-battery-heres-the-solution-1505426532
Keep this in mind next time you go on vacation, guys. Don't be like me!
While their owners are flying off to visit friends and family, tens of thousands of automobiles will be left waiting in airport parking lots. Some of these travelers will return to discover their cars' batteries are dead. Welcome home. Here's a set of jumper cables.
Why? Modern cars consume electricity even when they are seemingly dormant: GPS systems, proximity sensors, antitheft systems, data links and automatic vehicle-condition ”polling" all draw on the battery. The question: How long can you leave a tech-heavy car parked before the battery dies?
One reader of this column left his 2017 Mercedes-Benz S550 Cabriolet at the airport for nine days. When he returned, the battery was completely dead, not even enough juice to activate the door locks.
Before he bought the Benz, our correspondent considered purchasing a Ford Expedition and Toyota Sequoia SUV. Out of curiosity, he called the Ford dealer to ask how long one could leave an Expedition parked before the battery died. ”No more than five days, maybe nine if the battery is new," he was told. A Toyota dealer said the Sequoia could go two weeks before the battery goes flat.
The worst-case scenarios are grim. If the roadside-assistance truck can't get it going again, the car will have to be dragged on locked wheels up a flatbed trailer and unloaded at the service center the same way. And if a lead-acid battery is repeatedly exhausted, it will no longer hold a charge. It will brick.
So be kind to batteries, and be prepared. You have three options: the aforementioned jumper cables, which typically cost under $20; a portable jump starter or battery booster, like the Cobra Jumpack CPP 7500 ($150, cobra.com), which are small enough to fit in a glovebox; or a plug-in trickle charger/conditioner that maintains optimal battery charge while the car is parked, such as a CTEK MUS 4.3 ($120, smartercharger.com).
This fall, give the gift of electrons.
Keep this in mind next time you go on vacation, guys. Don't be like me!