Aldi battery power pack dissapointment.

[melodymaker]

I bought one of those Aldi Power packs for the security of being able to start a flat battery. My Peugeot 106 has some kind of fault that drains the battery and is intermittent. What happens is sometimes when you take out the ignition keys, the fan or other electrical device will carry on working. The Power pack should have no problem starting a flat battery (a new one at that) but it didn't. It failed to even turn it over.

The light on the power pack indicated "Good" which is full power. I attached the neutral to the car body and of course the live to the live battery terminal. I know it was working as sparks came off the neutral clip when I attached to the body.

Even the 15v charger adapter no longer works so I have to now charge it with a 12 v spare I have.

Anyone think it's a duff pack ?

 

[wotan]

I think you are expecting too much, a battery pack like the Aldi power pack, will not start a car with a flat battery, it's only intended as a booster.

 

[gregers]

woton it will i had 1 and it started a tdi zafira no probs,even started a 2ltr petrol galaxy,
melodymaker
i too have this problem i even emailed the makers of the machine,guess what.....THEY DIDNT BOTHER RESPONDING.
so i took into work so our physics technician(boff)could take a looksie,turns out the battery pack is fubared,ive looked on ebay and it seems they are going for silly money,so im now looking at buying another 1,

1 thing that this guy at my work said,is THEY have to be kept fully charged or they discharge and crystalize and basically stop working,hth.

 

[melodymaker]

It's still working the lights and the compressor. How will I know if it has crystallized ?

 

[gregers]

well most rechargable batterys apperently will do this,
yours might be just come loose on the charging point,take the thing apart if you feel confident enough to do it.

 

[melodymaker]

It works with another charger that's 12v so it isn't the pack's charger point that's faulty, just the adapter.

 

[TicklyT]

......Even the 15v charger adapter no longer works so I have to now charge it with a 12 v spare I have.....

Is your replacement 12 Volt charger enough to charge a 12 Volt battery?

A healthy '12 Volt' batteries usually have an open circuit voltage of something like 13.6 Volts, so require at least 14 Volts or so to charge them - that's why the original charger was rated at 15 Volts.

The battery voltage only drops to 12 volts on full load, or when the battery is just about flat.

 

[timtheenchanter]

you need 14.4 volts to fully charge a 12V battery, a full 12V is actually 12.6 if a 12V battery is actually at 12V, its just about flat.

 

[marb]

This is now dead. It has been in a cupboard and must have had the on switch knocked by mistake hence no power. I have charged it with an adapter set at 12 v for about a full day and not a bit of power.

What can I do to get it working again please ?

 

[Burnerman]

Its junk now, mate - any normal battery left in an uncharged state has had it.
John

 

[marb]

Bt it cost me nearly £30. There must be something I can do to get it back to life

 

[Burnerman]

Seriously I would doubt it.....if it has the traditional lead battery inside, these chemically change when allowed to fully discharge and they won't recover.
Some specialised intelligent battery chargers claim that they can recover things like this but in this case its a no go, unfortunately.
John

 

[marb]

Oh well, you live and learn. Bin fodder it is then

 

[gregers]

well i had a result with mine,someone at work threw out a battery pack,took the thing apart lo and behold found it was 2 batteries linked,split them.tested them.charged 1 up held charge put it in my booster hey presto all A OK.
lucky for me it was the same ampedge of the orriginal battery.