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Are you staying at home most of the time these days due to the Coronavirus pandemic?
If so, you need to take precautions to prevent your car’s battery from going dead while the car sits idle in your driveway or garage.
I was reminded of this just this morning when I read a post by one of my friends on Facebook.
It turns out that she had only made two or three short car trips during the past couple of months.
She tried starting the car this morning to drive to the grocery store only to discover that the battery was dead.
And we all know what a bummer that can be!
Luckily, this is a very easy problem to prevent…
All you need to do is keep your car’s battery connected to an inexpensive trickle charger while the car is sitting idle for more than a few days at a time.
In a nutshell, a trickle charger will monitor the gradual reduction of the battery’s charge and supply just enough current when needed to keep the battery topped off at full charge.
What’s more, if you get one with a “float” mode you can leave it connected the entire time between infrequent drives!
These chargers are quite inexpensive, very safe, and easy for most anyone to use.
For example, the charger I have plugs into the car’s accessory power receptacle (what used to be called the “cigarette lighter” receptacle) so there’s no chance of connecting it the wrong way.
But even if you connect it directly to the battery and accidentally reverse the polarity you won’t damage the battery because it has reverse polarity protection.
Bottom line: If you’re only driving your car every now and then and/or just for short distances, there’s a good chance its battery will eventually die on you.
You can easily prevent that however simply by keeping it connected to a trickle charger!
And now, to finish up, here’s a short video discussing 10 things every car owner should know in order to keep their car running smoothly and avoid expensive repairs. Check it out!
Note: As always, you can watch the video at full screen by clicking the “square” icon that will pop up in the lower-right corner of the video after it begins playing.