Quote:
Originally Posted by jonahk
My service advisor said I didn't need a dedicated lithium charger if I was going through the charge point in the engine bay - Reason being the car's 12v system handles the load properly. The only situation where you need a dedicated charger is if you are going directly to the battery which he said wasn't the recommended process on these newer cars.
Anyone else heard this advice?
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I've heard this explanation for charging. This might cause confusion because a terminology issue where battery chargers and battery maintainers mean slightly different things. Battery chargers are to be attached to the car for a short time while the battery is charged to some level. Battery maintainers are meant to keep the battery charged at some preferred level over a longer period of time.
Battery chargers might charge at a constant voltage whereas battery maintainers do not. For the lead-acid batteries, sometimes those maintainers might go through the battery reconditioning steps with varying charge profiles which aren't ideal for a lithium battery. It's not going to destroy the battery, but might reduce battery capacity in extreme examples.
So a constant voltage regular battery charger hooked up to the lithium battery through the engine bay would be fine, but only temporarily. The lithium battery maintainers would be the ones to get to safely keep attached to the car long term. Things I've read about lithium batteries in general is that long term storage of them should keep it charged to 50%, but I'm not sure if car lithium battery maintainers keep it that low.