[ninja_geezer]

Do any of you charge/top-up your battery especially in these very cold periods ?
if so what do you use and can you overcharge the battery ?
i ask as i do a lot of very short journeys daily with all the usual heated seat steering wheel ect.

[ILikeBimmers]

Originally Posted by ninja_geezer

Do any of you charge/top-up your battery especially in these very cold periods ?
if so what do you use and can you overcharge the battery ?
i ask as i do a lot of very short journeys daily with all the usual heated seat steering wheel ect.

No I do not top off my battery in the winter. You can overcharge your battery, but any halfway decent battery charger is going to prevent this from happening. It shouldn't be that big of a deal that you use all your heating functionality in the seats and steering wheel as you're probably using this when your car is on meaning that your alternator will be charging the battery.

That being said, it's not going to hurt anything to keep your car plugged in. If you're looking for some chargers, the BMW branded chargers just appear to be rebranded CTEK chargers, which can be had for much cheaper that the OEM.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by ninja_geezer

Do any of you charge/top-up your battery especially in these very cold periods ?
if so what do you use and can you overcharge the battery ?
i ask as i do a lot of very short journeys daily with all the usual heated seat steering wheel ect.

No. Like auto stop/ start. Just let the car do its thing.

[ninja_geezer]

Originally Posted by Pentland

No. Like auto stop/ start. Just let the car do its thing.

i dont have stop start i killed it with bimmercode lol.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by ninja_geezer

Do any of you charge/top-up your battery especially in these very cold periods ?
if so what do you use and can you overcharge the battery ?
i ask as i do a lot of very short journeys daily with all the usual heated seat steering wheel ect.

My situation has been for years that I had no way to use a battery maintainer/charger to keep car batteries topped up over winter and the resulting lack of regular use.

Some cars -- Hellcat and Scat Pack to name two -- manifested odd behavior due to the battery getting low due to lack of regular use.

My solution was to weather permitting to drive the car and enough to top up the battery.

I'm no car battery expert but I suspect over charging the battery is possible -- selecting a too high a voltage or too high a charging current -- but with a good battery charger/maintainer and with the ability to let you select a safe charge voltage and charging current and maybe even as an extra bit of protection being able to sense the battery is fully charged and reduce or even stop charging altogether.

Were I to have to buy a battery charger I'd certainly search for one that would provide settings that would not over charge the battery and ideally would be able to sense an over charge and suspend charging.

Last but not least a charger that was spec'd to correctly charge the 12V battery type: Lead/acid (wet), AGM, and even possibly lithium ion.