We offer some expert advice on getting your car battery ready for winter

With colder weather just around the corner, now’s the time for us to get ourselves and our cars ready for the winter - including, say vehicle charging specialists CTEK, making sure our car batteries are in tip top condition.

We may think about checking the car’s oil, brakes, washer fluid and heater, but the humble car battery is often overlooked in our winter preparations. But a few simple checks and a regular maintenance regime is all that’s needed to give you peace of mind that your battery is fit and ready to keep you safely out on the road this season.

It’s especially important this year too, as many car batteries will already have been placed under additional strain during the Covid restrictions; with increased home working and lots of short trips, we are likely to have drained our car batteries more than usual without us even knowing it.

An inactive car battery will lose 0.1V of energy every month and, if your parked car is also running an alarm system, onboard computer, remote locking etc, the continual drain on the battery will be much more than that. Nipping out on lots of short journeys, particularly in urban areas, also drains the battery, as it takes 150-350A of battery power just to start the car, and on short trips the alternator won’t have the time or capability to replace this charge. 

This is especially so if your car has a ‘stop/start’ function. In fact, if you’ve noticed your ‘stop/start’ hasn’t been kicking in lately, this may be because your battery isn’t sufficiently charged, as your car will gradually turn off ‘non essential’ functions to focus the remaining battery charge on keeping the engine turning.

But there’s no need to worry about being left out in the cold this winter, click here to take a look at our expert tips and you’ll be all set for carefree motoring, wherever you want to go! 

Click here to download a press release about winter charging