Battery kill switch to avoid gremlin power drain - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Tony H · #1 08-16-2021, 12:48 AM

I have the same issue with our Honda Odyssey. I traced the drain to a single fuse but that circuit splits to many modules such as keyless entry, clock, power doors-seats, etc, etc and I would need to remove the interior to troubleshoot-not worth it. It can go for about 2 weeks before it won't start. I never understood why it needed a new battery every few years but the drain was ruining the battery by it being partially discharged all the time. My solution is a battery tender plugged into the ceiling with the plug hidden in the grill. Problem with battery disconnect is a lot of things need to be relearned everytime.

cmac2012 · #2 08-16-2021, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony H

I have the same issue with our Honda Odyssey. I traced the drain to a single fuse but that circuit splits to many modules such as keyless entry, clock, power doors-seats, etc, etc and I would need to remove the interior to troubleshoot-not worth it. It can go for about 2 weeks before it won't start. I never understood why it needed a new battery every few years but the drain was ruining the battery by it being partially discharged all the time. My solution is a battery tender plugged into the ceiling with the plug hidden in the grill. Problem with battery disconnect is a lot of things need to be relearned everytime.

That could be a winner for my client. He often uses one of those jump packs, not sure the proper name, about as big as a small briefcase. And he says he often has to jump it when he wants to come home from some short trip. I explained that the trip wasn’t long enough to charge the battery. With that and the killswitch his main complaint was opening the hood over and over. Like I said, he’s 81 and one arm is weak lately.

I have a battery charger that I can fit under the hood after some hoop jumping. But I recall seeing some in the past that were pretty small. If it’s just a no bells and whistles two amp charger, to guess at a number, I imagine it could be pretty small.

How do you hook it to the battery terminals?

tbomachines · #3 08-17-2021, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

That could be a winner for my client. He often uses one of those jump packs, not sure the proper name, about as big as a small briefcase. And he says he often has to jump it when he wants to come home from some short trip. I explained that the trip wasn’t long enough to charge the battery. With that and the killswitch his main complaint was opening the hood over and over. Like I said, he’s 81 and one arm is weak lately.

I have a battery charger that I can fit under the hood after some hoop jumping. But I recall seeing some in the past that were pretty small. If it’s just a no bells and whistles two amp charger, to guess at a number, I imagine it could be pretty small.

How do you hook it to the battery terminals?

Mine just had generic loop terminals in a lead, which has a waterproof plug on the other end. I was able to just stack the loop terminals on top of my batt terminal bolts, and the negavtive goes to a nearby body ground (or negative terminal if you can't find one). Then it has the small waterproof plug you put the tender on. I have the leads on my car permanantly and just plu/unplug the tender from it when parked, which is always plugged in the wall. The tender came with traditional squeeze clamps too, but that would not be a good solution here. I think this would be a very good solution for the situation stated in the OP. Relays and cutoffs seem like way too much of an error-prone and tedious workaround.

cmac2012 · #4 08-17-2021, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbomachines

Mine just had generic loop terminals in a lead, which has a waterproof plug on the other end. I was able to just stack the loop terminals on top of my batt terminal bolts, and the negavtive goes to a nearby body ground (or negative terminal if you can't find one). Then it has the small waterproof plug you put the tender on. I have the leads on my car permanantly and just plu/unplug the tender from it when parked, which is always plugged in the wall. The tender came with traditional squeeze clamps too, but that would not be a good solution here. I think this would be a very good solution for the situation stated in the OP. Relays and cutoffs seem like way too much of an error-prone and tedious workaround.

I figured it must be something like that. The squeeze clamps really would not work of course. The charger I use most of the time is a little too busy. It has a gauge and an idiot light to tell you when you’re connected. One time I had had it on all night and just unplugged it the next morning at the outlet as I was in a hurry. Mistake. The idiot light and other features drained the battery absent 110V input.