I will not be driving my Cayman S for 14 days. It will be garaged but not alarmed. Should I put a battery tender on or not? Thanks
There are many, many treads on this including a recent one where a member measured the draw on the battery when locked and un-locked and found very little difference. At the same time some people have had batteries run down in a few weeks time of inactivity. That is "probably because of not starting with a fully charged battery. What ever you do make sure no gadgets are plugged in and the key is removed. To be safe I recommend the tender. Want to take a chance then no. Search for battery and battery tender for much, much more.
i vote yes. although jumping it is not all that difficult.
Any time that I am not planning on driving my car for more than 5 days, I hook up the battery tender plus. Lead acid batteries last longer if they don't get the opportunity to deep cycle too many times.
Leave hood opened to allow easy jump start, and leave it unplugged. Good test. I left mine outside for 10 days, did not think twice about starting it. Worked fine.
For OP: Use the tender, it's easy insurance.
So, Tomasz, thinking about your good tip, I went down this weird mental rabbit hole about whether leaving the hood unlocked, but sitting waiting for finger latch use, would cause the light to come on and thus make the hood unlocking lead to a dead battery, which would then be easier to jump. It's like the light in the fridge--are you sure it goes off when you close the door? How do you know? Have you really crammed yourself into a fridge to test? Yes, even as a child, I pushed the light switch button on the edge of the fridge, but I never climbed in.... Of course today, these things are a lot easier to test. Take your videocamera, start recording, leave it in the fridge and see what happens. Maybe I'll post that....
Sorry for the weird aside.
Wait a minute--why leave the hood open to jump the battery? I seem to recall my sales guy showing me a short cable in the box by your left leg to which you connect the pos and then the negative to something on the frame. Wouldn't need the hood open for that.
*** Shouldn't be a problem. I just let my 07 CS sit outside,locked & covered, for 10 days while I was in Europe. Started up strong at 40 degrees F.
FWIW, I've left my CS locked for 2 wks without any problems, although I started w/a fully charged battery.
True, but you may lose radio codes and other settings.
If left on, the hood light (as well as other interior lights) will time out to prevent a dead battery. I have left the hood, door or hatch open for extended periods a number of times while working on the car, getting a phone call, etc. No harm since Dr. Porsche planned for that situation.
Actually, not a cable, but a pull out connector. That connection is only to activate the hood release to access the dead battery, NOT to charge the battery.
Extend Your Battery's Life
I don't know how many of our readers are aware of this fact, but batteries begin their slow death from the moment the acid is introduced to the lead plates and the electrons start flowing. Every moment of a batteries life, it is producing sulfates and it is sulfates that ultimately short out your battery rendering it as "shot" or "dead". Recurring deep discharges or annually allowing your battery's voltage to drop ("get weak" or "go dead") creates much larger amounts of the sulfates to form more quickly on the batteries lead plates and precipitate like a snowfall to the bottom of the battery.
If anybody has been driving for a number of years, I'm sure that they have once or twice inadvertently left parking lights, glove box door or etc. energized only to return to their vehicle one or two hours later and be surprised to find a "weak" or "dead" battery. You may have noted that the same battery (when new) would have tolerated such acts of forgetfulness with no problem but now that the battery is aging (sulfate build-up) it is losing its capacity.
There is a wonderfully simple to install, inexpensive and peace-of-mind producing product that I use on my families, my business truck and my Cayman S (six vehicles). This device will preserve and extend your "like new" battery performance for double or triple the normal battery life. For just a fraction of the cost of a new battery ($59.95), you can keep your battery cranking strong at "like new output", prevent the inconvenience of an unexpected battery failure and also protect the environment by saving all of the energy required to recycle/manufacture two additional batteries.
For winter storage, just leave the Battery Life Saver installed and use any battery maintenance charger and a conventional household timer that cycles the trickle charger on for a period of time then off for the same period of time repeatedly. This will keep your battery strong as new for maybe a decade.
Regards,
Joe
