With the Cayman, does it matter which connection to use for the Porsche battery maintainer? I know from previous posts that the air compressor, for example, is to be used only with the cig. lighter socket...I asked my local Porsche dealer's service dept. and they said either cig. lighter socket OR 12v. accessory outlets could be used but the latter are "preferable"...owner's manual advises using the accessory socket for all "electronics"...what to do? Thanks.
I have mine plugged into the lighter port, more for convenience than anything. It's been sitting like that for four months
and seems happy enough.
The dealer told me just to plug it in the counsel socket, its been plugged in since october with no problems, lights still come on when i open the doors, no lock up or anything experienced at this end.
I plug mine into the side socket above the Sub, as instructed by my dealer?
So far so good, no problems & the car starts everytime even after months of sitting in the garage.
I bought mine from Porsche and the directions I believe say to use lighter port.
Either one will be fine since the trickle charger gives out very low current (amp) to maintain the battery. But connect to the lighter plug would be the safest choice.
edited for typos
Me too. In fact, I first plugged it into the cigarrette lighter and it didnt light up but I probably didnt push it in all the way.
Its works fine in the console plug. Used it a lot the last month.
You guys that are using the Power outlet in the car to trickle charge the battery, do you leave the charger in your car while charging or is the lead long enough to leave the charger outside the car.
I was concerned about leaving it inside the car unattended for long periods of time. I ended up connecting it to the battery directly with the leads supplied with the charger and leaving the charger outside the car.
Outside. Shut the door and dont lock it so the alarm is not set. I just put it on the driveway if its not wet. If wet, I put it on a little stool raised although the Porsche unit clearly states thats its water resistant or something like that.
Because the battery maintainer puts out only an amp or so, any outlet will do. Heavier loads, like a compressor, need a higher amp fuse, as in the lighter. Just a niggling point - the old 'trickle chargers' would eventually boil a bettery dry, because they never shut off, only trickled. The maintainers put out a low amp flow also, but only until the battery is fully charged, then they shut off. An important distinction.
Marty
The Boothe and Porsche one don't actually shut off completely. I think it detect a voltage drop it just sends a pulse to "maintain" the charge and that is what your talking about. The Porsche unit is also 3 amps but thats well under the fuse limit.
There was talk here that the battery maintainers can improve batter life by 10% or more - in my case I use a regular charger connected to a timer - each day it turns itself on for 2hr. I have done this on my previous cars and it works well, but I suspect the newest generation of battery maintainers does a better job.
I use the center console socket, and check the voltage from time to time with a digital voltmeter and it reads about 12.75V with the charger off.
