Hi,
After my wifes recent issues with the FBH flattening the battery, I looked into jump-packs that would start the car if it happened again but the costs quickly rose on the packs to about £85 for a great one but when I spoke to the manufacturer, they said it would probably not touch the 3.6 TDV8. The local AA man claims he started the car with a 400Amp pack but hey.
I therefore took the advice of a member of this parish and bought a CTEK battery conditioner with the aim of giving her a charge weekly - seems a great bit of kit. Can not get it to charge through the cigarette lighter though.
Anyhow my one came in at about £40.
Next week Lidl (dont laugh) have a battery charger that looks very similar, does very similar things and only costs £12.99. Worth a punt?
Kind regards,
Ed '96 Volkswagen Polo 1.4CL - SOLD
'00 Audi A3 1.8T - SOLD
'97 Lotus Esprit V8 - SOLD
'03 BMW M3 - SOLD
'93 Range Rover 3.9 Vogue SE - SOLD
'92 Peugeot 205 GRD - DIED
'99 BMW 540i Touring - SOLD
'94 Peugeot 405 GDRT - SOLD
'00 Peugeot 406 HDI estate - 63mpg! - SOLD
'08 Range Rover TDV8 Vogue SE - SOLD
'11 Skoda Fabia Greenline II - 94.2mpg!- SOLD
'07 E61 BMW 530d msport touring - SOLD
‘20 Tesla Model 3 SR+
‘20 Tesla Model 3 Performance

goes up to 120amps so it'll do the RR battery so it sounds ok....

The cigarette lighters shut down after a few minutes of the ign being off.

The manual and workshop manual also warn against plugging anything other than the cigarette lighters into these sockets. If you want to plug accessories in it says to use the socket in the boot or in the cubby box... I don't know if these shut down or not.

Have you thought about installing a second smaller battery? Apparently LR have though of this and there are mounting points in the boot if you lift out the right hand storage bin. You can then tap into the thick positive cable that goes into the rear fuse-board. This combo would be cheaper than a booster pack.

I have a small booster pack but it needs charging monthly, as its left in the cold car or the cold garage the batteries don't like it.

Dan 

Dan - you are a genius - I'll look into it but I had not noticed the area - what capacity battery would I need purely as an emergency starter?
Kind regards,
Ed '96 Volkswagen Polo 1.4CL - SOLD
'00 Audi A3 1.8T - SOLD
'97 Lotus Esprit V8 - SOLD
'03 BMW M3 - SOLD
'93 Range Rover 3.9 Vogue SE - SOLD
'92 Peugeot 205 GRD - DIED
'99 BMW 540i Touring - SOLD
'94 Peugeot 405 GDRT - SOLD
'00 Peugeot 406 HDI estate - 63mpg! - SOLD
'08 Range Rover TDV8 Vogue SE - SOLD
'11 Skoda Fabia Greenline II - 94.2mpg!- SOLD
'07 E61 BMW 530d msport touring - SOLD
‘20 Tesla Model 3 SR+
‘20 Tesla Model 3 Performance

I wouldnt use it as a seperate battery - I would just use it to provide extra "reserve" for the system. The + cable isn't heavy duty enough to start the car if the main battery was flat. But the idea is that you'd have to try REALLY hard to make both batteries so flat that combined they couldnt start the car.

Dan 

just a thought ed, have you considered a new battery...you should'nt [in theory] get any problems then...

LR fitted a new one after a week of ownership (a common problem with new owners tinkering) in July. The CTEK gismo certainly reads well and is recommended by Aston, Ferrari and others to keep ones wagon tip-top. The chap that suggested it to me said his battery was 7 yrs old - way past what I thought was typical. '96 Volkswagen Polo 1.4CL - SOLD
'00 Audi A3 1.8T - SOLD
'97 Lotus Esprit V8 - SOLD
'03 BMW M3 - SOLD
'93 Range Rover 3.9 Vogue SE - SOLD
'92 Peugeot 205 GRD - DIED
'99 BMW 540i Touring - SOLD
'94 Peugeot 405 GDRT - SOLD
'00 Peugeot 406 HDI estate - 63mpg! - SOLD
'08 Range Rover TDV8 Vogue SE - SOLD
'11 Skoda Fabia Greenline II - 94.2mpg!- SOLD
'07 E61 BMW 530d msport touring - SOLD
‘20 Tesla Model 3 SR+
‘20 Tesla Model 3 Performance

was it the correct size/amp battery fitted....should be 110ah with a 920 crank..

In theory a well maintained battery shouldn't need replacing ever. But deep discharges damage the battery, every time it runs flat it looses capacity to hold a charge due to fast deterioration of the lead plates.

The only exception to this is the Gell type batteries like the Optima ones. 

dan_uk_1984 wrote:

If you want to plug accessories in it says to use the socket in the boot or in the cubby box... I don't know if these shut down or not.

Don't think they shut down Dan, I've read somewhere that they are both a permanent live: I've also used the socket in the boot to charge a phone for a couple of hours whilst away from the car.

dantheman wrote:

dan_uk_1984 wrote:

If you want to plug accessories in it says to use the socket in the boot or in the cubby box... I don't know if these shut down or not.

Don't think they shut down Dan, I've read somewhere that they are both a permanent live: I've also used the socket in the boot to charge a phone for a couple of hours whilst away from the car.

Excellent - that's good to know for things like fridges in the boot - ie remember to unplug them. 

From October 28 to December28 my car has sat on the drive undriven. I had concerns about battery drain that i had heard about occurring on 2010MY cars so the car has sat with a Maplins solar powered battery top-up charger plugged into the cigarette lighter. On 28th Dec my brother took the car out for a run and reported back that even though it was -10 outside the engine fired as soon as the glow plug light had gone out - he had also used the Park Heat to try and defrost the car. The amazing thing is that this little charger has not required direct sunlight on it - it has continued to top up the battery even when the front screen (it sits on top of the dash) is covered with ice or snow. There is a blue flashing LED that indicates that it is putting charge into the battery and it has safety circuitry built in to prevent battery over-charging. Here you go - it took an age to down load the page but here's the link http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=98358 and at a price suitable for most FFRR owners too  2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

i know someone who has this kind of gadget on his motor home which isnt used much at the moment and he reports the same as you TIM...could be ideal for anything thats not used much..

For those that are interested, twin battery set up here:

http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/dualbattery.html

Fox, you are a star! I need a towing module and wondered if the BMW unit would fit instead of the LR one. The BMW one being cheaper. There is a BMW unit in that photo on the battery how to, I can even make out the part number.