Acceptable battery drain level?

[Vegas69]

I thought the spec was 50 or 100 ma. Optima batteries don't sit well. I always had mine a tender.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

I thought the spec was 50 or 100 ma. Optima batteries don't sit well. I always had mine a tender.

Egg Sack Lee!



Any "drain" is a drain..... what difference does it make as long as it's not excessive. You'll now go in to new car dealerships and see cars sitting with 'trickle chargers' hooked up to them.

Get yourself a tender that can handle the TYPE of battery you intend to keep topped up. Personally I use CTek brand.


Or - for many years people just put a disconnect switch on the ground..... but then you can still end up forgetting about the battery and it sits for months and runs down. So just putting it on the proper tender is the easiest way to do it.

[CamaroAJ]

GM spec on new vehicles is 40mA for what it's worth.

[Terryd]

Originally Posted by CamaroAJ

GM spec on new vehicles is 40mA for what it's worth.

Thanks, just the info I was looking for.

[Terryd]

I had a little time this afternoon to do some more troubleshooting. This is where things are as of now, not done yet. Working through it as time allows.

I have 4 power feeds at my positive bulkhead connector excluding the incoming battery feed. They are feeding: Vintage Air, Cooling fans, ECM and the battery feed to the main fuse block.

Have isolated the drain to two items. The Vintage Air has a 15mA current (wth ?) and the balance is coming from the keyless ignition module. Nothing in the main fuse block has a current draw.

I spoke with Digital Dawg and they advised that unless there's a fob in range I shouldn't see any current flow. I don't think the fob was in range but I will recheck tomorrow. The 15mA on the Vintage Air has me baffled. I am running a Dakota Digital climate controller. So I guess I'll be calling both of them too.

I know I can always use a tender, which I will in any case just to treat the battery right. Just bugs me and I have to find the source. My kids say I'm OCD...wonder if they are right ?.. LOL

I'll keep isolating, sooner or later I will get there...

[simon455]

0.035a is a limit on a lot of new vehicles with verious "bus" communication system. Barely even see anything near that when making sure no draw is present.