Dead battery, cigarette charger, and horn chirp

[kjc2050]

Originally Posted by scottvd

Joe- Curious: With the cigarette charger apparatus installed and providing power, have you at that point tried the emergency trunk/frunk release procedure again? I understand it shouldn't make a difference but just thought it'd be worth a shot and doesn't take much effort.

My car is currently in storage. The battery is at my home, on a tender. So, no battery in the car. If I plug a cigarette lighter connector into a jump and carry battery jumper and into the cigarette lighter socket, the windows go down their customary 1/4" when I pull the door handle; if I pull up on the frunk release lever, it works. Did I mention? -- there's no battery in the car! So my question is, if this works with no battery, why wouldn't it work with a dead battery?

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by kjc2050

So my question is, if this works with no battery, why wouldn't it work with a dead battery?

Because a dead or dying battery preferentially sucks up all the energy put into the system like a giant sponge. Eventually, when the battery develops enough reserve, things will start working, but not until the battery gets what it needs first. And if the battery is really in bad shape, the lighter circuit cannot deliver the necessary current to bring the battery back up. So, in a way, you would be better off if the battery was not there............

[kjc2050]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Because a dead or dying battery preferentially sucks up all the energy put into the system like a giant sponge. Eventually, when the battery develops enough reserve, things will start working, but not until the battery gets what it needs first. And if the battery is really in bad shape, the lighter circuit cannot deliver the necessary current to bring the battery back up. So, in a way, you would be better off if the battery was not there............

JFP: Thanks. That makes sense. Learn somethin' every day!

[kk2002s]

A bit of a hijack here
With the cold we are getting lately here, I'm just letting the car sit in the garage for the couple weeks until the road clear and temps go up. I want to do a trickle charge in this ex-stream cold. I could go through the lighter but is it Ok to directly connect to the battery while it still connected to the car.
I don't want to disconnect the battery and have to go through the reset process
I drive the car year round but now that I have an extra car I can sit the box in bad weather