Does it really matter ???

[Doofy]

I'm tired of fighting the parasitic drain on my battery. I thought I had the problem cured by installing a toggle switch on the offending circuit...but, no the battery will still go dead if not run or charged at least once a month.

A Master Disconnect Switch (Battery Shut-Off Switch) will cure this problem without having to disconnect the battery each time the truck will be parked for a week or two.

Does it really matter if the disconnect switch is wired in to either the Positive or the Negative battery cables? 99% of the on-line responses to this question say to use the Positive cable. Mr Gasket says to use the Negative battery cable.

Using the Negative cable just seems to be a safer option...no worries about shorting out on something.

Bueller...Bueller ???? May also mount a 5 watt solar panel to the damn battery and not worry about it.

 

[wr250rdr]

You could always pick up a trickle charger, when I worked at Cyclegear we would put them on sale for 35 bucks for the small one. I use it on my falcon about 4 months out of the year, when it's just too damn hot to drive a car with thin cylinder walls and no ac. And I can not start it for those four months and get in and it fires us just fine. Same thing with my sport bike.

 

[shane96ranger]

The only reason I can think of is so you could use it for a safety shut off. If you shut the positive off while running, it will still run. Not so with negative.

 

[adsm08]

Electrically, it does not matter which way you do it.

If you disconnected the offending circuit and it didn't fix the problem, you have the wrong circuit, or you don't have an actual draw.

It should be able to sit for at least a month, but how old if your battery? If it is older a month may be all the longer it can hold a charge. Have you done a genuine parasitic draw test?

 

[94xlt4.0]

its better to put the cut off switch on the negative side for the same reason you remove your negative battery cable first, to avoid a spark which COULD damage a circuit, pop a fuse or worst case scenario explode the battery if the spark is close enough to it. that being said adsm is right about the draw, either you have the wrong circuit, there is multiple circuits drawing or the battery just doesnt have enough left in it to hold the charge

 

[armadillon]

Electrically, it does not matter which way you do it.

If you disconnected the offending circuit and it didn't fix the problem, you have the wrong circuit, or you don't have an actual draw.

It should be able to sit for at least a month, but how old if your battery? If it is older a month may be all the longer it can hold a charge. Have you done a genuine parasitic draw test?

Focus on the initial problem rather than a ghetto (even if nice looking) bandaid. I know this stuff sucks but you can get it. Something is drawing power. As asdm said, check battery and do a draw test. Is there anything that you can think of that runs when you turn the key off?

 

[Mac]

With my Stang, I couldn't start it after sitting three weeks. Finially someone said turn your radio off. Stored it over Winter for three months with it off and it fired right off come Spring. As said, find the culprit.
Dave

 

[dangerranger83]

I had the same problem. Turns out, I just needed a new battery, it just couldn't hold a charge for more then two weeks when it got to its worse point.

Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Doofy]

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I have a 1 year old Optima red top. The parasitic draw is real and I thought the cause was dealt with last year. I will do more testing...I forgot to unplug the power to my sirius radio and also to the memory function in my stereo. Will update after more testing.

 

[shane96ranger]

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I have a 1 year old Optima red top. The parasitic draw is real and I thought the cause was dealt with last year. I will do more testing...I forgot to unplug the power to my sirius radio and also to the memory function in my stereo. Will update after more testing.

I just read the other day about newer Optima batteries having issues not holding a charge after someone mentioned it on here. Do a Google search on it.

 

[killj0y]

I mentioned problems I've heard like this and an optima rep chimed in... Just say optima is crap and he shows up like magic lol

 

[shane96ranger]

Must have been you then.

I've said on here before that I believe Costco has the best deal for batteries. My Mustang also sits a lot (13 months now) and the battery drains after a 2 or 3 months. The battery I originally bought at Costco was about 6 years ago IIRC. Since then I have had two replacements under warranty. They have a 3 year free replacement warranty, and unlike Autozone or O'Reilly (or anywhere else), Costco starts the warranty again fresh with the replacement battery. My last replacement was this past May, and I had to pay 10 bucks because the battery had gone up in price. ALSO - you do not have to take another battery. They give you a gift card with the price you paid to do with as you wish (which is why I had to pay the difference in cost).

 

[Doofy]

Checked my post from last November and I had a parasitic drain of .21 amps. I traced this to fuse #26 for the battery saver relay and a few other things on that circuit. Since I had no idea of where these components were located I wired in a toggle switch for that circuit.

This brought my parasitic drain down to .07 amps. Still a tad bit high, though. Hopefully,with more testing, this can be improved upon.