Calcium Plus Car Batteries

OK, I freely admit it, I made a mistake and bought one to run my setup after my long suffering lead acid died of natural causes.

At £37 for a 35ah car battery, what could go wrong!
As it turns out, quite a lot.

For one it requires a higher charging voltage than a standard lead acid battery.
It also has the charging 'outline' which is almost the same as an AGM battery.

And WORSE OF ALL!
My also long suffering, 'once upon a time, intelligent' battery charger won't let the charge voltage run at the recommended 14.7 volts, non pulsed, recon, or trickle charge.

Something my old transformer style beast of a transforming buzzing brick of a battery charger did as standard.

Plus my 13.8 volt 8 amp power pack was only too happy to sit there strapped across the old wet battery keeping it in topped off condition. Only it won't on this technological wonder.

Of course you can buy an intelligent charger that will do all that.
Only the last time I looked I would have to mortgage my soul to buy a half way decent one.

Bitching over, and I'm asking for help.

What do others who own the Calcium+ batteries do to keep them charged.

I can't help you with your Calcium+ charging woes but I can relate with you on the mod con rubbish.
The last "fancy" battery I bought was sold to me as the bees knees of batteries, it was the "best battery money could buy" it replaced a 7 year old led acid that had been run flat about 5 too many times and lost its mojo.
That fancy pants, bees knees, fandangled, over priced spiral core battery was run down once and never recovered.
Lesson learned (not the don't run your car battery down one) I will never buy another wizz bang battery again.

If I could, I'd buy a fully serviceable, glass led acid battery. I'm beginning getting a hate on for modern tech.

I hope someone chimes in with a simple and cheap solution for you

Ah, a modern day battery for all those that have never lifted the bonnet of their car.

Aren't modern "advances" wonderful.

Very profitable too, let one of those puppies go flat and you just have to 'simply' buy another. Bet the members of the board and shareholders are rubbing their hands greedily over that one!


No idea I'm afraid Paul, (not much flipping help am I?!)

I'm with Andrew on this one, if you can't open it to top up with deionized water, (I've popped many a 'sealed' battery to do as such), or clean it and replace the acid then I don't really want to know. I'd personally love a good old fashioned Nickel-Iron battery they used on mine lifts of old.


Bit impractical to run an 'Apple' device or some such......but I don't want one of those either!


I know we have a few 'petrol-heads' on here that may know the answer and even some 'tech' geeks that love all that weird chemistry battery stuff. Hopefully they can be of more help.


God I'm a useless old, set-in-my-ways, meh back-in-my-day, sod of a fart if ever there was.

Cannot help with specifics of calcium charging.

My humble view, much depends on money you have, if you are comfortable with 20kgs in one hand, and if you can safely carry them strapped up or enclosed in your vehicle as it is illegal to drive a vehicle with free standing lead acid batteries.

Leisure batteries of big capacity are low cost and work well, good for many charge cycles and are not fussy about having a £100.00 charger.

Just don't discharge them too far and don't buy an engine cranking battery.. ensure it is a leisure battery with capability of many charges cycle.

Otherwise get your fat wads out for low Ah's and a silly money expensive charger.

Different ways of doing the same thing. I do laugh at the low Ah's you get on these little batteries for your wads of cash. Pay your money make your choice.

Type in leisure battery of XXX Ah on ebay and take your pick.

I have given mine a total pasting over the last 7 years and they still hold up ok now. I cannot see myself buying the expensive ones either when one dies.

In fact one I have here is a 63Ah cranking battery  and even that has been charged 100 times without issue and still provides approx 200W for a 100W RF power for a day.

The worst thing you can do is drain them down too far... and put them back on charge at soonest possible opportunity.

90-110Ah leisure value batteries are very good value per Ah.

Go on ebay <£60.00 for a 90-110Ah (depending on how capacity is measured) leisure battery... any old charger will charge it... you will likely get 5 years out of it you treat it right.. £12 a year money well spent on a hobby.

I don't even want to look how much "advanced" battery @ 110Ah will cost.

Popular theme is everyone hates modern.
And yet again I fit in with the crowd.

However, I have good news.
I got given a VERY old Battery charger today.
Soooo old it didn't have anything more complicated than a bridge rectifier and a variable voltage control 6-15 volts. (8 amps)

Fault? Buzzing.
Cause, de-laminated plates on the transformer.
Fix? fast setting epoxy and a G clamp.
OK, not exactly the perfect fix but beggars can't be choosers.

Stuck it on the new super high tech calcium + thingy and in 3 hours the damn thing was charged!

Got to love low tech.

Victor wrote:

Ah, a modern day battery for all those that have never lifted the bonnet of their car.

Very profitable too, let one of those puppies go flat and you just have to 'simply' buy another.

You have to do that with the old type batteries. Once a battery voltage drops below 11.6V you get sulphation occurring which is crystals forming on the lead plates in the battery. If you use the car very regularly you may not notice a problem at first but if you leave it stood for any period of time or usually when there's the first real cold snap in late Autumn that's when you come out to your car to a dead battery.

Hiya Conor, hope you're well.

Ah, I am so lucky I've never owned a car

I do however own a motorcycle and luckily aware of sulphation in lead acid batteries. During lockdown I often fired my motorcycle up or bought the (tiny in comparison to a car) battery indoors for a charge regularly. I had to sadly watch half the village call out the AA/RAC/Halfords etc. and they must've made a fortune replacing batteries! The first cold snap did indeed see that repeated all over again for those that thought they'd got away with it.

Typical "key in - fuel in" only type of drivers unfortunately.


For radio use I'm with the 'leisure battery' suggestion above, far more suitable than a typical 'starting' battery often found in vehicles.