These days, many Grand California owners are experiencing one or two nasty surprises… The days are getting longer, the temperatures higher, so there’s nothing better than going on a tour with your beloved Grand California. Quickly awakened from hibernation and off you go, right?
Disillusionment sets in, the body or starter battery is completely flat, and you’ve just turned off the battery switch in the technology cabinet… By now you know that the control units in the vehicle consume power and simply switching them off in the equipment cupboard is not enough.
You don’t feel like or don’t have the opportunity to leave the vehicle connected to shore power for the entire winter? But you still want to know how the batteries in the vehicle are doing? We have a small but nice gadget for you.
The Battery Guard
The company Intact offers a small Bluetooth module which is connected directly to the battery, simply to the plus and minus pole.
If the Battery Guard is connected, the vehicle’s battery powers the small module. With the right smartphone app, you can connect the Battery Guard to your phone and access the battery data.
All you have to do is enter the serial number on the back of the Battery Guard in the app and the app will establish a connection. In the second step, you select the battery type. In addition to AGM, lithium batteries are also supported.
Once you have carried out these steps, you should be able to see the current charge level of the battery. In the app settings, you can be automatically warned as soon as the battery reaches or falls below a certain charge level. Of course, this only works as long as the app is open in the background on the smartphone and you are within Bluetooth range. But that can be enough if the vehicle is parked in front of your door or on the street. For example, if you set an alarm so that the app notifies you as soon as the battery is only 30 percent charged, you have enough time to either connect the vehicle to shore power or go for a drive.
Another great feature is the data storage on the Battery Guard. The internal memory can store the battery data for the last 72 days. If you reconnect to Battery Guard after 14 days, for example, diagrams are available in the app. There are curves for the SoC (State of Charge), the temperature and the voltage. This makes it possible to track exactly when a lot of electricity is consumed.
The Battery Guard is available from Jeff’s department store for around 22 euros:
—–> HERE YOU CAN FIND THE BATTERY GUARD <——
