T6.1 “Never feed electricity into the socket”

[whodat]

Hi,
T6.1/22plate/150bhp/stop-start/No leisure battery/manual.

So, thinking about the 12v cigar(ette) sockets, to trickle charge the battery without leaving the bonnet open and wires trailing onto the street etc, I was thinking of getting an Ecoflow River 2 (or similar leisure power supply), and a Victron trickle charger (or similar), along with an adaptor lead to plug into one of the 12v sockets.
However, in 'the manual' it says "Never feed electricity into the socket."

There are various posts where some say it can be done and not to worry about it but mostly for slightly older vehicles. Me, being a worrier, would like to make sure that there really isn't anything to worry about.
I know these little spaceships can be quite finicky.
Cheers.

 

[Pete C]

I have charged my 2016 T6 starter battery using a 5 Amp charger through one of the dashboard sockets with no issues.
I suspect that they are concerned about chargers that can output significantly more current than this, which will melt the socket.

Pete

 

[roadtripper]

The later 6.1s seems to have changed behaviour with the 12v sockets as folks have noted that the traditional "gear lever socket is always connected to the starter" is no longer true. Potentially if they are now on some solid state BCM controlled timeout there is some risk, however any decent maintenance charger (CTEK/NoCo/Victron) designed to be connected to a modern vehicle should detect something like that and stop the charge cycle.

Mine's a 21 6.1 single battery and I'm reverse charging via the trailer socket. The manual probably doesn't support that either but it's been fine for a year. I've also reverse charged my XC70 for years by the boot socket that I know is managed by the electronics.

The warning might partly be to avoid high currents. If you want to try then it's always advised to keep sustained current at or below 8 amps to avoid overheating the socket. A 5amp CTEK charger would be ideal, for maintenance even the 0.8 amp one would be fine.

There are other reasons your plan may have issues though, the power packs have very high idle losses so doing as you plan you'll likely waste a lot of the charge and you may find the power pack times out or shuts down before you expect.

 

[whodat]

Cheers for the replies.

If I do go ahead with it I'll keep it to no more than a couple of amps. 0.8 would be ok with me - would be enough to negate the draw on the battery from alarm/ecu etc.
As I'll be getting a powerpack anyway and I've always had a battery charger to hand in the past, I'd better start investing in more modern tech.
My olde T4 didn't have all the fancy gizmos or posh batteries and was quite happy with my 30 year old battery charger which would probably make the T6 explode.

 

[DaveCrampton]

You could pop the charger in the recess next to the vehicle battery and just run the power cable out up next to the bonnet next to the wing and out next to the corner of the windscreen. Then you need not worry about anyone tampering with it if left unattended.

 

[whodat]

Cheers for that also.
I sort of know that that will get forgotten about at least once by myself or other half and will be driven whilst charger is attached. Trying to visualise what would happen and reckon that at the very least the charger would get damaged, if not the power pack also. Worst case ECU damage or melted cables leading to fire, flood and other catastrophe.
Also haven't had the opportunity to start digging around for cable paths yet but might do that in a couple of weeks depending on how our next visit in to a vw dealer (for unrelated issue) goes,

 

[roadtripper]

A lot of the camper folks have something like a loop of red webbing or similar to loop over the steering wheel when the EHU is plugged in, roof up etc

I have a bright green cap on my charger that lives on the dash whenever it is connected.

 

[Captain Quick]

It’s worth noting that the two 12v dashboard power sockets fitted to later T6.1s with a second auxiliary / leisure battery (under the passenger seat) appear to be powered from the auxiliary / leisure battery and not from the starter battery. As I’ve discovered, you can’t charge the starter battery via either of these dashboard sockets.

 

[whodat]

Only got the main starter so I'm assuming (that can be dangerous) that both are powered from the starter battery and not some weird construction of capacitors fed off the alternator or some other magic.

 

[Captain Quick]

Only got the main starter so I'm assuming (that can be dangerous) that both are powered from the starter battery and not some weird construction of capacitors fed off the alternator or some other magic.

Just measure the voltage at the 12v sockets with a digital multimeter 1) with the ignition on and 2) with the ignition off. If there’s power at either of the sockets with the ignition off (ie socket or sockets are permanently live) then it’s viable to charge/maintain the starter battery through them with a suitable adapter.

 

[whodat]

Thank you. That is quite a reasonable price for the Ctek.

 

[whodat]

Done - all hooked up and looking forward to a fully charged battery for once.
Ended up with CTEK Genius 5 and their 'suitable adaptor' running off the Ecoflow.
See how it goes by the morning.
Thank you.

Ended up blowing the fuse on the 12v socket when I crossed the beams with my voltage tester, so got this little gadget which is sweet:
12v socket tester
Was liking the one with a blue readout but that wasn't Prime and would have had to wait a few weeks. Life can be hard sometimes.

 

[whodat]

Just thought it would be polite to add the conclusion to the above set up to charge the battery from inside the cab.
All works. Battery charged/reconditioned a couple of times through the 12v socket using an Ecoflow/CTek/12v adaptor.
No burny smells.

Battery seems to settle at 12.2v so might wait till just before it starts getting too wintery to get a 95Ah Exide (as recommended by Spuds)

 

[Salty Spuds]

Just thought it would be polite to add the conclusion to the above set up to charge the battery from inside the cab.
All works. Battery charged/reconditioned a couple of times through the 12v socket using an Ecoflow/CTek/12v adaptor.
No burny smells.

Battery seems to settle at 12.2v so might wait till just before it starts getting too wintery to get a 95Ah Exide (as recommended by Spuds)

Don’t overdo the reconditioning, it’s only to try & (partially) recover a tired sulphated battery. If the battery isn’t knackered, reconditioning can do more harm than good.

 

[whodat]

That is another question I was going to ask answered. Cheers. It did bump it up from 12.2 to 12.4v but will leave it at that.
Cheers.