Healthy Battery Voltage

[DG97]

Hi guys, 

When the engine is off, what would you expect a reasonable battery voltage to be?

I have a dashcam wired into my car which runs off the battery until it reaches a certain voltage (which I have now upped to 12.3V) and shuts down and I get a feeling I had left the voltage cut off point a little too low so I'm just trying to work out what voltage would be reasonable for the battery to have normally. 

Thanks in advance 🙂 

[Jonro2009]

You have a very new car with a new battery so I’d suggest 12V would be an acceptable cut off, perhaps 12.2V to be safe. 

During the winter I would leave it at 12.2 and summer 12V, cold starts are more intensive on the battery. 

I have a voltage meter plugged into my 12v socket just to monitor things, when ignition off I am seeing around 12v and when driving it’s about 14.8V.

i plan to buy a trickle charger soon just to perform some maintenance on the battery.

[DG97]

Yes, 12V was what I previously had it as but considering it's winter, I am going to leave it as a bit higher and probably go to the 12.2V that you mention instead of my radical change to 12.3V 🙂 

My volts are also roughly similar to yours, around 12V ignition off and up to around 14.8 when driving. 

My plan for next winter was to purchase a trickle charger too just to boost the battery charge a little as I think due to the dash cam using up the power from the battery, my start stop doesnt come on anymore as a result though as I hate the auto start stop systems it's basically a blessing in disguise

[lst]

I had my first convenience check last week for my fiesta (1 year old) and ford measured the battery at 12.79 which was 'green' on their checklist. My start-stop has only worked intermittently (and rarely) for the last few months
I have my dashcam set at 12.5v cut off, and sometimes it restarts a few times on short journeys. If I set it to 12v it will turn off after a few hours.

 

[Paulkp]

I don't have a dash cam, but why would you want it powered when the engine is not running ?

If you set the dash cam to come on above 13.2V say, then it will be on only when the engine is running and the alternator charging.  Or as on a lot of modern cars, the accessory socket will go off after about an hour, so you could wire it off the back of that.

I have a car where the cigarette lighter socket is permanently on, so am trying to modify a four way accessory socket with a voltage sensitive relay so it is all de-powered below 13.2V.

Kemo make a "battery Saver" which does the same thing, but it is physically too big for my application.

[cjay1]

43 minutes ago, Paulkp said:

I don't have a dash cam, but why would you want it powered when the engine is not running ?

it allows you to record any damage to the vehicle whilst parked, carpark hit and run for example.

[Jonro2009]

5 hours ago, lst said:

I had my first convenience check last week for my fiesta (1 year old) and ford measured the battery at 12.79 which was 'green' on their checklist. My start-stop has only worked intermittently (and rarely) for the last few months
I have my dashcam set at 12.5v cut off, and sometimes it restarts a few times on short journeys. If I set it to 12v it will turn off after a few hours.

 

Why does it cut off during short journeys? Does you battery drop below 12.5v when you are driving? Isn’t the point of a dashcam to record whilst you are driving at the very least?

[DG97]

11 hours ago, cjay1 said:

it allows you to record any damage to the vehicle whilst parked, carpark hit and run for example.

Bullseye 🙂 it doesn’t record full time when ignition is switched off only motion detection and any impacts. works fairly well too. On my previous car, I suffered from one or two too many parking hits where people forgot to leave a note so needed to get something to cover me this time 

[Paulkp]

OK, I now get that about parking incidents!