Alpha Batteries

With cold weather and wintery conditions sweeping the UK at the moment car batteries are failing left right and centre. If you’ve been following us over the past few weeks you’ll know we’ve discussed this topic a couple of times already to try and prepare people for the wintery mornings. We’re even running a sale on our whole range of car batteries at the moment with a massive 20% off, so if you are suffering from a failing battery, pick one up now whilst they are on offer.

If we haven’t tempted you just yet, then we wont leave you out in the cold! Here are our 5 top tips for starting a car in the cold.

1. First things first – don’t try anything different than normal, try to start your car as you normally would and try not to be overzealous before you need to be, you may cause more problems as a result. If the car doesn’t seem to be starting in the normal manner, wait for a minute and try again, don’t overdo the initial attempts, it may just need a couple of chances to start.
2. If you’re trying to start your car in snow, make sure to remove as much of the snow from the car as possible, if it’s been anything like it has in Manchester this week then there’s likely to be a lot of snow keeping your car cold whilst you try to start it, remove the snow first!
3. Start your car up every couple of days and leave it running for 5 minutes. This tip might be all you need to see you through a cold winter as it prevents various parts of the car suffering with under-use in the cold weather.
4. Essentially our problem can be fixed with a little warmth, try covering your engine with a blanket overnight so the frost doesn’t get to it, if you have a garage to store it in all the better and if you can heat the garage, better still – sometimes even cars need to wrap up warm at night.
5. Last but certainly not least – remember the Scouts, they aren’t too far off the mark when they say ‘Be Prepared’. There really is no better tip to starting a cold car than by preparing for the inevitable cold weather a month before and what better solution than a new car battery along with your other checkups before winter sets in.

So there it is, Alpha Batteries 5 short tips to having a happier driving experience over the winter months. Have you found something that worked particularly well for you? Then leave a comment below and share it with the rest of our readers!

The weather is starting to close in now, the evenings are dark by 4pm and mornings greet us with freezing fog, cold piercing rain and the first hints of snow fall. Unsurprisingly there aren’t many people that enjoy the weather this time of the year, interestingly enough, car batteries don’t fair much better either.

Cold temperatures weaken a car battery as the acid properties contained in the battery change and as a result the battery loses a proportion of its power, furthermore other electrical elements in the car also suffer from the cold putting extra pressure on an already compromised component. The result? Anything other than a good quality, well maintained car battery will suffer a performance hit as a result and fail to work at the required rate.

What’s our worst case scenario here? Quite simple, the car battery fails to turn over the engine because of the reduction in performance and your car doesn’t start, and as with all worst case scenarios, this happens in the middle of a wet, windy and cold British winter!

Luckily the solution is very simple, replace your old, aging battery with a brand new car battery. We’ve made this process very easy for you, select from our extensive range of car batteries catering for all budgets and if you’re not sure what battery you need use our car battery finder or contact us and we’ll help you select the right battery for your needs. For those wanting to stay one step ahead this winter, why not pick up two and keep a well maintained spare to hand should you unexpectedly need one.