All you garage types.....
 

Which battery charger?


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Master-Cha...91393061&rt=nc

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUTOCHARGE...91393061&rt=nc

The top one is the dearest, but doesn't seem to be a smart charger, the bottom two do.

Ring and Sealey, I've heard of.

Anyone use any of the above and can comment?

or you could look at a CTEK MXS 3.8 or one of their other ones

http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/MXS%203.8

I have one and it works a treat

Can't find out any prices on that site, no-one stocks them nearer than 30 miles to me.

Also, they look more like maintenance chargers?

Think I got mine off Amazon or Ebay, can't remember which now.

They have a maintenance mode which kicks in following a charge cycle if left connected, I use it when I'm away for extended periods. Suppose it depends on your use requirement, but from what I've read they will charge from flat but they are not fast chargers.

Another vote for Ctek, very good!

And another vote for ctek - quality kit

Something like - http://www.ctekchargers.co.uk/ctek-mxs5.0.php

C-Tek FTW ;)

They seem pretty good...but at almost double the others???

http://m.screwfix.com/p/ring-rcb206-6a-car-battery-charger-12-24v/69046?filtered=true
I've just bought this to charge my battery.
The automatic ones don't charge from flat.
The ones I looked at said it in the small print.
It works fine.

Optimate 4. Fantastic bit of kit.

I bought the CTEK MXS 5.0 about a year and a half ago - really excellent charger/conditioner. I use it every couple of weeks on the GB270 wagon to 'maintain' the battery - seems to work really well and is so much better than Draper/Sealey and so on. Just used it on our new Volvo XC90 which battery went flat after tinkering with DVD's/stereo and such - 800 A battery and fully charged and conditioned in one night so works brilliantly. Also has/does a check for battery condition.

Worth every penny (IMHO):thumb:

Ive got a mac charger, it gives you 3 settings for charging speed and also turns into a booster pack at the flick of a switch. It hasnt failed me yet.

Just been onto C-Tek.
First off, their charger won't even "see" the battery if it's flat. completely discahrged, which mine almost certainly is:(

Secondly, they will not honour the warranty of any of their charger bought off ebay:( :(

They make big play of "price match" on their site, but there's the get-out.

Not for me, I don't think.

C-Tek perfect as fit and forget chargers. Probably not necessary on a daily driver, but for the weekend cars they are ideal

Optimate 4. Very good bit of kit! its even revived what were previously thought to be knackered batteries for me.

Get the hardwire plug aswell and hide it in the grill for convenience.

I've been onto both.
Neither will even recognise a flat battery below 4V:(

Mine has been SORN since last May....battery won't even open the door locks.

Maybe buy a new battery and one of these smart chargers, but that makes a damned expensive charger!

Think Ctek has a problem with counterfeit copies...which are rife on eBay.

My Optimate does detect batteries below 4 volts...it goes into suphation mode if it does. Think the minimum is 2volts. Although most batteries I have below that voltage are shagged and lost at least their half of their usefull Ah capacity once "recovered" (i.e a 100amp hour battery is now just 50amp hours, still starts cars fine, but useless for anything else).

Its easy enough to get these charger running on a totally dead battery though...I've previously jumped a small 12v alarm battery across the dead lead acid battery and the charger detected it, started charging, then after a minute removed the alarm battery.

The idea of these chargers is they can be left on all the time so you don't feck your battery up by letting it go below 11volts (and yours will be fecked).


I personally wouldn't touch a non-brand, Ring or Sealey battery boiler (or anything made by Sealey...90% of their stuff is re-branded chinese junk). Unless it was £20 and just used for bulk charging which is all they are good for....I've got a few old chargers for that job, never use them now.

Yeah, thanks for that Ali, I value your opinion as someone on the ground, as it were.

I've virtually come to the conclusion that nowt will renovate my exisiting battery, so will get a decent one and probably the C-Tek MXS5.0, leave the permanent connection on the Scoob.

Then it can be wall-mounted and used for the other cars if necessary.

NOW I'm into nearer £120..........you can't win.:)

The optimate charger can also help repair shagged batteries.

mine is left on all the time and just ticks over keeping the battery optimised. It goes into different stages automatically to check the health etc and charges in different ways depending on the condition of the battery.

+1

Not sure what number it is but I have an optimate conditioner charger, it must be getting on for 9yrs old and still going strong, kept my Type R battery alive for 4yrs and the blobs battery for the best part of 2 years and I'm still on the same battery now another almost 2yrs later, so gets my vote.

Just looked at Optimate, their Optimate 4 is for batteries up to 28Ah and for motorcycles.

That's a guideline really, ive used mine on all my Impreza's and it works amazingly.
I currently have an optimate 5.