... anyone done the research on what 'good buys' are out there?

I remember they used to be quite expensive back in my biking days, but a quick squiz on eBay reveals they are pretty cheap now!

As usual though, it looks like the market is saturated with cheap Chinese junk! Any pointers would be appreciated...

Ta muchly!

Scotty

these ones are the best in my opinion
CTEK

Optimate is my choice

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OPTIMATE-4-MOTORCYCLE-MOTORBIKE-BATTERY-CHARGER-12V-/370351690362?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item563aae527a

[Edited on 7-9-10 by RazMan]

optimate (as above) is the best, but a bit expensive

Cheers guys... just looking at the Optimax website and the specs of the IQ seem very good. £24 delivered too seems pretty reasonable!

My CTEK works well, now 3 years old and no issues at all

The Tronic ones from Lidl are good value, usually about £12.99 and they work like the Optimate.

Been using aldi ones for 3 years, one permanantly connected to the trailer winch battery, one connected to the jump start battery and one conncted to the car optimate battery.

No problems so far.

This stuff is old technology now don't be conned into paying a premium price.

Cheers

Oops meant to say Lidl not Aldi - can't tell the difference really but they are tronic brand I've been using

[Edited on 7-9-10 by v8kid]

I've had Optimate(s) for years and would recommend them as a good budget buy (not sure I'd ever bother spending anymore)

Go for and Optimate 3 SP or Optimate 4...

The desulphateing facility of the Optimate has saved a couple of my batteries over the years and seems to actually work OK. Might not make them last forever but I got an extra year out of the last dead battery I used it on! As said above though, this is old hat know so even the cheap Chinese stuff should work well. I use a 12A intelligent charger from Chinese origin and it has done OK for the last 2-3 years on stuff I need to cram a charge in a bit sharpish which is quite often so.............

Lidl/Aldi ones are very good indeed.

quote:

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Lidl/Aldi ones are very good indeed.

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Stu is right I forgot to say there is one of those pesky H&S idiot additions on tronic chargers where the charger will not charge unless it sees a voltage so if the battery is completely flat you are stumped.

A pox on H&S I say

Cheers

What's the lowest cut-off voltage? Likely to be ~9v or so, and anything lower than that and your battery is likely to have serious future problems anyway to be fair, but you could hook up a small super-cheap SLA in parallel to fool it.