Board logo

which battery charger / conditioner
AndyW - 26/12/13 at 08:03 PM

Want a new battery charger. One I can leave connected which will look after the battery, charge it and maintain.

Budget of £50

Suggestions and advice please

Thanks

Andy

Ben_Copeland - 26/12/13 at 08:16 PM

Have a look at optimate chargers / conditioners, without knowing what battery you have I can't suggest a particular model

Aldi/lidl do cheap versions once in a while but you can never tell when they'll have them

Slimy38 - 26/12/13 at 08:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ben_Copeland
Aldi/lidl do cheap versions once in a while but you can never tell when they'll have them


It's worth just popping in your local ones, even if they're not actually available that week they sometimes have one left in the bottom of the cages. They were on sale only a few weeks so you might get lucky. They got quite decent reviews considering the price.

mark.s - 26/12/13 at 09:07 PM

C-Tec all day long

AndyW - 26/12/13 at 09:25 PM

Heard good things about both. Anyone use either and care to review????

mark.s - 26/12/13 at 09:33 PM

had mine for about 5 years, trouble free and it has bought dead batteries back to life,fantastic bit of kit

[Edited on 26/12/13 by mark.s]

big_wasa - 26/12/13 at 09:46 PM

The cheap aldi charger is great for leaving on over the winter but won't recover a dead battery.

Charlie_Zetec - 26/12/13 at 09:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mark.s
C-Tec all day long


+1

Scuzzle - 27/12/13 at 02:54 AM

When I lay my car up over the winter (usually November) I use the Ring solar battery maintainer and it seems to do the job. I have fitted a battery cut off switch to the earth lead of my battery so when the car gets laid up I cut the power to the earth and hook up the solar charger to the battery. My MOT is in March and when I go to fire up the car it always starts up fine.

This is like the one I use

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ring-2-4W-Solar-Trickle-Charger-Battery-Maintainer-Deep-Cycle-RSP240-/400596937652?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash= item5d45702bb4

My only gripe is there is no LED to let you know it's working, I tried a multimeter on it at first just to be certain but it's doing the job fine, not sure how good it would be if the battery was still hooked up and something like an alarm was providing a constant current drain though. I also turn up sometimes to work on the car and have the radio on all day and even though I never run it this never seems to be a problem for the battery either.

Edit - it's also really easy to forget it's there, a few times I've bounced it off the deck when jacking up the car and it's fallen off the roof or the bonnet even though it has sucker feet to fix it on.

[Edited on 27/12/13 by Scuzzle]

Ben_Copeland - 27/12/13 at 08:18 AM

I leave my optimate on for months on end. It has status LEDs and can recover dead batteries etc uses very little electricity once it's fully charged.

Reminds me I need to put it back on during my engine swap as bike batteries don't like the cold

steve m - 27/12/13 at 08:34 AM

I have an Lidl trickle charger, presume its the same as an Aldi one
I will not leave it on 24/7 as it does get pretty hot, and after one garage fire, I do not want another one!

I also have a small solar panel charger, which currently lives in the caravan, and does a fab job on that battery,
and the first time we use the van, the motor mover works perfectly

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-1-5W-12V-Solar-Trickle-Car-Battery-Charger-PS-A015-/190741682264?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item2c69171858

I might buy another solar panel, just for the garage

steve

[Edited on 27/12/13 by steve m]

ragindave - 27/12/13 at 10:19 AM

Oxford Oximiser 600 Battery Charger on ebay under £20 is a good one

samjc - 27/12/13 at 11:45 AM

Im looking at a c-tek mxs 3.6 at around £50 as has good reviews and durable as i was looking at the oxford units but not keen on a few reviews stating if left in the garagethe damp cold conditions kill the units. Butjust me researched opinion and still would like to try out a few diffrent makes to see.

OliilO - 27/12/13 at 12:07 PM

I've got a C-Tek mx5.0 which has been good so far. It's quite small, seems to work well and can be left plugged in for long periods. Also as the battery recondition feature which can be useful with a deep discharged battery.

bigfoot4616 - 27/12/13 at 12:14 PM

just got a ctek xs0.8 for christmas, from reading up on them there's not much in it between optimate's and ctek's although some people claim the ctek will recover batteries that optimate's don't.

although people say bike batteries don't like being left over winter in a cold garage mine is at least 6 years old and each year up until now i've just disconnected the earth and left it sat all winter with no problems.

this year its been sat since august due to an engine failure and as soon as i put the ctek on it the charger said it was ready for use and a few hours later was fully charged.