WHICH BATTERY CONDITIONER?
Discussion
If you want a proper battery charger it won't come in the compact size of the usual Optimate & CTEK suspects, that's because they are really just consumer spec maintenance chargers not proper professional workshop chargers.
First off check the amp rating of the charger you're considering, many of the small maintenance chargers only deliver 7amps at the best (often a lot less), so if the truth be known are really a bit on the feeble side.
A proper workshop charger should deliver 25amps as a minimum which ensures it'll cope with anything you're likely to throw at it, also look for something with.... Wet, Calcium & AGM modes for true flexibility.
Finally many chargers these days offer multi stage intelligent charging which is well worth having, but not all offer a proper recondition mode.
I have a Ring RSCPR25 which is a proper 25a charger that ticks all the boxes and is capable of handling a deep discharge even on my full fat Odyssey PC1500 AGM battery:
http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/products/Worksh...
Buy it from here for the best price & excellent service:
http://www.tantronics.co.uk/acatalog/Ring_RSCPR25_...
The small maintenance chargers are Ok for light charging duties and float charging, but if you want a serious grown up battery charger you're going to be looking at something at least the size of a small shoe box that chucks out over 20amps.Which is more than double what the little Optimate & CTEK models deliver.
It's not until you get to the CTEK M300 Marine Battery Charger that things start to get serious. The CTEK M300 is almost the equal of the excellent quality Ring RSCPR25 but at close to twice the price it's very overpriced; as are the entire range of CTEK chargers in my opinion.
Ring produce a range of very good chargers at a much more realistic price point, go for their SmartChargePro range as these are true professional quality.
http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/content/battery...
Ring chargers are cheaper, better & British.. and you dont see that every day!
First off check the amp rating of the charger you're considering, many of the small maintenance chargers only deliver 7amps at the best (often a lot less), so if the truth be known are really a bit on the feeble side.
A proper workshop charger should deliver 25amps as a minimum which ensures it'll cope with anything you're likely to throw at it, also look for something with.... Wet, Calcium & AGM modes for true flexibility.
Finally many chargers these days offer multi stage intelligent charging which is well worth having, but not all offer a proper recondition mode.
I have a Ring RSCPR25 which is a proper 25a charger that ticks all the boxes and is capable of handling a deep discharge even on my full fat Odyssey PC1500 AGM battery:
http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/products/Worksh...
Buy it from here for the best price & excellent service:
http://www.tantronics.co.uk/acatalog/Ring_RSCPR25_...
The small maintenance chargers are Ok for light charging duties and float charging, but if you want a serious grown up battery charger you're going to be looking at something at least the size of a small shoe box that chucks out over 20amps.Which is more than double what the little Optimate & CTEK models deliver.
It's not until you get to the CTEK M300 Marine Battery Charger that things start to get serious. The CTEK M300 is almost the equal of the excellent quality Ring RSCPR25 but at close to twice the price it's very overpriced; as are the entire range of CTEK chargers in my opinion.
Ring produce a range of very good chargers at a much more realistic price point, go for their SmartChargePro range as these are true professional quality.
http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/content/battery...
Ring chargers are cheaper, better & British.. and you dont see that every day!
I dont think you gain a lot by having a high current output unless you are trying to charge a very dead battery in a hurry- after all the current drawn depends purely on the batteries current voltage so if you are topping up or trickle charging even the cheap Aldi and Lidl £14 chargers work a treat as the electronic micro processor control circuits required to cycle the battery to keep it conditioned now cost very little. This is a world away from the old type of charges with a big switch for high and low charge that would gas the battery dry as the voltage control was so poor. The problem with micro processor controlled charges is they switch off if the mains glitches, so need to be manually reset, so you need to keep an eye on them.
I have one of these and it is quite simply brilliant:
www.airflow-uk.co.uk/Battery-Conditioner.html
I have had it plugged in to trickle charge an Escort Cosworth, Tuscan and Sagaris for a combined total of 13ish years and it is still working. It is not over-priced like some others. It will also clip directly onto your Anderson connectors (positive at the front, negative toward the rear - it'll tell you if you've got it wrong).
The Cossie battery was fine after 7 years. I only had the Tuscan for a couple of years and the Sag battery lasted 8 years before replacement - it was still working fine but had developed a slight crack and weep.
What can I say, other than very impressed.
All the best.
www.airflow-uk.co.uk/Battery-Conditioner.html
I have had it plugged in to trickle charge an Escort Cosworth, Tuscan and Sagaris for a combined total of 13ish years and it is still working. It is not over-priced like some others. It will also clip directly onto your Anderson connectors (positive at the front, negative toward the rear - it'll tell you if you've got it wrong).
The Cossie battery was fine after 7 years. I only had the Tuscan for a couple of years and the Sag battery lasted 8 years before replacement - it was still working fine but had developed a slight crack and weep.
What can I say, other than very impressed.
All the best.
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