Aldi Battery Charger £13.99

[TVR_CS]

On sale from Thursday 17th October. I have both my cars on them and highly recommend it, gives a digital display of the battery voltage etc. Just cut off the clips and solder on a cigarette charger connector from Maplins.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-17t...

[db484bhpv8]

Noted. Cheers

[fizmo100]

I've had one of these for a year now, it's great for keep batteries conditioned, but useless for bringing a flat one back from the dead - it detects the battery as faulty, and won't charge it. Worth knowing about before ordering - it's still a great buy, just a little limited in its application.

[DIB350]

I have two of the C-TEK chargers:

http://www.hardwarexpress.co.uk/ctek-multi-mxs36-b...

Got them on Amazon for about £40 each. Bit pricier than the Aldi one but great for both charging from flat and conditioning/maintenance charge.

[SteveSPG]

they also have those grey cloth boot tidies in stock for a few quid at the moment

[db484bhpv8]

Bought mine yesterday and came out of the shop with a few other goodies also.
I charged my battery last night ahead of my trip to the pod later

[Chim450]

Ok, I have bought one of these yesterday. Any advice on "converting" it to charge through the Anderson connector?

[T66ORA]

[quote=TVR_CS] solder on a cigarette charger connector .

I picked one of these up over the weekend, how does the battery charge through the cigar lighter? Its a lot of mucking around to get access to the battery on Speed 6 powered cars, so this would be ideal.

[TVR_CS]

T66ORA said:

TVR_CS said:

solder on a cigarette charger connector .

I picked one of these up over the weekend, how does the battery charge through the cigar lighter? Its a lot of mucking around to get access to the battery on Speed 6 powered cars, so this would be ideal.

The cigarette socket is permanently live even when immobilised, so instead of drawing current through it, you trickle charger the battery using one of these chargers, it's just like connecting directly onto the battery with the croc clips.

[T66ORA]

TVR_CS said:

T66ORA said:

TVR_CS said:

solder on a cigarette charger connector .

I picked one of these up over the weekend, how does the battery charge through the cigar lighter? Its a lot of mucking around to get access to the battery on Speed 6 powered cars, so this would be ideal.

The cigarette socket is permanently live even when immobilised, so instead of drawing current through it, you trickle charger the battery using one of these chargers, it's just like connecting directly onto the battery with the croc clips.

Thanks, so the cigar socket is capable of charging the battery?
I wasn`t aware of that. Any down sides? blowing fuses?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

No downsides that I can think of, and I connect my Accumate like that all the time.

There were some people on the Chim forum the other day with over active imaginations worrying that you might get heat from the poorer-quality contact of the cigarette lighter. I was unable to convince them that the laws of physics don't support their fear: the heat dissipated is proportional to the square of the current, so when you get down to very small currents (e.g. trickle charger) the heat dissipated is teeny, whatever the resistance of the cigarette lighter socket might be. Sure enough every time I remove mine the inside of the socket is stone cold - no surprise!

I wouldn't want to draw a larger current for any length of time because the square law exaggerates the effect of the current and it could get hot. But for the same reason a small current gives a very tiny amount of heat. A trickle charger pushing 100mA through a socket with 10 Ohms resistance* will give a heat dissipation of 0.1W, which is never going to get warm.

* and I'm exaggerating the likely resistance quite a lot there.

[nawarne]

T66ORA said:

TVR_CS said:

T66ORA said:

TVR_CS said:

solder on a cigarette charger connector .

I picked one of these up over the weekend, how does the battery charge through the cigar lighter? Its a lot of mucking around to get access to the battery on Speed 6 powered cars, so this would be ideal.

The cigarette socket is permanently live even when immobilised, so instead of drawing current through it, you trickle charger the battery using one of these chargers, it's just like connecting directly onto the battery with the croc clips.

Thanks, so the cigar socket is capable of charging the battery?
I wasn`t aware of that. Any down sides? blowing fuses?

The C-TEK charger on my Tuscan is hard-wired to the battery.
The charger is under the flap above the tank in the boot, the wires (fairly meaty - 16A?) are fished through over N/S rear wheel arch, along the N/S cill under the carpet and through a grommet into the battery compartment and connected to battery.

There is enough mains lead on the charger to allow me to take it (mains lead) out of the boot and plug into a wall mains socket and then leave the car locked.
Nick

[Chim450]

Can anyone post a link to a compatible cigarette lighter adapter?

[T66ORA]

OK, can we conclude that its fine to use the charger for trickle, via the Ciggy socket, but not to charge a flat-ish battery that way?
Thanks

[SteveSPG]

T66ORA said:

OK, can we conclude that its fine to use the charger for trickle, via the Ciggy socket, but not to charge a flat-ish battery that way?
Thanks

ive used the ctek type charger via lighter connector to charge completely flat batteries on the griff. it doesnt get hot, the wires dont get hot, nor do the connectors (warm, but not hot). it charges overnight and is good to go next day.

[K4TRV]

^^ +1 ^^

The Aldi charger is rated at 3.8A max - most ciggy sockets are fused at somewhere between 10 and 30 Amps.

So it should not be a problem.

The "achilles-Heel" are modern batteries, when if you flatten them completely, their performance and capacity will be severly compromised. They don't make them like they used to 8-((

Advanced design Carbon plates, AGM and gel-types are more resilient (and expensive !!) - AIMHO

Trev

[T66ORA]

Thanks guys off to find a ciggy connection

[SteveSPG]

T66ORA said:

Thanks guys off to find a ciggy connection

if you get a couple of 2 way push connector sets and wire them in, you can make the ciggy connector or croc clip connector swappable.

[TVR_CS]

Chim450 said:

Can anyone post a link to a compatible cigarette lighter adapter?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/car-accessory-plugs-1054

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/automotive-connector...

[Chim450]

TVR_CS said:

Chim450 said:

Can anyone post a link to a compatible cigarette lighter adapter?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/car-accessory-plugs-1054

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/automotive-connector...

Thanks for the link.