Battery conditioners/chargers..

[Nicko_12345]

Anyone run one of these?

Ive got the MR2 sat in the garage and today i came to it and the battery was flat ive read some stuff online and the CTEK ones seem to be highly rated.

Infact i have just had this one off ebay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260784698504?ssPageName=... only £39.

How much electric will one of these use when the battery is full and in maintenance mode?

Thanks

Nick

[miniman]

CTEK and Accumate both excellent. Bugger all power consumption when maintaining a charged battery.

[Nicko_12345]

miniman said:

CTEK and Accumate both excellent. Bugger all power consumption when maintaining a charged battery.

Thats good to know then, seems a bit of a bargain to!

is it safe to start the car with the charger still connected?

[miniman]

Not convinced it is to be honest. I did it a couple of times with my Chimaera and blew the inline fuse on the charger on one occasion so stopped doing it.

[Nicko_12345]

miniman said:

Not convinced it is to be honest. I did it a couple of times with my Chimaera and blew the inline fuse on the charger on one occasion so stopped doing it.

Ok, thanks for the info.

[MarkwG]

Yep, disconnect before start up or it'll fritz itself - I can recommend CTEK; really easy to fit,& with various connector options dead easy to set up. I've got the plug in sockets with condition monitors built into the boot trim for the BMs as the battery is in the boot, & the underbonnet one on the Alfa. Then just trail the cable out, it's flat enough not to do any damage, or be damaged. Works a treat.

[Hybrids]

I use a Ctek XS7000, great charger/ conditioner
The XS3600 you have linked to is a very good price

[TorqueVR]

Another yes vote here. My son and I use them for a bike and a Chimaera. Mine packed up 2 weeks ago after over 4 years but I had no hesitation buying another.

[Nicko_12345]

Thanks for the replies, looks like i have found a decent bargain on ebay for a change!

[jamiesonmurray]

I got a similar charger to the Ctek type from Aldi or Lidle, it was only £12 and has been keeping my battery topped up while I'm offshore 5 weeks at a time for about a year now, it won't charge a flat battery but I just leave it on all the time when I'm away,
please note you can't do this with normal battery chargers as you will dry the battery out
i hear they have them back up for sale,
£12 and they do the same job!

[samuelellis]

I have a CTEK multi xs25000 - cost me a fair whack but i use it to charge the one battery under my bonnet and six in the boot simultaneously with no issues

Also i have one of those energy monitors that show me how much electricity i am using the house and with the charger charging it does not use all that much and when its just doing float maintenance i barely notice it is on

I have noticed on the voltgague in my car that after it has been charged on a ctek the batterys return to float level quicker than just charged by alternator

[Ozzie Osmond]

Maplin sell a solar trickle-charger for a tenner.

Very often if your battery's going flat you're better off spending money on a new battery than a charger.

[Mr2Mike]

Both Lidl and Aldi are selling (or at least have been very recently) battery maintenance chargers, very much like the CTEK brand.

[5705]

I've never felt comfortable leaving something that's mains-powered plugged in for such long periods.

I now use a super-low-tech battery isolator, like this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battery-Disconnect-Switc... (Of course, that affects alarms and radio/codes.)