Which trickle charger

[HTB]

I currently have a number of bikes plugged in to 'Optimate' trickle chargers/battery tenders/conditioners (whatever!) keeping my batteries in good nick. I'm probably not going to use the Aston V8V every week as I travel quite a bit, so it makes sense to keep the battery topped up. I can't see a good reason why I shouldn't use one of my existing chargers/conditioners to plug in to the 12v power socket in the boot.

Other than the price of an Aston Martin item, I can' see any reason why my Optimates shouldn't work or be any different from what AM are providing. Is anyone using a non Aston charger?

Thanks,
Harry

[RichB]

I use Optimates on all my cars and they are a good piece of kit.

[snuffy]

The AM one is a CTEK. The difference between buying one from from AM and buying one from CTEK is the AM one has a AM logo on it. Oh, and the AM is 4 times the price (for exactly the same model). "Hello Sir, bend over..."

[jeremydb9]

I keep mine outside and if you do likewise you can get a solar trickle charger for about £15 on ebay. I have no practical way of plugging in the car.

As an aside I left it for 2 and a half weeks whilst on holiday over Xmas and it just started, so the flip side is it seems to work fine left for that time and you will I assume use if more frequently than every 2 weeks anyway.

Best

Jeremy

[Jockman]

The battery should last 6 weeks without charge (10 weeks if BDS has been flicked), though if you have an active tracker this reduces to 3 weeks.

I appreciate that cold weather can mess things up a bit but a good 35 mile jaunt each weekend should give you sufficient recharge

[drofnavi]

I use a motorcycle Optimate on my car, it works fine. The Aston Ctek is way too expensive.

[Neilc123]

Can I ask which optimate people use? The ones I can find seem to have to be connected directly to the battery rather than the cigarette lighter? Thanks

[bogie]

I use Aston CTEK as got bought it as a pressie and it fits the socked in the boot

you could buy a generic CTEK one for £40 and hard wire it into the boot and just leave it there....pretty much how mine is anyway

[HTB]

Neilc123 said:

Can I ask which optimate people use? The ones I can find seem to have to be connected directly to the battery rather than the cigarette lighter? Thanks

Neil,

I have an Optimate 4 and and Optimate 3. I've just purchased a cigarette (or maybe a cigar) adapter for Optimate from fleabay.

Thanks for the replies chaps - I'll stick with what I have and spend the savings on petrol. I think the car will normally get a good run at least once a week as long as there isn't half an inch of ice across the road from my house as there is today....

Harry

[MaverickV12]

I bought this one .....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CTEK-MULTI-MXS-5-0-12V-B...

I contacted them and asked which one for the Aston sized battery and they advised me as to this one. Please check yourself though. I also bought a cigar adapter and just run an extension lead into the car when I have to leave it for any period of time. Which I hate to do, so rarely use it.

I have used it to, "condition", the battery, with a total discharge and recharge in 24 hours. The Cigar adapter is brilliant. It stops me lifting bonnet, which does not seem to work very well seeing as the battery is under rear seat. Adapter is even better when you realise that I have to pull apart the seats to charge the battery. Just plug it in and away it goes. Real easy plug and play

[drofnavi]

I use the accessory socket inside the car as well, the drivers door closes without nipping the lead. It means I don't drive off with the charger still connected.

[snuffy]

HTB said:

I have an Optimate 4 and and Optimate 3. I've just purchased a cigarette (or maybe a cigar) adapter for Optimate from fleabay.

Can you get a pipe adapter for DB9s ?

[GlynV8]

There is an Aston Martin CTEK one on the well known auction site right now:
link clicky.
Don't know the seller, but may be of interest.

[Jockman]

snuffy said:

Can you get a pipe adapter for DB9s ?

But it can get a bit slipper-y if it gets wet

[triple5]

MaverickV12 said:

I bought this one .....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CTEK-MULTI-MXS-5-0-12V-B...

I have used it to, "condition", the battery, with a total discharge and recharge in 24 hours.

What type of battery do you have, I'd always understood it that normal car batteries are not designed for deep cycling, so if you can avoid it they should not be fully discharged.

[Bravo73]

I use the CTEK 3600 (or 3.6, it's the same model effectively) with the cigarette lighter attachment. Plugs into the boot.

It's the same as the AM one, just without the £200 AM sticker.

[V8 PLL]

Recently had to replace my Aston Martin CETK battery charger/conditioner as it had stopped working. As I don't
use the car much during the winter I ended up with a totally flat battery.

Spoke to a technical guy at CTEK to for his advice, basically he indicated the Aston Martin CETK charger just
wasn't up to the job (his words not mine). As the battery gets older the charger has to work harder, particularly
as I leave mine for long periods. Furthermore, I noticed right from day one when the car was brand new it
struggled to stay fully charged, plus the unit started to get very warm. I did inform my Dealership about my
concerns and was told this was normal, anyway the CTEK guy pointed out that it had to work that hard it just
burnt out after three and half years.

I have now replaced it via Amazon with a CTEK 7.0 (including cigarette lighter connector and extension lead
plus a 5 year warranty) as this is designed for heavy duty batteries, although the cheaper CTEK 5.0 is more than
adequate if you use your car on a regular basis. My battery is now fully charged and in "condition mode" and
hasn't budged from this setting despite the current low temperatures we're having.

[MaverickV12]

triple5 said:

What type of battery do you have, I'd always understood it that normal car batteries are not designed for deep cycling, so if you can avoid it they should not be fully discharged.

Bugger ...... can you tell me more, I didn't know that, can different types of battery be damaged ......

[MichaelV8V]

Normal lead acid car batteries hate being fully discharged, they usually need replacing within a few months of a full discharge

Older rechargeable batteries in phones, laptops etc. were Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and they had to be fully discharged before being recharged to avoid 'memory effect'. These are mainly used on cheap rechargeable stuff now, such as budget solar garden lights.

Recent rechargeable batteries are usually Lithium-ion (Li-ion) as used in iphones, ipads, and erm, Boeing Dreamliners, prefer to be kept fully charged. But not overcharged, because then they set on fire and make your luxurious new plane smell really bad. And apparently they are a bugger to put out because they give off oxygen when they burn, so smothering them toput out the fire doesn't work too well.

[MaverickV12]