Battery conditioner

[Gettoff]

Morning all,
Just looking to get a battery conditioner ready for winter time, where is the best place to purchase one? OEM from dealers is around £230 while aston parts online are doing them for around £130. Any other suggestions welcome, thanks.
P.S Has anybody had an issue with fuel filler cap release button not working? The manual pull in the boot works fine and the solenoid sounds like its working, but no flippage.

[Neil1300R]

AM battery conditioner is a CTEK with a very expensive bit of branding stuck on.
Fuel filler caps - yep they all do that sir! may need the cable replacing

[BingoBob]

This:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Multi-Functional-4-St...

Plus this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ctek-CTE-56263-Cigarette-L...

I use exactly that on my Vantage and it plugs into the cigar lighter socket in the boot.

[BingoBob]

You don't say what year your Vantage is. Do the pre-2009MY have cigar lighters in the boot?

[NigelStn]

Mine is an 07 maodel and has a socket in the boot - I thought that they all had?

[BingoBob]

I belive the pre-2009MY ones have got an extra socket for the battery conditioner. This:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/3-pin-xlr-plug-1025

[Gettoff]

Thanks for the replies and the links Bob. It is an '07 MY so does have the 12v
outlet in the boot, looks like 1x CTEK charger coming up .

[ds2000]

BingoBob said:

I use exactly that on my Vantage and it plugs into the cigar lighter socket in the boot.

Cigar lighter? I suppose a lowly cigarette for Aston owners is a bit common

[MichaelV8V]

ds2000 said:

Cigar lighter? I suppose a lowly cigarette for Aston owners is a bit common

Yes, it is for those times when one is sitting in one's boot, having brandy and cigars

[BingoBob]

Is that not what they're called? Oops.

In French it's called 'allume-cigare". Looks like I've been contaminated from living here too long.

[George H]

I've got this one



Was about £200 I think but works perfectly, never had an issue with it.

[RichB]

£200 I've got 3 x Accumates on my cars which work perfectly and cost about £35 each

[snuffy]

BingoBob said:

This:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Multi-Functional-4-St...

Plus this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ctek-CTE-56263-Cigarette-L...

I use exactly that on my Vantage and it plugs into the cigar lighter socket in the boot.

I have one of those which I used on my Noble. I spotted the older version that I used to have on http://astonmartinbits.com and nearly fell off my chair ! It's the same thing with an AM badge on, but 5 times the price !!

[v8woollie]

Mine is this and works well:

http://www.ctekchargers.co.uk/ctek-mxs5.0.php

[mikey k]

I got my Aston branded one free as part of my deal

[MichaelV8V]

I looked at the price of the Aston CTEK, then bought a CTEK from much further up the range with the money I saved (sounds like woman maths, but its really man maths )

Then I forgot it was plugged in and drove out of the garage, dragging the charger, then the extension lead, pulled my iPhone player off the shelf and shattered that, then knocked over the dehumidifier spilling water everywhere, eventually snapped the wire on the CTEK. At about that time I noticed all the noise and stopped

Now the charger doesn't work, do you think it would have been OK if I'd bought the one with the AM logo?

[BingoBob]

Still cheaper than the mark-up on the AM one.

Good job, by the way.

[Murph7355]

+1 on Accumates, though I think the last one I bought (couple of months ago) was about 50 quid incl VAT, delivery and the 12v power socket adapter (they come with croc clips and a permanent fixing as standard).

Similar to cTek but cheaper (or used to be). Have been using them for 7yrs and they do the job (to the point that I'm not convinced the "higher spec" ones will actually do any more).

Aston branded ones are a piss take even at 130 quid, let alone 200+.

[bogie]

I got bought the Aston one as a pressie, was about £120 ish although I have Optimates for other vehicles and rarely pay more than £40. Except recently for a lithium battery charger which seems to still command a premium over everything else right now

[Murph7355]

Where are you buying your Optimates/Accumates from?

Last time I got them sub-40 quid was for a bulk buy with a bunch of other car club members about 7yrs ago.

Always found a garden spares place to be cheapest (Green Reaper I think), but if you're readily able to get them for 40 or less, it would be handy to know where from as I could do with one more