Battery conditioners

[eltax91]

Hi all

My trusty old 'auto xs' (think it was aldi's finest) battery charger has decided to bite the dust, the lights are on but no one is home.

It was a trusty old charger, but it was just that, a charger. What I'd like to replace it with is something smarter. So, eBay brings up all sorts of stuff for all sorts of prices, however I don't really know what I'm looking for.

What I'd like to do is to 'set and forget' it on my toy car and just remove it when its ready for use and also have it to quick charge a flat battery on my other cars in cases of emergency

So, any recommendations?

[jjones]

optimate, used one for years on my motorbike, never had any battery issues.

[Six Fiend]

+1 for Optimate, been using one for many many years.

[eltax91]

jjones said:

optimate, used one for years on my motorbike, never had any battery issues.

Ok, so what's the difference between a conditioner and charger? And how do I know which is which when looking at adverts that might well be set out to deceive me.

[davethebunny]

optimate won't quick charge a battery.

I'd get an optimate and a boost pack or a set of jump leads if you have enough vehicles.

[Six Fiend]

eltax91 said:

Ok, so what's the difference between a conditioner and charger? And how do I know which is which when looking at adverts that might well be set out to deceive me.

A charger just charges a battery and that's that. It can charge quickly.

A conditioner is something you leave plugged in. It monitors the battery condition and charges as and when necessary to keep it in tippety top condition.

As poster above says I have a booster pack for jump starting flat batteries and a conditioner for maintaining them.

[J4CKO]

I am a convert, got one for my 944 and it fires up like a new car now, mine is a ctek one.

[Dodsy]

Optimate is designed for Bike batteries, Accumate is the car version

http://www.accumate.co.uk/

[krunchkin]

Sorry to be a car dunce here but I bought one of these the other week from Halfrods and I'm slightly confused by the Amp setting. Does having it set to higher amps charge the battery faster? Is it risky to have it at higher amps? Basically - if the settings are 2a, 4, 8 and 12. Which would you pick in which circumstances?

[Six Fiend]

Dodsy said:

Optimate is designed for Bike batteries, Accumate is the car version

http://www.accumate.co.uk/

Optimate does cars, boats, caravans etc perfectly fine (Mine is about 15 years old - grey with 3 LEDs)

Edited by Six Fiend on Saturday 29th December 08:40

[Zarkingfardwarks]

I bought a CTEK which has kept my batteries in fine fettle for 3 years so far. It also handles charging duties very well.

Amazon selling one for around £50

[Dodsy]

Six Fiend said:

Optimate does cars, boats, caravans etc perfectly fine (Mine is about 15 years old - grey with 3 LEDs)

Edited by Six Fiend on Saturday 29th December 08:40

I think it depends on the Ah capacity of the battery - the Accumate is for larger capacity.

[Hereward]

CTEK and Optimate always get recommendations in these threads.

I have a couple of CTEK's, one of which is hooked up to my tractor constantly for 6 months of the year. I keep my Touareg plugged in too, since it's only used at weekends. It's nearly 10 years old and still on it's factory-fit battery.

[Riff Raff]

Another CTEK fan here. I have a couple of them - one 25A job for quick charging, and an up to 5A one for slow charging. I have fly leads connected to my bikes and cars, so I can charge whichever one's battery needs topping up. The fly leads have LED's in them which tell you when a charge is needed.

I used to have an Accumate, but it went wrong and 'cooked' one of the batteries it was connected to. No problems with the CTEK's so far.

[GoneAnon]

I have a CTEK that connects to the battery via an optional cigar socket plug - that connection method only works if the socket is permanently live though.

If your socket is isolated with the ignition off, you should use the supplied fly-lead or crocodile clips, or buy one of their dedicated charging sockets.
I'm not connected to this seller but it was the first picture of the piece that I found:
http://smartercharger.com/accessories/#CTEK%20Comf...

I'd suggest the fuse holder would need to be removed to allow the cable to pass through a sensibly sized hole in the bulkhead,and then replaced with a new one.

Edited by GoneAnon on Saturday 29th December 11:49

[V8RX7]

Just bought a Ctek as it seems to win the Auto Express Tests (only tests I could find online)

I bought the 5amp one for £53 on Ebay as it has 8 stages as opposed to the £35 one which was IIRC 3amps and 4 stages.

I'm working on the basis if it saves / revives just one battery it's paid for itself.

I also have a HUGE sealey charger that will start a car from dead flat within a couple of minutes - Ebay too.

[Riff Raff]

GoneAnon said:

Does anyone know if the fuse holder can be removed to allow the cable to pass through a sensibly sized hole in the bulkhead?

You can't on the ones I have. The fuseholder is moulded in. There is nothing to stop you cutting the cable though and re-connecting with some bullet connectors or similar. I've done that on one of my bikes to get the connector to where I wanted it. Careful with the polarity, obviously...........

[Puddenchucker]

Another vote for CTEK.

I've got two; An XS800 I bought several years ago, to use as a tricke charger to keep my 350Z alive during the winter months when it doesn't get used much, and more recently an MXS 5.0 to replace a conventional Gunson charger.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Ctek 3600xs here - one in the garage on the Saab, just a quick plug in with the supplied loom, and another run out to the tvr under a cover - both in frost mode at the mo, both start in the button. Had one for 4 or 5 years, no problem.

Avoided accumate/optimate after my brother had one fry itself while attached to his bike.

[bimsb6]

Cheapest place i found before xmas was here , www.twowheeljunkie.co.uk These are the smaller ones ,i bought them for the bikes but do use the same model for my car with no problems .These were selling on ebay 2nd hand for more than i paid new.