optimate/accumate....difference and price

[markbigears]

Either its a monday morning or im being thick.....ive read the bumf and they seem to do the same thing? what one do i need, long lay ups stuck in the garage. anyone got a better price than £34 plus VAT? mark, and yes i'm a tight git!

[RichB]

My trickle charger has gone bust so I need a new one, just browsed Accumate's web site and I must say this seems a valid question, what's the difference? Rich...

[raceboy]

I asked them the same question a week ago.....

email I had from the accumate people said:

Dear Steve, Many thanks for your email. The decision as to which charger is best suited to which task has to be governed by what it will be used for most of the time. If it is intended mainly for a modern motorcycle, the OptiMate is the right choice. If you need a maintenance charger mainly for use with a car, then AccuMate is the one to go for. Both chargers will work with both types of vehicle, but they are best-suited as above. Hope this explains. Therefore, if it is mainly for use with your car then the AccuMate will be best for your needs. 1 x AccuMate or 1 x OptiMate would be £34.00 + VAT each and there would be a carriage charge of £6 + VAT. The total for either one would therefore be £47.00 inclusive of VAT and carriage for either one.

So CAR = Accumate BIKE = Optimate

Best price I got was £39.99 over the counter at my local battery specialist
www.countybattery.co.uk/

[Leadfoot]

I use an optimate (each) for my car & bike. They work fine on either.

[RichB]

Thanks chaps, right then one more really mundane question; how long is the lead so I can work out if I need the extension cable at £2.75 or whatever! Rich...

[thornogson]

Frost do one for £31 see www.frost.co.uk

[raceboy]

RichB said:

Thanks chaps, right then one more really mundane question; how long is the lead so I can work out if I need the extension cable at £2.75 or whatever! Rich...

Not quite long enough, my power point is on the back wall in my garage and it wouldn't quite reach, using the hard wired battery connector especially if I wanted it all nice and neat along the wall, so £3.49 for a 5m extension cable and all should be well

[iandbeech]

Comes with crocodille connectors as standard but you may also want to consider the different connectors such as the the cigar lighter fitting if for a TVR as its easy to connect then! It charges via the cigar lighter wiring back to the battery.

[raceboy]

It also comes with a lead with eyelets for connection to the battery terminals on one end and rubber booted plug on the other, this lead is quite short so would just tuck under the carpet in the passenger footwell

[Julian64]

Hang on chaps, the fella's not being very precise with you. Got one of these for the Cobra and it didn't work cos it needed the other one.

www.accumate.co.uk/optiaccumatecomparison.htm

As you can see the constant charge current rate and the Maximum Ah size is different. My cobra has a 68 Ah battery and the optimate couldn't hack it, so I swapped for the Accumate.

What happend was that the optimate never got to float charge as it struggled with major charge all the time.

Hope that helps before you do the wrong thing.

[RichB]

Oh B*ll*x, my wife's just bought me an Optimate III and from a motorbike shop (early Xmas!), and I'm not sure they sell the Accumate! Perhaps I'll just give it a try and see what happens. :roleyes: Rich...