Looking for a battery conditioner - trickle charger.

[Mikebentley]

I’m looking to purchase a conditioner/trickle starter of the Ctek type and wondered if anyone can give me some advice.
Got a couple of classic cars one negative the other positive earth. The old Jaguar can be a tricky bugger to start sometimes and is positive earth. I would like a unit I could just attach via a couple of clips to the terminals whilst leaving the car battery connected. Then I would just need to disconnect and go.
Some of the Ctek ones specifically state can be used on negative or positive earth vehicles but don’t state whether the battery needs disconnecting. I know it might seem daft because if the battery is disconnected it is just a standalone device so the polarity is irrelevant.

Any experience of particular models would also be greatly recieved.

Thanks all

[GreenV8S]

If you connect directly to the battery it doesn't make any difference what else is connected to the battery.

[rallycross]

GreenV8S said:

If you connect directly to the battery it doesn't make any difference what else is connected to the battery.

With a normal battery charger that’s fine but I recently bought an Optimate battery charger optimiser fancy thing and it won’t work if the car battery is still connected to the car. I tried it and sure enough didn’t work. Went back to using the 20 year old Gunson charger that still works fine.

Interested to hear what other people recommend as I am charging 2 or 3 batteries a month and need something robust.

Review copied below from auto express may be of interest.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/36...

[Lotobear]

Don't laugh but I've got three of the Aldi smart chargers and one £50 Ctek and the £14 Aldi ones do everything, and more, than the Ctek.

The Aldi ones will also revover a discharged battery which the Ctek can't. The Aldi leads and croc clips are more robust that the Ctek.

Whilst the Ctek is supposed to be Swedish it won't be, even at the premium price charged, and my bet is that the guts of all of them are likely to originate from the same Chinese factory.

I've been using them for three years without any problem. Nowt wrong with the Ctek but over priced IMO

https://www.aldi.co.uk/autoxs-car-battery-charger/...

Edited by Lotobear on Thursday 25th April 12:15

[Mikebentley]

Thanks for the replies so far. The Aldi option looks interesting and I followed all the links you all kindly posted. I couldn’t see if the Aldi was polarity sensitive and my main need is as a battery conditioner to make sure the pesky Jag will have the best chance of starting

[Mikebentley]

Aldi Auto XS not available online and you can’t check if a store has it in stock. Dagnabbit

[northwestrecovery]

Make sure you get some left handed screw drivers to go with the positive earth charger !

[Monkeylegend]

Not quite as cheap as Aldi but I now have a £25 Halfords bike and car trickle charger for up to 70 amp batteries.

Its been trickle charging my SL since last November connected to the boot battery which is still connected to the car and has been fine.

[rallycross]

northwestrecovery said:

Make sure you get some left handed screw drivers to go with the positive earth charger !

Ok smart arse - explain for the rest of us.

Ive only had to charge one positive earth car (in 30 years of charging flat batteries) which was a series 1 E type. It did confuse me when I saw the positive earth thing - as never seen it before.

[GreenV8S]

rallycross said:

With a normal battery charger that’s fine but I recently bought an Optimate battery charger optimiser fancy thing and it won’t work if the car battery is still connected to the car. I tried it and sure enough didn’t work.

I'm struggling to see how it could tell. The current draw from the battery would be impossibly small. Maybe trying to do some sort of capacitive check?

[Mikebentley]

rallycross said:

northwestrecovery said:

Make sure you get some left handed screw drivers to go with the positive earth charger !

Ok smart arse - explain for the rest of us.

Ive only had to charge one positive earth car (in 30 years of charging flat batteries) which was a series 1 E type. It did confuse me when I saw the positive earth thing - as never seen it before.

Thanks northwestrecovery but I’ve already got some left handed screwdrivers, glass hammers and sky hooks. It’s the long weights and rainbow paint I can’t find. Maybe they sell it with the stupid comments for Internet forum books. Where did you get yours?

[northwestrecovery]

If you are confused by connecting a battery charger you shouldn't be touching a car .All batteries are marked pos and neg or red and black as are the chargers , its not rocket science its called common sense or read the instructions .

[Mikebentley]

I just constructed a long and wity reply to your post......and then thought don’t feed the troll.

[b2hbm]

Lotobear said:

Don't laugh but I've got three of the Aldi smart chargers and one £50 Ctek and the £14 Aldi ones do everything, and more, than the Ctek.

The Aldi ones will also revover a discharged battery which the Ctek can't. The Aldi leads and croc clips are more robust that the Ctek.

Whilst the Ctek is supposed to be Swedish it won't be, even at the premium price charged, and my bet is that the guts of all of them are likely to originate from the same Chinese factory.

I've been using them for three years without any problem. Nowt wrong with the Ctek but over priced IMO

https://www.aldi.co.uk/autoxs-car-battery-charger/...

Exactly the same viewpoint here, only my cheapies are from Lidl. I bought the Ctek first based on reputation and then a cheap Lidl one so I could charge two at once. The Lidl one cost less than 1/3rd the Ctek and has a more meaningful display of battery state/charging voltage. Like the Aldi ones, they are impressive and now I'd buy one even they were the same price point as the Cteks.

[dave_s13]

I got a ctek mxs 5.0

https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/mxs-5-0

My BMW was doing some weird stuff related to a weak battery as BMWs do. Put it through a couple of reconditioning cycles and now all is well, and has been for weeks now.

I got mine off eBay for about £53 delivered. The Aldi ones weren't about then though so I'd they are just as good then it's s no brainer.

[rallycross]

GreenV8S said:

rallycross said:

With a normal battery charger that’s fine but I recently bought an Optimate battery charger optimiser fancy thing and it won’t work if the car battery is still connected to the car. I tried it and sure enough didn’t work.

I'm struggling to see how it could tell. The current draw from the battery would be impossibly small. Maybe trying to do some sort of capacitive check?

Must be something like that but makes for a not very useful product as some cars it’s a pain to get the battery out quickly.

[348jeff]

These look to be really useful - allows you to connect your charger through the cigarette lighter so no need to mess about with battery terminals etc

https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/connect-cig-...

[Lotobear]

Yeah, a lot of the Caterham boys used to use the cigar lighter fitting - easy to fit to any charger

A mate of mine had his hanging from the garage ceiling so he simply pulled up and pluged in

[Carpentersuperstar]

I bought a Paco 7 stage battery charger on line for about £35/40 about 5 years ago. it's perfect for me and our old 1989 Renault camper.
It can be left permanently connected when we're touring and keeps the battery in tip top condition.
It has a desulphation stage for deeply discharged batteries (1) followed by a soft start (2) then bulk charge,(3) top charge (4) ( you can start the vehicle after this stage or leave it for step (5) which tests the battery and then reconditions a deeply discharged battery (6) and finally at stage (7) can be left connected for long term maintenance charging.

If I'd known Aldi sold such a battery charger I would have bought one of theirs..I buy tools from Aldi have been so surprised at what you get for the money. I bought a router from them 7 years ago and the guys in the joinery shop where I was working at the time laughed when they learned I'd only paid £ 19,99 for it. It's still working and I've used it every week at work even though they claim it's for light use only. ( they don't laugh now ! )