Issues with my Ctek Conditioning charger.

[nigelpugh7]

I know there was another thread on here, but it’s been removed now.

So this is a new thread in addition to the reply I had already posted.

Anyway despite my comment that I had never had any issues with mine, guess what happened yesterday.

So the background to this, is that I have had Ctek chargers for years now, mostly for my Caterham, but also been used a lot for our Defender since it’s not been out much during lockdown.

Now my Caterham has not been used since the start of the year, due to all the heavy rain,,then the lockdown.

However at the end of April it was due to have its first MOT, with it just being 3 years old from new.

It had not been on the charger that much, so it went on the ctek the night before the MOT was booked.

Now I also have one of the ctek Bluetooth sensors fitted, so I get alerts on the battery condition on my phone too.

So dropped the car off for MOT, about 30 minutes later I get a call from the garage to say it won’t start.

Long story what happened next, mostly due to COVID 19 restrictions but I got it sorted.

After a good run, I brought it home and checked the battery with my multimeter, it was fine were the engine was running, but dropped to 11.53volts just a few minutes after coming off engine running,

After a night on the Ctek charger in AGM mode, it was showing fully charged,but again after one start it would not turn the Caterham over.

I decided to change it. As I had a new unused one sat in the garage.

[ChampionRabbit]

If the battery is knackered (your battery would fail a load test), there is absolutely no guarantee that even a fancy Ctek charger will bring it back. They aren't capable of magic, even though 'reconditioning' charger manufacturers like to imply that they are. We use
Ctek reconditioners at work (and I have a Chinese one at home), and success rate for a battery that is initially showing symptoms of being knackered is about 50%, if that.

They are still really good chargers. Just not magic.

[nigelpugh7]

ChampionRabbit said:

If the battery is knackered (your battery would fail a load test), there is absolutely no guarantee that even a fancy Ctek charger will bring it back. They aren't capable of magic, even though 'reconditioning' charger manufacturers like to imply that they are. We use
Ctek reconditioners at work (and I have a Chinese one at home), and success rate for a battery that is initially showing symptoms of being knackered is about 50%, if that.

They are still really good chargers. Just not magic.

Thanks, yes I realise if it’s knackered battery then it’s all over.

The point I was about to make is that I think it’s the charger that contributed to the demise of my battery.

And sorry I didn’t add more detail to the first post, I got side tracked and on with another job.

I will post the pictures of what happened to the battery whilst on charge later today.

[GreenV8S]

nigelpugh7 said:

It had not been on the charger that much, so it went on the ctek the night before the MOT was booked.

All the symptoms suggest the battery was ucked, maybe due to not being maintained. You can't blame the charger for failing to maintain the battery if it was not connected.

[nigelpugh7]

GreenV8S said:

All the symptoms suggest the battery was ucked, maybe due to not being maintained. You can't blame the charger for failing to maintain the battery if it was not connected.

Probably true, but they battery was very healthy up until March, with no errors reported from the sensor.

[GreenV8S]

Hard to tell from that image - what were the actual voltages over that time?

[nigelpugh7]

GreenV8S said:

Hard to tell from that image - what were the actual voltages over that time?

I don’t think I actually got the multimeter outs, it’s a pain to get to the battery in my 620.

From the chart it was sitting around 12.5v across Rhe period.

It was back up to 14 and held there for a while on the last charges before it died I think.

[GreenV8S]

nigelpugh7 said:

I don’t think I actually got the multimeter outs, it’s a pain to get to the battery in my 620.

From the chart it was sitting around 12.5v across Rhe period.

It was back up to 14 and held there for a while on the last charges before it died I think.

Do you think any of that evidence points to a problem with the CTEK charger? From what you've said, the battery voltage looked reasonable before it was put on charge and came up to the expected value when on charge. What else could the charger have done?