Budget battery charger / maintainer recommendations
Budget battery charger / maintainer recommendations
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Discussion

Davie

Original Poster:

6,252 posts

245 months

Tuesday 1st June 2021
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Morning,

Looking to buy a cheap (but not crap!) battery charger that can be left connected pretty much constantly on a car that's parked up in a garage.

I know CTEK seem to be the go to but been browsing usual "go to" solutions, ie Screwfix / Toolstation and they have a few options, including this:

https://www.toolstation.com/einhell-smart-battery-...

Any thoughts on the above or indeed, any recommendations for a similar, poor spec budget?

Ideally one that could jump start a car would be good but that's not going to happen unless I be a bit less tight... but I am, so jump start ability isn't a critical.

Thanks

Scrump

23,947 posts

188 months

Tuesday 1st June 2021
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I have found the cheap Aldi/Lidl ones okay for the money. Don’t seem to last more than a few years but for about £15 seem good value. You will need to wait until,they are on special sale though.

The issue I have with these compared to the more expensive Ctek is the lack of permanent battery connectors, they now only come with fixed crocodile clips.
Note that the ctek will automatically start charging on the same setting when reconnected to the car but some of the cheap ones need to have buttons pushed to start charging again, this is not ideal for one of my locations as the charger is tucked away indoors and the connectors are external.

rigga

8,806 posts

231 months

Tuesday 1st June 2021
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As above, Aldi battery tender works well, and although yes it only comes with crocodile clips, I spliced a optimizer lead into the one, so it matches the permanent hook up on one of my bikes.

Drogo

803 posts

247 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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CTEK
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/41...

Had mine on two car over apx 8 years and has kept my MGB battery going all winter.

Belle427

11,963 posts

263 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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The Halfords ones are pretty good.