Are all car battery chargers pretty much the same?

mikey72

britishboy wrote: »

So the higher the Amp rating of the charger, the faster it will charge a battery? Seen lots of 6Amp ones online, can you get any higher?

And a lot of the adverts say '6 Amp charger, suitable for up to 1800cc petrol engines' Is this a golden rule or not? Surely a battery off of a car dioesnt matter what car it came from? (mines 3 litre diesel incidently)

Cheers

The smart chargers are usually 3.8A, so it'll put a decent enough charge in overnight, and a day to recover from flat.

Although a smart charger will struggle to start with a flat battery.

Gloomendoom

britishboy wrote: »

Cheers all

This is the battery I got:

http://www.battery2u.co.uk/type-I1-varta-car-battery-silver.aspx

That is a lead acid battery. Any battery charger from Faraday's first to the modern types will charge it.

I've used one of the cheap Aldi battery chargers for a couple of years. I also have one of the more expensive versions of the same thing. I forget the make. There is no difference in performance that I can detect. The Aldi one is possibly better on balance as it has a digital display so you can see the voltage.

As has been said, you don't need a massive output to charge a huge battery. It just takes longer.

Edit: My car is a 3 litre diesel also

mikey72

Gloomendoom wrote: »

That is a lead acid battery. Any battery charger from Faraday's first to the modern types will charge it.

I've used one of the cheap Aldi battery chargers for a couple of years. I also have one of the more expensive versions of the same thing. I forget the make. There is no difference in performance that I can detect. The Aldi one is possibly better on balance as it has a digital display so you can see the voltage.

As has been said, you don't need a massive output to charge a huge battery. It just takes longer.

Edit: My car is a 3 litre diesel also

I've got five batteries I keep going over winter, including one like the op's (plus the ones in the cars we use) and so far the one Aldi charger has coped, but I'm going to pick up a second, as I can't be bothered moving it around.
I'm tempted to try the Lidl one now it's in the shop though.

BoGoF

Anybody know if Aldi are doing these just now? Don't have a Lidl in my neck of the woods.

mikey72

Not yet this winter.
Hopefully soon, they're usually out at similar times.

Gloomendoom

BoGoF wrote: »

Anybody know if Aldi are doing these just now? Don't have a Lidl in my neck of the woods.

keep checking their website under Special Buys. I think you can sign up for a newsletter too.

They last did them in November IIRC. I bought my mate one for Christamas.

Gloomendoom

BoGoF wrote: »

Anybody know if Aldi are doing these just now? Don't have a Lidl in my neck of the woods.

Keep checking their website under Special Buys. I think you can sign up for a newsletter too.

They last did them in November IIRC. I bought my mate one for Christmas.

espresso

BoGoF wrote: »

Anybody know if Aldi are doing these just now? Don't have a Lidl in my neck of the woods.

They had them in October see here and will likely have them in again soon.

I use one from Lidl and my brother has a couple of classic cars and a Harley that are trickle charged with the Lidl chargers - great chargers.

forgotmyname

The CTEK charger is better but 3x better, Probably not. But i bought one anyway. As ALDI, LIDL always ran out of chargers
before i got there.

Did think about buying one when i spotted a couple left recently but thought i dont really need another charger.

I like the plug you connect to the battery on the CTEK, I just connect that to the charger no need to open the bonnet now.

Bought an extra one for my caravan also, No messing with access to the battery and putting the clips on. Just plug in and sorted.

Dont think the cheaper ones have that option but you could make something similar for a lot less i guess.


Another thing, They are trickle chargers and really need overnight to put a decent charge back into the battery and longer to
condition it. If you need something that will get you going quickly you need something bigger.

jase1

mikey72 wrote: »

I think if the Aldi or Lidl blew up batteries, some one would say.

Which do you think has the more exacting regulation out of a cheap charger and an alternator?

On the other hand, it isn't unknown for cheap chargers to overheat and bust themselves if asked to do too much Very unlikely that they'd damage the battery though.