Good Automatic/Smart Battery Charger - Car

Alias_Omega

Interesting. I was thinking of the Halfords charger as i have a trade card, which brings things down to reasonable prices. An example of this was a recent battery which was brought down to just over £40 from £60.

The battery charger would just be to cover a 2.0ltr ford diesel (S-Max) car, though it would probably never be needed. Were the people who people knock on the door to borrow "jump leads", "trolley jack".

Whilst it might be always handy to ring Mr AA man when the car has a flat battery as Mrs AO left the interior light on etc, i would guess that my neighbour wont have a battery charger to lend us, and were on our own with that..

I noticed a few 4A and 8A chargers. Were happy with one that will be sucessful overnight. So a 8-10hr charging time is fine. No need for an optimate etc. Mrs AO will ensure that the car is started and run everyday as she makes local trips to the Asda/Tesco etc.

AO

forgotmyname

I have that CTEK charger and its great for keeping batteries in good condition, BUT... Its only 3.6/3.8 amps.

Take a long time to charg a dead battery enough to start it.

That halfords one 7.5amps, Will do a quicker job but still slow...

Local trips everyday could be doing more harm than good. A decent run is better for the car than short daily trips, For engine wear and battery life.

And a 7Ah charger wont charge a 70Ah battery in 10 hours.. As the charge builds up the charger reduces the output to protect the battery.

You could be looking at 24hours to get it FULLY charged.

The answer to a dead battery is usually a new battery or a new alternator.

Machine Mart, Clarke 910 jump pack... With compressor, Prices have gone up though. Its nearly £70 now.

You can get cheap ones for £25 or so but the batteries in those are pretty crap.

I bought my 910 in 2005 and its still started a car today. Even though its been in my boot for over a month. Naughty me i normally charge it monthly as they suggest to keep the battery in top condition.

Crabman

Heads up that LIDL are selling the charger from tomorrow for £13.99 (reduced by £1 from their previous price):

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_38025.htm

Product Manual (PDF)

ALDI also sell one but it isn't going to be available anytime soon. According to the product manuals, the LIDL charger shouldn't be used whilst the car terminals are still connected to the battery. This is generally only an issue if you don't know the radio code.

The ALDI one says it can be used whilst the car's connected & seems a little more advanced in terms of features. (link to ALDI's product manual).

forgotmyname

Reduced by a £1? It was only £12.99 was it not?

I spotted some of these in the store a couple of weeks back, Not sure how much they were though. But i thought i have enough chargers as it is.

Large clarke 400A starter/charger. Several 6 - 12A chargers and the CTEK chargers..

I dont think i need any more

getmore4less

if going ctek the price difference on amazon between the 3.6 and 5.0 is quite small with the 5.0 at £51

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ctek

cb1979

You need to be carefull using car chargers on Motorbike batterys, even the smart chargers have too much output for small bike batterys, tends to boil them

forgotmyname

I think even though my CTEK 3600 is 3.6amps and designed to be left on 24/7 for months ad months at a time it drops that output even lower for bike batteries.

Yep just found the manual. 0.8A for batteries under 14Ah.

gord115

Every year or so Auto express magazine do a comparison test on Battery chargers.
Every time Ctek comes out on top.

forgotmyname

Although i have a CTEK and it does the job. Is that test because they got some freebies?

The best tool sponsored by XYZ is the XYZ...

Read the headlight bulb reviews. The best bulb tested in the Philips test centre is a Philips. Next test done in the OSRAM lab and OSRAM wins.

Crabman

The LIDL charger manual says to disconnect the battery from the car before charging.

However, the ALDI manual suggests the following for charging whilst the battery remains connected to the vehicle:

Determine which battery terminal is not directly connected to the chassis (+ or-).
Connect the respective terminal clamp of the charging cable (red terminal POSITIVE /
+, black terminal NEGATIVE / -) to this battery terminal.
Using the remaining terminal clamp of the battery charging cable, create a
connection to the vehicle. Clamp to a bolt or blank metal, as far away from the battery
and fuel pipe as possible.

What is the reason for clamping the negative charger lead to a bolt/blank metal on the vehicle, instead of the negative terminal of the battery?