New battery?

Poppy9

OH has a trickle (?) charger for his motorbike battery, is that the same sort of charger?

marlot

Poppy9 wrote: »

OH has a trickle (?) charger for his motorbike battery, is that the same sort of charger?

The Aldi/Lidl ones are better. A trickle charger normally puts out about 13.8v and is fine for keeping a battery about 80% charged.

A smart charger (as in the Lidl/Aldiones, or CTEK etc) will fully charge a battery and then keep it charged.

marlot

Strider590 wrote: »

...the Aldi one ...is not a smart charger.

Haven't checked their latest one, but mine is.

Has functions like:
Reactivation of deep-discharged 12 V batteries using pulse charging
Pulse charging allows gentle pre-charging of 12 V batteries to 10.5 V. The set charging program continues charging until the battery is charged to capacity. (See also chapter “Starting the charging process”).
During charging, the charger produces a reduced charging current changing between 0.07 and 0.8 A. This way, the battery is moved into a normal operating condition.

Trickle charging
Once the battery has been fully charged, the charger automatically changes to trickle
charging. Depending on the measured voltage, the charging is interrupted or the battery
is maintained in a fully charged condition with low voltage currents (0.8 / 0.07 A).

[Deleted User]

If 12.61 volts is with the engine running, I'd have the alternator checked.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

They're in Aldi right now, I highly recommend buying one if you don't have a battery charger!!!

I have a CTEK, but i've bought the Aldi one (out of curiosity, to dismantle), it is NOT a CTEK on the inside (despite what people say), it is not a smart charger. But it is a good price for a bog standard battery charger to charge and remove after charging.

If yours is the same as the one in the picture this week, I'd be interested to see a picture of the innards.

It's too small to be a transformer, so I asumed it's a switcher, it's got pulse charging, automatic voltage selection, and drives a digital readout, so I always assumes it was a processor, or a dedicated chipset like the LT range.

fatbelly

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

I would however invest in a smart charger, keep an eye open at Lidls and Aldi for when they have them @ £14ish, just as good as CTEK @ £40, and every now and again give the battery a good couple of days conditioning charge.

£14.99 from Lidl from 11 Oct

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_35188.htm

GolfBravo

Poppy9 wrote: »

Is there life in this old dog yet?

He tested it and gave me the reading:

volts 12.61
measured 250 CCA
rating 390 CCA

quoted almost £80 for new battery but local supplier £45.

Thanks

250 CCA out of 390 CCA (around 65%) is not too bad for a 7 year old battery.

However, as the weather gets colder the battery can struggle in the morning, so be prepared!

My old car battery died last November - cold morning, 9am, 5ºC. Called ADAC, the AA man arrived half an hour later, turned the ignition key and the car started no problem. But then he checked the old battery: 180 CCA out of 720 CCA. And when I refused to buy his 650 CCA AA-branded Unipart battery for £160 (Unipart sell them for £85) he said that they will not attend to a flat battery again (this actually applies to the AA customers, and not ADAC members) or charge a fee upfront.

Bought a replacement 720 CCA rated Excide battery from Euro Car Parts for £72 later that day.

Strider590

mikey72 wrote: »

If yours is the same as the one in the picture this week, I'd be interested to see a picture of the innards.

It's too small to be a transformer, so I asumed it's a switcher, it's got pulse charging, automatic voltage selection, and drives a digital readout, so I always assumes it was a processor, or a dedicated chipset like the LT range.

It is a switch mode, it does have a small TX (as you'd expect in a SMPS), it's nothing fancy. It is slightly larger than the CTEK XS3600, but lighter.

The important thing to note is the CTEK stops charging when the bat voltage reaches 14.8v and then tests the battery every few hours for voltage drop below 12.8 (I think), before top up charging. But the Aldi device seems to go into a constant trickle charge, which is no good for battery maintenance applications, as permanent trickle charging will damage the battery.

It's also not suitable for SLA batteries (like in powered Golf trolley's, alarm systems or UPS power supplies) which the CTEK manages with ease. The manual specifically states that it's for wet cell car batteries only.

As a short term charger however, I think for the money you won't do better. For maintenance charging, you could simply disconnect/reconnect it every week or so and you'd be sorted.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

It is a switch mode, it does have a small TX (as you'd expect in a SMPS), it's nothing fancy. It is slightly larger than the CTEK XS3600, but lighter.

The important thing to note is the CTEK stops charging when the bat voltage reaches 14.8v and then tests the battery every few hours for voltage drop below 12.8 (I think), before top up charging. But the Aldi device seems to go into a constant trickle charge, which is no good for battery maintenance applications, as permanent trickle charging will damage the battery.

It's also not suitable for SLA batteries (like in powered Golf trolley's, alarm systems or UPS power supplies) which the CTEK manages with ease. The manual specifically states that it's for wet cell car batteries only.

As a short term charger however, I think for the money you won't do better. For maintenance charging, you could simply disconnect/reconnect it every week or so and you'd be sorted.

Do you have a photo of the board, or can you tell me what chip is in it, I'm curious now.

espresso

Strider590 wrote: »

It is a switch mode, it does have a small TX (as you'd expect in a SMPS), it's nothing fancy. It is slightly larger than the CTEK XS3600, but lighter.

The important thing to note is the CTEK stops charging when the bat voltage reaches 14.8v and then tests the battery every few hours for voltage drop below 12.8 (I think), before top up charging. But the Aldi device seems to go into a constant trickle charge, which is no good for battery maintenance applications, as permanent trickle charging will damage the battery.

It's also not suitable for SLA batteries (like in powered Golf trolley's, alarm systems or UPS power supplies) which the CTEK manages with ease. The manual specifically states that it's for wet cell car batteries only.

As a short term charger however, I think for the money you won't do better. For maintenance charging, you could simply disconnect/reconnect it every week or so and you'd be sorted.

You chose to buy the Aldi charger but if you had waited until next week, the T4X SE charger sold by Lidl has exactly the same smart charging technology, the same modes of operation and the same maximum output current of 3.8A as the CTEK, at a third of the price but it also has the additional capability to charge 6V batteries.