Battery Charger

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ro6ertj

New Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
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8
Car
SL350
Hi,
Going to get a battery charger for my r230 is the CTEK MXS 5.0 charger the one required?
Consumer battery in the boot is a Mercedes Benz VRLA/AGM 12v 70Ah 760A.
My cheapo 6v battery charger does not even light up when attached, is does on the Fiat 500 we have..
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
From me it's a yes although some members have had issues with them. Mine has been spot on from day one (7.0). There is at least one other more detailed thread on this
 
After much research . Fitted the Ctek comfort Indicator Eyelet today and the battery was showing red. The Ctek MXS 10 is come from from Amazon tomorrow, considering the The Beast is a 95Ah 850A, this being more then capable of doing the job. The MXS 7.0 has a five year warranty while the MXS 10 has only two years.
 
I ignored the indicator connection on my CTEK install, it always showed red, even on a fully charged battery, as soon as I opened the car it flipped to red.
 
I ignored the indicator connection on my CTEK install, it always showed red, even on a fully charged battery, as soon as I opened the car it flipped to red.

Yup the interior lights coming on causes a slight voltage drop. I keep my R129 on a wall-mounted AccuMate maintenance charger, and that immediately flips from green (charged) to amber (charging) as soon as I open a door.
 
Will let you all know tomorrow if this is the case with Ctek and if so will also inform Ctek
 
I ignored the indicator connection on my CTEK install, it always showed red, even on a fully charged battery, as soon as I opened the car it flipped to red.

From Cteks's website FAQ.

    • INDICATOR EYELET M8, INDICATOR PANEL 3.3M, INDICATOR EYELET M6, INDICATOR CLAMP, INDICATOR CIG PLUG, CTX INDICATOR PLUG 12V, CTX INDICATOR EYELET M8, INDICATOR PANEL 1.5M: I have a INDICATOR connected to the battery in my car. The red lamp flashes even after I've fully charged the battery. Should it do this? I thought the INDICATOR would be green when the battery is fully charged?
      The CTEK INDICATOR is exactly what the name says – an indicator. It provides a snapshot of the system voltage level and works best when the battery has reached a rest level (this can take up to a few hours to reach after the battery was used). As soon as you open a car door or turn on the ignition, the battery voltage will temporarily drop and the indicator shows yellow or even red. To make things easier, you can position the INDICATOR where you can see it without having to unlock or use any voltage in the car.
 
Not in the same class as the CTEK charger, my Polco Smart charger has been a great buy at about £30ish.
 
My 'Lidls' charger at £14.99 has also been a great buy! Charges the battery right up, then switches to maintenance/trickle mode. Of course, being 'lidls' puts some folk right off, though I've no idea why...

Lidl battery charger LoRes.jpg
 
I have been using the £15 screw fix unit without any issues. Just for trickle charging though.
 
Maypole MP7423 here , does everything a CTEK does only cheaper.

I had the Ultimate Speed from Lidl , it's bang for buck but found it went back to wanting a mode to be reselected following power interruption .

The Maypole does not and resumes charging .
 
My 'Lidls' charger at £14.99 has also been a great buy! Charges the battery right up, then switches to maintenance/trickle mode. Of course, being 'lidls' puts some folk right off, though I've no idea why...

View attachment 80965


I have the same model. It has been faultless so far the times I have used it.
One thing to note though is it will not charge a completely flat battery. Then it will need a burst from a decent 6amp conventional battery charger before taking over.
No idea if that is the case with the CTek model though.
 
One thing to note though is it will not charge a completely flat battery. Then it will need a burst from a decent 6amp conventional battery charger before taking over.
No idea if that is the case with the CTek model though.
From memory when I was researching what charger to buy, I think most of the 'smart' chargers have a lower limit of reading 6/7v before they will kick in to charge. In the past, when my battery went totally flat, I 'jumped' it with my 'Sealey' battery starter, and let the engine run for a few minutes than hooked up the battery charger, with 2 x old cars, I am prepared for most battery issues LOL
 
Hi,
Going to get a battery charger for my r230 is the CTEK MXS 5.0 charger the one required?
Consumer battery in the boot is a Mercedes Benz VRLA/AGM 12v 70Ah 760A.
My cheapo 6v battery charger does not even light up when attached, is does on the Fiat 500 we have..
Thanks in advance for any help.


thanks everyone.
 
thanks everyone.
If it's not too late, at least consider a charger that has a built in voltage display. A series of LEDs are just far too inaccurate to tell you exactly what is happening to your battery. (Or maybe it's just my OCD LOL). At least with a display, you can make up your own mind if 12.7v or 12.8v is what you require. The disappearance of a 'fully charged' LED is just too ambiguous...
 
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^^^ "Fully charged" is temperature dependent. Bizarrely, an LED in a microcontrolled charger will give you better information as to whether the battery is charged or not as it takes temperature into account.
 
^^^ "Fully charged" is temperature dependent. Bizarrely, an LED in a microcontrolled charger will give you better information as to whether the battery is charged or not as it takes temperature into account.
I respectfully disagree. My Lidl charger on standard 'maintenance' shows a stable 12.8v. When the temperature drops at night to almost freezing or below (car is outside, but charger in garage), you can see it charging again, rising to maybe 13.4v or above with a flashing 'charging' indicator, then once stable, keeping at an indicated 'maintenance' of 12.8v. That display is dam useful telling you exactly what is going on...
 
Disconnect the power , then see what happens..

LOL, you have a real bee in your bonnet about this, don't you! Yes, when the power goes off, you have to press a button to switch it on again. It's very laborious & time consuming, so I'm delighted that all the chargers you recommend all restart automatically.:) I sure wish my Sky box would restart automatically when power is interrupted - pressing that 'sky' button on the remote is a real pain...
 

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