Battery Conditioner That Resets After Power Cut - Maypole or CTEK?

[Wearsthefoxhat]

Buy cheap, buy twice!

My 10 year old Lidl special is connected to my 129 and has worked faultlessly. Ultimate, made in Germany, though possibly China.

Cheaper than a Ctec lead !!!!

I even have a second one that get used occasionally, bought to replace my broken Ctec…

 

[W1ghty]

I know you have settled on the Maypole and I'm sure that will be fine for your friend as others seem quite happy with the make, but for what it's worth I will share my two penn'orth, as it might be interesting and/or helpful to others reading your thread.

Always down to personal preference and experience when it comes to things like this Chris,, or in my case with the battery charger having never bought one before a bit of research lead me to my choice of CTEK and I have had the same MXS 7.0 model for years on each of my cars, with no hint of trouble at all.

I did my homework looking at reviews and of course for me the obligatory YT videos on the net and settled for the CTEK as they seemed to offer the best buy for me at the time, okay they are not the cheapest out there but then again neither are my motors or their batteries, and as the saying goes 'don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar'

A bit more background, we do very little mileage in our cars, so they are parked up outside and under good quality (Classic Additions) car covers for most of the year on our drive, and have their CTEK's duly plugged in, batteries were replaced when we bought them and haven't been changed since, two of the cars (not the Merc) are electric hungry and I would say their CTEK's have paid for themselves a hundred fold. ... maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture I'm sure.

One of the things I like about the CTEK is they have what are called 'comfort connectors' and these have eyelet connectors at one end to attach to the battery/remote positive connector & negative 'nut' your car's metal body (closest ground point).

This means that the 'female' part of the connectors is left in situ and the other 'male' end attached to the charger itself can be removed when not in use. The easy clip together and release of the male-female parts makes using the CTEK a simple operation. You can also get other accessories for the CTEK the extension cable, which I see is currently on offer

The comfort connectors have other benefits too, such as less risk of missing a charging cycle from one or other or both 'crocodile' clips coming off it's contact point, or worse, causing a spark with the potential of igniting any gas that may have been lying around having escaped from the battery itself.


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My set up ...

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Here are a few bits I picked out from the CTEK Q&A section but they have a vast number on there so it is worth checking out for those seeking answers on their battery chargers:


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They really do offer a great amount of help and information on their website from guides, tutorials and videos on products and you can always ask a specific question if you have one.

Here is a link to the support section:

Support

www.ctek.com

but you will need to scroll down to access these ...

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Maypole supply that lead for free with their charger .

 

[DesireeE]

My 10 year old Lidl special is connected to my 129 and has worked faultlessly. Ultimate, made in Germany, though possibly China.

Cheaper than a Ctec lead !!!!

I even have a second one that get used occasionally, bought to replace my broken Ctec…

Fantastic! Your Lidl charger is diamond no getting away from that and what a bargain to boot, I'm glad that you are happy with it.

 

[DesireeE]

Maypole supply that lead for free with their charger .

Nice one

 

[Notwen]

I have two 7.0A Ctek chargers, they are both 2006/2007. One had been re-cabled on the DC side, as the outer insulation had split where the cables came out of the unit. The other still on original cables.
I cant remember at the time, if either ctek didn't do a quick release cable, or I was too tight to buy them. But I cut off the croc. clips and changed to small (possibly 30A) Anderson style connectors. Then I just make up a new fly lead for the car end, whenever I change cars.

 

[Chrishazle]

I also have a Lild conditioner for my SLK, had it for about 3-4 years now and fingers crossed still OK. However, they have mixed reviews, some like me have them years without problems, others report they can fail fairly rapidly, in a few months!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

The price of the CTEK MXS 5.0 varies wildly between retailers however Amazon typically sold them for between £45 and £60 for years, with price regularly changing between those points.

However Amazon pricing has increased significantly, typically between £80 and £100 for the last year or two. However for the next few days they are £68 for Prime members.

When comparing prices, make sure you are comparing like for like. The 12V/3.8A version for motorbikes is visually the same as the 12V/5.0A version for cars and motorbikes.

There are still much less expensive items available from Aldi, Lidl and Maypole, but for those who would like a CTEK but the price has just been too much recently, then now is a good time to buy.

 

[alabbasi]

We had a storm recently near my shop that blew out a transformer. The subsequent surge and outages damaged 8 battery chargers and a bunch of surge protectors. It's not the chargers fault, it's a common issue with electronics and is why people recommend disconnecting them during a power outage. I just ordered 3 cheap replacement chargers.

 

[rf065]

We had a storm recently near my shop that blew out a transformer. The subsequent surge and outages damaged 8 battery chargers and a bunch of surge protectors. It's not the chargers fault, it's a common issue with electronics and is why people recommend disconnecting them during a power outage. I just ordered 3 cheap replacement chargers.

Might be common in the US, but not here in the UK, our utilities are not as fragile as the ones in the US, our safety standards are much higher.

 

[alabbasi]

Might be common in the US, but not here in the UK, our utilities are not as fragile as the ones in the US, our safety standards are much higher.

I bolt of lightning will screw up a transformer even if it's British

 

[rf065]

I bolt of lightning will screw up a transformer even if it's British

Very rare occurance over here, rarely happens. taken from electric providers site:

"Lightning can sometimes damage our electrical equipment and cause power cuts. We keep in close contact with the Met Office so we are well prepared for any weather forecast. We never know where lightning will strike until it actually hits, but lightning detection equipment in our control centre allows us to see lightning storms crossing our area.

Although the weather is beyond our control we design our electricity networks to minimise the impact of lightning strikes by using lightning diverters on overhead power lines to reroute the power from the lightning strike safely to the ground, reducing the impact on our customers. When we refurbish overhead power lines we also use new techniques to increase the resilience and reliability of power supplies in such events. For example automatic switches turn the power off if lightning strikes our overhead lines, wait a few seconds and then turns the power on again.

If lightning strikes our overhead lines, or if tree branches or debris briefly touches the power lines causing these automatic switches to operate. Our electricity network is self-healing, therefore if the fault is transient it will automatically restore power supplies. We appreciate customers find these brief power cuts inconvenient but it protects our equipment from more serious damage and longer power cuts. Where the network does not ‘self-heal’ we send engineers to the scene to find and fix the fault."

 

[alabbasi]

There's nothing in the above statement that's not available here. Switches also turn on and off and if there's an issue detected, that up and down can also cause electricals to fail. If there is anything that makes power in UK more resilient than say power in a warm climate state like Texas, it would that more power lines are buried, which they have to be in cold weather regions. This may make them more resilient to ice, but also more difficult to repair.

As the UK power grid is mostly under ground, and arguably older because the country is older, and the US has a shit ton more money. I doubt that it's more durable.

In any case, that's neither here or there. The only point I was making is that if there is an outage, the surge or fluctuations in power could fry electronics and cause them to not function properly. That applies to the $15 charger as much as the $150 one. Every automatic battery charger that I've owned has gone into automatic mode the moment I plugged it in. If they don't, it's likely because the electronics have been damaged.

 

[Chrishazle]

Despite all my advice, helped by members on here, my friend is not comfortable to leave a conditioner turned on for his car when parked up in his garage for 2-3 months, so althought sorting out an automatic charger he is going for a smart plug to an automatic conditioner controlled from his mobile so he can connect the car via the smart plug to his car when away and when he thinks it's needed, then from his mobile decide when to turn the conditioner on and off. He spends a lot of time away from his UK home in Southampton instead in his alternate home in Istanbul, and is already amazed that he can talk to his postman via his smart video doorbell, even when in Istanbul! In a way does not surprise me, known him for 50 years and he's a geologist!!

 

[alabbasi]

If he's buying a smart plug, many of them have an app that turns them on and off on a schedule so he doesnt have to worry about it.

 

[rf065]

As the UK power grid is mostly under ground, and arguably older because the country is older, and the US has a shit ton more money. I doubt that it's more durable.

Seriously? A number of European utility companies have taken over or bought into US utility companies and all been shocked at the lack of investment in infrastructure by US companies. Your utility companies all border on dangerous safety levels by European standards from lack of investment, only interested in profit, nothing else.
As for UK being older, so less safer, do you not think we renew our assets as a matter of course, for safety reasons?
I read a fatal accident report a few years ago on a gas explosion in New York that demolished an apartment block with many deaths, it was caused by a 4 inch cast iron gas main which fractured sending gas under the building which then ignited. The enquiry was told that shutting off streets in New York to renew utilities, is not only very expensive, but also very difficult to get the necessary permissions. The gas main in question was laid in 1883 and still in use! Do you think European countries are still using cast iron gas mains from the 1800's?
Another video a couple of weeks ago showed the aftermath of a car accident where one vehicle left the road and hit a restaurant taking out the gas meter installation resulting in an explosion and flames everywhere. You could easily see from the video that this was not a low pressure gas supply, but an elevated pressure supply, probably in the 2bar region happily spewing lighted gas all over the place. Here in Europe, the gas supply would have a "slam shut" governor which would shut the gas supply off to prevent explosions and a secondary safety device at the mains connection that would also shut off the gas supply if it detected an open end.
You guys in the US suffer terribly from thinking you do everything better than everyone else whereas in the rest of the world you're becoming a bit of a joke, and I've not even mentioned Trump yet!

 

[alabbasi]

Did you just use a gas accident to make a point about the electric service?

 

[rf065]

Did you just use a gas accident to make a point about the electric service?

Just making the point that the US no longer leads the world in anything and lags behind most other countries.

 

[alabbasi]

Just making the point that the US no longer leads the world in anything and lags behind most other countries.

Still sour grapes? It's been almost 100 years.

 

[DesireeE]

sweet grapes

Hey there alabbasi,

how you doing where you are? Not too badly affected by the flooding I hope? Truly shocking state of affairs and my thoughts are with you while mother nature is giving you all such a bad time of things right now.

All the best,

DesireeE

 

[alabbasi]

Hey there alabbasi,

how you doing where you are? Not too badly affected by the flooding I hope? Truly shocking state of affairs and my thoughts are with you while mother nature is giving you all such a bad time of things right now.

All the best,

DesireeE

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Thank you for your concern. Texas is around 3x the size of the United Kingdom. Everything is fine here.