Smart battery charger recommendations

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Tonygw

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Hi Guys as the title suggest can anybody recommend a "cost effective" smart battery charger.
I have had an Aldi's own smarth charger which has been a great bity of kit charging up and maintaining all kinds of batteries over the years but it died yesterday trying to revive a dead battery on our audi A3.

So I need to replace it. Anybody recommend a decent smart charger for not to much ££. I dont have loads to spend so looking for the best optoins available to charge / maintain, car batteries on the C class Merc and Audi A3, plus charge / maintain some smaller 12V batteries I use for other equipment I have.

Thanks!
 
Not too long ago I bought a SIP Chargestar Smart 18 Automatic charger from Toolstation for about £50 delivered. Does 6 and 12v, gel, AGM and wet batteries, has fast and slow charge. Our S204 C220 lives on the front driveway and is little used these past months, I have the Lidl battery condition monitor connected, visible through the tailgate, so I can see when it goes from green to amber, then I put the SIP on the battery (which is only 7 months old), it switches itself off once the battery is fully charged. Although I do have a conditioner, I don't have a power point on the front driveway - and the conditioner is on the SLK in her garage (can't get the S204 in!).
 
I use an Accumate for the SL, which has been running continuously for about 12 years now (it's only turned off when I'm driving the car, which isn't very often 😊 ).

For general purpose stuff (we have various leisure batteries, gel batteries, etc. from 7Ah up to 120Ah) I recently bought this, which has handled everything I've thrown at it so far:


It was £65 at Halfords - I got the 5A version but they also do cheaper 1A and 2A ones (plus a 10A). The charger I had before (Halfords own brand) suddenly went haywire after about 10 years of use and killed a 110 Ah electric fencing battery :( (and itself - the casing was all melted).

Many cheaper smart chargers don't have a 'force mode' to try and recover over-discharged batteries, which was something I specifically wanted.
 
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everyone I know , including me has this . £22

Be aware that one is only for lead/acid and AGM ... not supposed to be used on gel batteries (which may or may not be an issue for the OP).
 
Be aware that one is only for lead/acid and AGM ... not supposed to be used on gel batteries (which may or may not be an issue for the OP).
What is this gel battery thingy you speak of buddy , never heard of one
 
Thanks guys, a lot of good options here, so will look at all of them :thumb:
Just plugged my Maypole onto my E class quick connector for a quick freshen up buddy ;)
 
What is this gel battery thingy you speak of buddy , never heard of one

There are two types of sealed lead/acid 12V battery - absorbent glass mat (AGM), and gel. AGM is basically a normal lead/acid battery except the acid is held inside fibreglass matting rather then being free to slosh about. A gel battery uses an electrolyte that is a gel rather than a liquid, and needs to be charged differently. Gel batteries are becoming less common but are good for slow rate/deep discharge applications, and are more tolerant to high temperatures. Until fairly recently they were standard in motorbikes, quads, mobility scooters/buggies, etc. so there are still plenty around.

 
There are two types of sealed lead/acid 12V battery - absorbent glass mat (AGM), and gel. AGM is basically a normal lead/acid battery except the acid is held inside fibreglass matting rather then being free to slosh about. A gel battery uses an electrolyte that is a gel rather than a liquid, and needs to be charged differently. Gel batteries are becoming less common but are good for slow rate/deep discharge applications, and are more tolerant to high temperatures. Until fairly recently they were standard in motorbikes, quads, mobility scooters/buggies, etc. so there are still plenty around.


Another usefiul link

 
+1 for Maypole.

I got a proper charger (£50) and trickle (£20) from them for less than a CTEK charger I was going to buy (£75).

Very happy with both products so far and it's been a good 3 months or more now and they've seen a lot of use.

I leave my car on the trickle all the time at the moment and charge my aux and the misses' main battery with the full fat charger every so often.
 
Have a look at B&Q battery charges branded Torq, but it’s made by Polco. It’s a smart charger, does, gel , AGM .
Good, well made charger. I’ve had one for a few yrs and it gets used on our cars.
 

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