Trickle Charger

[Alanovich]

Yeah that one looks like a good price. It does say "cars up to 2500cc" - does that matter? Mine's a 3.2l.

Just one further question here - when connecting one of these to the car, do you just leave the neutral and positive terminals connected from the battery to the car? Sorry to sound daft but I'm a dunce with electrics and don't want to fry anything.

 

[BTB 500]

You would normally attach the short flylead that comes with the charger to the standard battery terminals, which remain on the battery. Then when the car's parked up you connect the charger cable to the flylead - that's it. Easier than messing around with crocodile clips.

 

[Alanovich]

Ah, OK. I don't have a flylead. So I suppose I just have to attach the crocodile clips to the terminals on the outside of car's ring connectors.

 

[AMGeed]

Ah, OK. I don't have a flylead. So I suppose I just have to attach the crocodile clips to the terminals on the outside of car's ring connectors.

Yes, thats all you need to do. Be very careful not to connect the clips to the wrong terminals and only switch the charger on when you have double checked.

 

[Alanovich]

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

There's a night and day difference between a 21st century battery conditioner and a battery charger.

A battery conditioner will safely keep your battery in full condition, reconditioning the battery to remove the battery equivalent of wear. It genuinely can return a ten year old battery to near new condition, and is the best way of keeping the battery of an occasionally used car in good condition.

A battery charger will just top a battery up, and can do silly things / damage to the battery and your car's conditioning circuit.

Here's CTEK explanation of what they do, and why:

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[moodi]

How long do you need to keep a CTEK hooked up before it starts to recondition?

 

[GeeJayW]

How long do you need to keep a CTEK hooked up before it starts to recondition?

Connect it all up and it then goes through an automatic 8-stage programme the first time you switch it on. Just leave it to do its thing. So far it's settled on mode 7 (float), I'm expecting it to onto mode 8 sometime.

 

[Gazwould]

Yeah that one looks like a good price. It does say "cars up to 2500cc" - does that matter? Mine's a 3.2l.

Just one further question here - when connecting one of these to the car, do you just leave the neutral and positive terminals connected from the battery to the car? Sorry to sound daft but I'm a dunce with electrics and don't want to fry anything.

Quite laughable really , what's cc got to do with undesclosed battery specs.
Bit like EBC Redstuff brake pads saying suitable for over 200 bhp with no consideration to weight of vehicle or how it's driven .

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

How long do you need to keep a CTEK hooked up before it starts to recondition?

Connect it all up and it then goes through an automatic 8-stage programme the first time you switch it on. Just leave it to do its thing. So far it's settled on mode 7 (float), I'm expecting it to onto mode 8 sometime.

I connected my own regularly used car, as well as my son's weekend only car for a pre-Winter top up three weeks ago. Mine completed all stages in four hours, his took about six. Neither showed any performance issue signs before the charge, firing immediately on demand. On garage queen SL's which i've owned before, which were left to go near flat, from memory I think it could take eight hours to do a full cycle from near flat. (But that's full recondition, they were topped, up ready to go in far less than that).

I have a few friends who have a shed full of cars (6-10), and they all use CTEK's, because you can connect them to top up, and then leave them indefinitely to just trickle charge as needed, without frying the electrics. (I wouldn't do that myself, but I understand what they're doing)

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

How long do you need to keep a CTEK hooked up before it starts to recondition?

If you've got a time constraint - an hour or two - obviously you can still use the CTEK to just charge at full place for that period of time. It's only later in the cycle that it goes into reconditioning mode.

 

[BTB 500]

I have a few friends who have a shed full of cars (6-10), and they all use CTEK's, because you can connect them to top up, and then leave them indefinitely to just trickle charge as needed, without frying the electrics. (I wouldn't do that myself, but I understand what they're doing)

My SL has been kept permanently on a maintenance charger (AccuMate rather than CTEK) for nearly 12 years now ... it's plugged in as soon as it goes back into the garage. The battery is coming up for 15 years old, so I think it helps