CTEK battery charger recommendations & advice
 

I’m looking for advice and people’s thoughts on some battery chargers.

I'm looking to purchase a CTEK charger to help keep a V60 T4's starter battery fully charged as the car doesn't always get used regularly, and the runs it does do aren't always long either. The charger might also get used on a Toyota Yaris.

I can see from comments on here and elsewhere on the web that CTEK is a good trusted brand, I just need to make a decision on which model of CTEK charger to go with. I can see three models that look to be suitable, each with slightly different features, and some with a few extra features from one another too.

The Price difference across all three models is around £20 which when spending +£60 isn't an issue. I'd prefer not to purchase one, then later regret having not picked one of the other models having not fully understood or appreciated some of benefits it might have.

Does anyone own one of the following models? Are you happy with it? Is there anything in particular you like about it? or are there features of any of the ones I’ve listed which stick out as being a real bonus.

Next to each model I’ve noted what I see as key features and Positive or negative things about the models (sorry for the pun:) ).

CTEK MXS 5.0

More manual in terms of selecting what program you want, but once the program is selected it is fully automatic. You can select Bike, Car, AGM & Recondition modes. No visibility on how long before the charge is complete.

CTEK CT5 Time to Go

You have to manually select one of three programs: Normal, AGM & Recondition, again fully automatic once program has been selected. This model doesn’t have a bike mode I don’t think? But if bike mode is solely for a bike that is not a problem for me. (unless bike mode is useful for other applications I’d not thought about?). The charger shows you how many hours at most are left until charge is complete. I like the idea of this feature as when I use the charger, I’m likely to just use the charger when needed, so when I do use it, knowing roughly how long till full charge would be good to easily see. (I guess charge times for all the models I listed always vary depending on how much charge the battery already has to start with, and not just the charger running at a standard predetermined rate).

CTEK CT5 Start / Stop

Fully automatic, just plug it in and it does its thing. It handles normal cars and AGM. There is No Bike or Recondition function as far as I can see. No visibility on how long before the charge is complete.

When I mentioned to my Volvo dealership Technician about keeping by battery charged, they strongly recommended only charging the normal starter battery (ie. with battery still connected to car, battery + terminal to (+) Red positive lead of the charger, and (-) black negative lead of charger to the Cars chassis / grounding point, as described in the user manual). They said not to worry about trying to charge the AGM (Start / Stop) battery as trying to charge this is likely to cause the car to report all sorts or errors and cause all sorts of issues. The Technician said that by just charging the standard battery it would help the start / Stop one anyway. I’m not too technical and don’t understand why charging the standard battery would help the start / stop one. I will follow the advice I was given. Can anyone explain why charging the standard battery would help the start / stop one?

I have the CTEK MXS 5.0

It came with a little carry bag which is nice to keep all the adapters together so they don't get lost.
The stitching on the carry bag for the drawstring has now totally come undone, I should / could get one of my daughters to sew it up again on the sewing machine. But no bother.

I also (very wisely) ordered the rubber cover for it which allows you to place it anywhere on any side and have no fear of scratching any bodywork.
Totally recommend the cover.

The charger works very well, I top up my big huge Volvo D5 battery with it, it happily charges it overnight, even if it is only a 5A charger. So perfectly adequate for an overnight top-up.

It has normal wet-cell lead-acid and AGM modes, so you can do either battery. Make sure YOU know what battery you have before connecting the charger.

As for a TimeToGo mode: honestly, when you charge overnight - which you normally do as you want to connect it and leave it for a number of hours - then a TTG mode doesn't matter. MXS 5.0 shows you when the battery is 100% charged. And the little bar graph gives you an idea as to where you are in the process.

As for main vs start/stop battery: it could be that the internal electronics also charges the start/stop when the main battery is being chjarged. A charger applies e.g. 14V to a 12V battery, the higher voltage likely feeds into both batteries. But I'm guessing here as I have the older start/stop system - where the driver uses a key ;)

Overall I think it is a wise idea for every car owner with a modern car to have a charger and to give the battery a top-up charge every now and then. Especially when you do not drive the car a lot, as the residual power draw by all the security systems and monitoring systems will eventually drain the battery.

And the CTEK is also made in Sweden (or designed in Sweden, made in China), and is used as the branded Porsche, Lamborghini and other SuperCar charges, so the quality is acceptable as a quality OEM supplier.

I do not have a CTEC charger, I do however have a fully automatic Halfords charger. It has normal or gel battery setting and after that is compleatly autonomous.

Last week visited caravan in storage to find I had inadvertently left the motor mover control power on. This along with the alarm system had flattened the battery such that I could only get a reading of 1v across the terminals. Not having facility to charge it on site I brought it home and connected the halfords charger. 2 days later the yellow charge light changed to fully charged and maintains green light.
My point being that the halfords charger was a lot cheaper than the price you quote for the CTEC and would seem to do the same job.
The only time I've used it on the volvo was after I left the sidelights on and flattened the battery, overnight charge with +ive connected to battery and -ive to engine earth saw the car start with no problem and thereafter the alternator did it's job.

Running 2 cars the volvo often doesnot turn a wheel for weeks on end, however other than the occasion I left the sidelights on I have never had a fail to start with it. When it does get used it's a minimum of 20 miles and mostly 90 before being turned off again.

Hope that gives food for thought.

Paul.

I had a similar 'problem' with intermittent use of the car and 'worries' about the battery going flat.

My idea was quite different!

I bought a solar battery charger of that well-known auction site (loads on there). Pop the bonnet, put the clips on the battery and the 'charger' inside the windscreen and, as they say: "Bob's yer uncle".

But... for protection, I did put an in-line fuse on the +ve charging lead!

Conecting/disconnecting the charger was a doddle and I could keep it in the boot (though always making sure that the croc clips couldn't touch).

I have the same works fine for me.

I have the LIDL equivalent of a CTEK charger and find it very useful indeed, mostly for my garage ornament old BMW as per pic below but I have also used it on my camper van (including leisure battery), Volvo and wife's MINI. Works fine on all of them and was only about £20-25 a I recall.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4619/...fec84429_z.jpg


One disadvantage compared to a CTEK (I believe) is that you can't really put mine on a timer to switch on and off as it needs a manual button press to kick it off once powered up.

Aside from that, as a previous poster mentioned, I use a solar panel in my camper van to keep the batteries topped up via the cigarette socket which works well for a vehicle that only gets occasional use. :regular_smile:

I got one of these which is handy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-40-149...105168&sr=8-13

I have one of those Lidl or Aldi chargers (can't remember which!) and good it is but, I have always wondered if you can connect them, or the Ctec ones, directly to the battery without disconnecting either battery terminal when charging? In 'days of old' you always had to disconnect the battery and lug it to the charger.

Thanks, and a happy New Year to all - Bob :)

Course you can connect it to the car without disconnecting anything.

Yes but I think on Volvos you have to connect the +ve to the battery and the -ve to any earth point other than the battery.

Not sure why but from memory it is something to do with the voltage control system. Others may well be able to gove more info.