Electrical: CTEK battery charger recommendations & advice

[huron]

I've got one of these.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Full-Auto...6lNb:rk:3:pf:0

Works great and you can leave it connected to keep a battery fully charged.

[ITSv40]

I have a Ctec MXS 3.8 and my son does too. Brilliant bits of kit and just leave connected on the garage queens with no problem. They come as standard accessories with new Bentleys and Aston Martins.

[Ian21401]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

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 bought two last year. I tried them out on a couple of part used batteries which I have in the garage and they did exactly what they are reputed to do. Both batteries brought back to decent condition. Now each one is left in garage connected to the two caravan leisure batteries which are removed from the caravans whilst in storage. Will probably connect them to the couple of spare part used batteries during the summer when leisure batteries are on the caravans.

[Christerart]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

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 have this model and it works - but when you want to "top up" while in the car and when you have a need to re-condition or bring a fully discharged battery back.

Mother-in-law left her C70 with me for some fixes (left door wouldn't open) and hasn't been back to pick it up for 5 months - so it's been sitting for weeks on end without anyone driving it.

Last week I decided I should take it for a spin - battery dead.

Took it inside and connected the CTEK - it charged for a while and then came up with message "battery not able to hold charge" - in effect telling me I should replace it.

I let the battery sit for a couple of hours then re-connected the charger. It did the whole program and now a week later it still says the battery is fully charged AND holding the charge.

Saved me from having to buy another battery - I think - guess time will tell..

[David404]

I have a Ctek, had it for around 10 years, think MSX 7 is current version of unit i have, think I paid about £80. Use it to recharge caravan leadure batteries and car battery.

I have attached the included short fly leads to the car battery so no crocodile clips just a click on/off connector, very convenient. I make a point of bringing car battery up to 100% 4 or 5 times a year. Caravan leasuer battery as needed.

Ctrl are very popular with vintage, veteran and occasional use super cars, Ferrari, Lamborghini and such as they can be left connected more or less permanent. Whilst it doesn't tell me how long to full charge I do find the general operation good, when Ctek says 100% I know it's done.

If I had to replace I'd buy another Ctek without hesitation. Probably wouldn't bother looking elsewhere

[GMcL]

Another +1 for CTEK MXS 5.0

Mine is the older one from about 10 years ago without the AGM program.
Used on two motorbikes and my garage queen. It has also brought the original Volvo battery back from pretty much dead when I almost killed it with a permanently live dashcam.

They have changed the lead coming out the unit. The older ones have what looks like a flexible cable which eventually breaks down exposing the wires underneath. If I had to replace my charger, it would be like for like.

[buzzman]

Thanks to everyone who has fed back their chosen charging tools.
I went for the CTEK CT5 Time to Go, I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[derek vivian]

I have a CTEK XS 0.8 which I use occasionally for my V90 (1997) and it goes through several stages to ensure the battery is OK. I have permanently fixed the plus/minus cables to the battery leads at the battery and the small orange coloured non reversible plug just sits there on top of the battery ready for connecting. Then when I need to connect it I run a mains power cable to the CTEK box of tricks then plug the connector to the battery and 'park' the CTEK on top of the air filter or wherever so I can close the bonnet then lock the car (alarm on) as it sits on my drive up close to the garage. The power cable comes from the garage (under the door) via a RDDC socket (for ultimate protection). It can then work its magic all weekend. I have had no probs in 3 years (touch wood).

[iain cooper]

Originally Posted by buzzman

Thanks to everyone who has fed back their chosen charging tools.
I went for the CTEK CT5 Time to Go, I'm looking forward to trying it out.

have you tried it yet buzzman ?

I'm needing one for my MX5, and would appreciate your feedback/comments.

is it easy to set up, etc ?

thanks

Iain

[buzzman]

I tried the CTEK CT5 Time to Go out on the Volvo V60 today, I knew after the car hadn't been used regularly recently and only having done short journeys too that it could do with a charge.

The car displayed the "Low Battery Charge" message after I’d finished positioning the car near enough the house not to need to use a very long mains extension cable with the charger.

I'm glad I'd purchased a 2.5m CTEK extension cable which fits between the charger unit and the connection leads (Croc Clips or Eyelets, both of which were supplied with the charger) as these cables are incredibly short!

I’m also glad I purchased the bumper that fits around the charging unit. This will protect both the car from knocks and also the charger unit itself absorbing some of impact from any accidently knocks.

Connection to the car was simple. Red lead to battery Positive terminal first, then Black negative lead to cars chassis ground point. Then it was just a matter of connecting the lead end to the charger unit and plugging the charger unit into the mains.
After switch on select the mode you want. Normal for normal car battery. AGM for start stop battery or Recon to recondition a battery.

I selected normal mode the charger was connected to the cars normal battery. The Time to go display lights showed >8 hours for a few minutes and within 30 mins these has reduced to >4 hours and >2 hours until “Go” light was lit, meaning the car has reached 80% charge. The battery can’t have been too badly discharged.

I was interested to see how long 100% full charge would take. This is shown by the charger when the “Care” light is lit. There is no time displayed saying how long this will take. The battery reached full charge after approx. 8 hours.
Then it was a matter of following the connection steps in reverse order, to remove the charger from the car.
T
he charger was very easy to use.

One thing that I need to understand is the car still showed “Battery Low Charge” when I turned on the ignition after charging was complete, and also even after starting the engine and switching off again.

I guess the car needs to be driven? or the cars battery monitoring system needs time work out the battery is now charged? Does anyone know the answer to this?
The car is Start Stop so has the additional AGM battery. I assume the “Battery Low Charge” message was for the normal battery and not the Start Stop one?

Before I purchased the charger, I spoke to a technician at a Volvo dealership who recommended charging as a good way to keep the car battery in good health if the car is not being used regularly. He strongly recommended I didn’t try to charge the AGM battery as the cars system could get confused with this being done. He also said keeping the normal battery charged would help the AGM battery anyway. I’ve followed this advice and not gone near the AGM battery.

Has anyone else experienced such things with their Volvos after charging?