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This Post is in addition to the posting about electric engine block heaters, I have a 1989 110 V8 pick-up, and a 1955 Series I, In addition to my 110 XS CSW Puma, I realise I am a very Lucky guy,

The V8 and the S1, have not been in everyday use, as when winter comes I gravitate to the 110 XS (its less draughty and the heater works)

When the Big Freeze came, and I wanted to lend them out neither would start.

What would have helped would have been to have had the batteries in tip top condition, hence the reason for the post.

I have 3 parts to this question

1 Is there a reasonably priced, but effective trickle charger that I can just leave on all the time to keep the batteries in a Tip-Top state of charge. What would people recommend?

2 Given that one of the batteries Bought new for my previous 300 Tdi, At 750 CCA, big, expensive, and heavy duty. (although barely used for 3 years.) Is there a sure fire way of rescuing it? I have read a lot of stuff on the web about sulfation, and de sulfation, and battery conditioners, but I’d really like to hear the views of the Land-Rover people. Especially if people have had good results, and if there is a charger that will both condition and trickle charge.

3 And lastly I have posted about using Engine Block heaters, because I happen to have a couple I bought in the USA, and given our recent low temperatures, was wondering about using them with timers and / or frost stats to better the odd of ensuring that they atart when wanted.

Thanks

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I've been using an Optimate for years and it's never let me down. It can get a bit uppity about incredibly flat batteries (I had some Hawker Red-tops that were down to <1v and it refused to "see" them until I'd zapped 12v up them from the truck battery to bring them up a bit) but that said it was then happy to charge them.

I've left it trickling various batteries for months at a time and it's done fine, even when it got left under a RR bonnet in summertime and got so hot the plastic casing sagged a bit :blink:

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Lidl had one on offer recently, very similar spec to the Ctek one but a fraction of the price, might be worth checking if they still have any, I got one the previous time it was offered and it's been very good.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg//SID-D9738246-79F74F74/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_14694.htm?offerdate=&idcheck=true&ar2

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another vote for the CTEK i have an XS3600 which comes with nice HD red and black crock clips (not just coloured wires) and quick connect pigtail so you can leave an end hanging out :ph34r: from the battery box for easier access.

Bought mine from Tayna.co.uk with the marine cycle numax CXV24MF? batteries.

The charger does 3.6A and will charge bike(12v) or car batteries 1.2-120Ah and has a cold setting for batteries below 5 degrees cent.

can be left on almost permanently without worry of overcharging, will recover most batteries and charge Sealed lead acids as well on bike mode.

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Lidl had one on offer recently, very similar spec to the Ctek one but a fraction of the price, might be worth checking if they still have any, I got one the previous time it was offered and it's been very good.

http://www.lidl.co.u...dcheck=true

In fact, they have one on special as of tomorrow, so you are in luck!

Check their website for details, the link above is not working due to a poor website design :rolleyes:

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another vote for ctek

bear in mid that some bigger batterys need min 4-6 amp to charge them (eg odessy 1700) see the battery webiste for more info

the only preheater i have used here is the kenlowe hot start which worke d atreat on an old 90

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I've got a C-tek MXS7000 and it works well on AGM batteries. they also have reverse polarity protection so if you have had too much to drink and tried to connect it up it won't end up exploding.

Optimas are AGM batteries and not all chargers will do them well.

However, i've had a rare issue of a faulty optima yellow top and that caused me an alternator!! Eventually the battery die within 3 months and i got it swapped under warranty.

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i had an issue with the rather large battery in my 90 over the very very cold snap. i thought it was a goner, as it wouldnt accept any charge at all from the charger and wouldnt even attempt to turn the engine over. hmmmmm...

Fix was to put it in front of a radiator over night so it got quite hot and then i zapped it for a couple of seconds with my arc welder and put it back on charge. 24 hours later and it was in fine working order and cranks over my tdi like a good un!

Nick

ps, i take no responsibility for you blowing up your battery and burning yourself by using any unsafe or not entirely sensible methods for rejuvanting batteries

:ph34r:

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Another vote for Ctek, i've got a pair of them (can't recall the model numbers) and they do the job very well. I have one on the bike and another on the lawn-mower however the bike one is occasionally 'borrowed' to ensure the LR is kept fully charged in the depths of winter. I also bought a 12/24V Accumate for the Toylander and that is very good, even includes a cooling fan to prevent overheating when in serious 'charge' mode. Being totally automatic and including a maintenance mode all are a major improvement over my old Halfords 'electronic' unit which turned itself off when the battery was charged, trouble was it didn't turn itself on again so there was no long-term maintenance function.

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My Genetically induced aversion to parting with the folding stuff sent me scurrying off to Lidl for a trio of these, I have do doubt that the CTEK is the Mutts nuts, but at £225 a pop, for the CTEK Multi XS 25000I think I’ll experiment with the £12.99 Lidl ones. They do have a 3 yr guarantee, so as long as you can be bothered to claim if there is a problem it should be safe enough Being as they claim to charge all kinds of lead acid batteries, I have got them started on The long dead mower battery, and a small mountain of life-expired computer UPS 12V -7Ah. I’ll up-date you as to how I get on.

Thanks for the advice.

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