britishnick Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 With winter approaching, could anyone recommend a battery charger / conditioner ? There seem to be plenty on-line, but are they able to cope with 100Ah + batteries. Cheers Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanuki Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 What are you seeking to do? What kind of battery? If you want something that will recharge a traditional 100AH battery from pretty-flat in a sensible time then you need something with, say, 10A output. This need not be particularly sophisticated. You hook it to the battery and leave it until the charge-current drops away, then disconnect it. If your battery is a modern sealed/low-maintenance type then you need one with an accurate voltage-cutoff to prevent it continuing to charge when the battery is 'full' - otherwise this will gas-off some of the electrolyte and over time will wreck the battery. If you want something that can be left connected to keep any battery in good order/ready-to-go during long periods of inactivity, then the current output can be a *lot* lower (100 Milliamps is fine) but the important thing again is *voltage* regulation to prevent the aforementioned 'gassing-off' of the electrolyte. Current-generation "Calcium" batteries are even more sensitive about their charging current/voltage requirements - they can be charged *much* harder but you need to monitor the battery temperature as well as the voltage to know when to throttle-back the charge. I've got a big and clunky 30-year-old "Davenset" charger that puts out 4 amps maximum according to the meter: it's OK for use on old-style batteries overnight when you've forgotten to turn the lights off.... I also have a small Draper "Battery Conditioner" that's about the size of a laptop power-supply and only puts out a maximum of 0.5 amps but has a set of coloured LEDs and a switch to select the kind of battery (Lead-acid, Sealed lead-acid/gel-cell, Calcium) - I'm happy to leave this continually connected to my emergency-generator battery. --Tanuki. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wunntenn Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 After a few others I bought a Ctek and have been happy with it. Well made, good accessories and seems to do the job well. Lots of other folks recommended it when I was researching. UK source here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMc Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 With winter approaching, could anyone recommend a battery charger / conditioner ? There seem to be plenty on-line, but are they able to cope with 100Ah + batteries. Cheers Nick I have a CTEK charger, which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend The model I have (Multi XS 7000) has been updated to the MXS 7.0 - http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/MXS%207.0 There are a number of cheaper and more expensive chargers in their 12V range - http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/12v Also useful, are the range of 'Comfort Connect' accessories - http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/accessories/56-758 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I have a CTek 25000 multi XS charger to keep my big pc1700 Odyssey batteries in good shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britishnick Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Thanks chaps - a resounding recommendation for CTEK...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastycrimper Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Not that this thread needs much more but I'd recommend the same too. I often live in my vehicle when working alongside vessels (where I can get a 240V quayside hook up). I have hard wired my CTEK MXS10 inside and when ever the hook up is connected the charger does the business excellently on my 130Ah US Monobloc leisure battery. Although perhaps not so applicable to you, it also functions as a 10A supply (fixed voltage) so when I am living in it and hooked up, with the battery fully charged and conditioned, it provides enough to power my lights, fridge and laptop (~8A) and if for whatever reason I need to remove my leisure battery I can still run my interior electronics from a clean regulated 10 A supply. Fairly small and light too the MXS10 compared with oldschool battery chargers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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