millsn Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Dad has a garden tractor that periodically needs emergency charging plus a larger 110Ah car battery that the same applies for. He has trickle chargers but just wants something plug and play. Halfords seem to want £50 which sounds like alot of money for this duty. Anyone know of any budget alternatives? Edited by - millsn on 19 Oct 2011 17:08:14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatsup Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 have a look at hein gericke motor cycle parts supplier they have re badged omtimate chargers had mine for 4 years no problems regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CageyH Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 An optimate is no good for bulk charging. Have a look at the offerings from machine mart, and try and get it on a vat free day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsn Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Funny the price at Machine mart is £50 too but I feel quite happy to pay that there. Probably had too many chargers from Halfords that die after a matter of years. Thanks for the suggestion, as ever it (Machine mart) seems so obvious when said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 for not a lot more you could get a CTEK XS 7000 CTEK XS 7000 or for a little more with a free battery tester Tim Edited by - tbird on 19 Oct 2011 23:27:03 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CageyH Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 The ctek xs7000 is a good bit of kit, but is expensive! It can also be used as a 12v power supply. I have my lawn tractor on an accumate, and the 7 is on an xs7000, with a xs3600 used as an overnight boost charger for the tin tops if they need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ford Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Can get the xs3600 on ebay for £40. Max charging current (3.6A) is a bit on the low side to fast charge a full size battery - but certainly high enough that an overnight charge will give enough for starting in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 XS3600 not suitable for charging the 110 Ah battery though Tim Edited by - tbird on 20 Oct 2011 11:58:39 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ford Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 It'll work - it will just take a while (around 30 hours). So perhaps not good for "emergency charging" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ford Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Oops - perhaps not. I thought I'd better check that with CTEK, so I dropped them an email, and got the prompt reply: In our experience, using a charger smaller than required means that the battery voltage never reaches the level is should do. As a result, the charger continues to run indefinitely in bulk charge mode. This then causes excessive gassing from the battery, eventually leading to it drying out and becoming permanently damaged, whilst at the same time posing an explosion risk (or, as we saw in one case, extensively damaging the interior finish of a boat). Often, the prolonged running also causes the charger to fail through excessive heat generation. For all of the above reasons, we recommend chargers based solely on the rating of the battery or batteries they will be charging and warn people not to use them without confirming that they are within their operational rating. So, apart from the risk of a catastrophic explosion, it'll work fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 (or, as we saw in one case, extensively damaging the interior finish of a boat) 😬 nice when tech support have a sense of humour, I have also found the CTEK guys very helpful in the past Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsn Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 Interesting and slightly scary. I've had good service from ctek in the past so I've bought the ctek xs7000 Thanks for the suggestion, given their website prices I'd not have expected to get one so cheaply and it's been despatched already (apparently). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Chan Posted October 20, 2011 Area Representative Share Posted October 20, 2011 Just posted about a Lidl offer here if you aren't sorted. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Yep the website price has jumped in the last couple of months, I think probably when they renamed it MXS 7.0 obviously expensive things Ms they have the same effect on BMWs Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsn Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Got it this morning. The couriers must have almost no work at the mo. Everything is arriving almost next day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Quoting Roger Ford: Oops - perhaps not. I thought I'd better check that with CTEK, so I dropped them an email, and got the prompt reply: In our experience, using a charger smaller than required means that the battery voltage never reaches the level is should do. As a result, the charger continues to run indefinitely in bulk charge mode. This then causes excessive gassing from the battery, eventually leading to it drying out and becoming permanently damaged, whilst at the same time posing an explosion risk (or, as we saw in one case, extensively damaging the interior finish of a boat). Often, the prolonged running also causes the charger to fail through excessive heat generation. For all of the above reasons, we recommend chargers based solely on the rating of the battery or batteries they will be charging and warn people not to use them without confirming that they are within their operational rating. So, apart from the risk of a catastrophic explosion, it'll work fine What a load of old bull. Complete bollocks. If a charger is safe to deliver 1A into a battery it will. If it's an 80 Ah battery it takes 80 hours. So big deal. The only bitr of their sales blurb, sorry, technical advice, that I agree with is that running a charger out of its rated range will result in it overheating and failing. Well, I could hgave told you that. **** like that, with of course the odd half truth thrown in to justify a load of mumbo jumbo and FUD related sales technique, discredits the whole industry. Tossers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 BTW for basic topup charging Halfords do one for about a tenner, just a wall wart affair. It's maybe an amp output, get one of these connected to a timeswitch and have it coming on for a few hours every day, it will keep any battery topped up. The mower battery prob only needs an hour or two, the car say 4hrs. The Lidl one above would do just as good a job. You can also get a battery conditioner that delivers 300mA or 500mA, plug it in and leave it. This is designed to maintain fully charged batteries, and top thm up as necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millsn Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 Local machine mart just dropped avat free leaflet through my door. They'll be holding their event on my birthday. 'Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 That's a bugger. The Machine Mart wall-wart is what my Dad uses, on my suggestion, to keep the holiday car alive. He has hooked it up to a timeswitch, 3 or 4 hours a day, and the battery on 3 different cars has been fine, even when left standing for months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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