What type of Battery charger

cj maxx

Hi , im looking to buy a smart-charger for car/tractor but i have no idea what all the lingo around them means
Read a few threads here and one mentioned a charger with high/low settings for fast or over night charging that reduces risk of fire
Could anyone with knowledge or experience of like chargers point me in the right direction.
Cheers

onyerbikepat

I got a great little charger in Lidl a while back. It has simple settings like motorbike/car/6v. It has one light for charging and one for fully charged. If a battery is very low on charge, it pulses automatically so reduces the risk of explosion from the hydrogen gas released when charging.

It's called 'Ultimate Speed' , model - ULG 3.8 A1

I used it only yesyerday to top up the tractor, as I do a lot of stop starting this time of year and better for battery to keep it charged. To answer you question about high / low settings, I think all the new ones will do this automatically.

Justjens

Bought a CTEK XS3600 charger a few years ago for around £50 in the UK, great little piece of kit that is easy to use.

I keep all my batteries topped up with it.

http://www.ctek.com/ie/en/chargers/XS%203600

Kevhog1988

Bought the halfords model earlier in the week for £50, is a good piece of kit

st1979

ctek would be the daddy of the smart chargers. I have the little Lidl one and it's worth the money but not really upto doing big batteries as it would take an age and sometimes just couldn't do it so bought a 25 amp ctek from eBay secondhand. It is very good. Think a 7 amp upwards would be adequate

cj maxx

st1979 wrote: »

ctek would be the daddy of the smart chargers. I have the little Lidl one and it's worth the money but not really upto doing big batteries as it would take an age and sometimes just couldn't do it so bought a 25 amp ctek from eBay secondhand. It is very good. Think a 7 amp upwards would be adequate

Thats great, sometimes i need a fast charge , when you say 25amp and 7 amp what exactly does thatmean ?

Base price

I have one of those Lidl/aldi ones. Great for car/jeep batteries but it struggled with the tractor battery that we use for the fencer on out farm. Had to get a loan of my brother's charger which did the job.
I was told by my brother to always loosen the little round lids on the top of the battery when charging them as it allows the gas to escape.

Injuryprone

I've an RAC charger from Argos. It has worked well on the tractor battery

http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/7402168.htm

cj maxx

Old thread, but just in lidl and they have 3.8 amp batterycharger (€20) and testers (€5)
Looks and ok buy for that pice

Nettleman

cjmc wrote: »

Old thread, but just in lidl and they have 3.8 amp batterycharger (€20) and testers (€5)
Looks and ok buy for that pice

would that do for a tractor battery?

cj maxx

Nettleman wrote: »

would that do for a tractor battery?

Never took much notice of the specs exceplt it can be both 6 and 12 v
So i think it would charge a 24v fine
Just as its only 3.8 amps it would take a while.
Though low amps are better for the battery than say a 20v chatger if using regularly
The tester can also test an alternator, and has decent size crocodile clips for attaching

John T Carroll

onyerbikepat wrote: »

It's called 'Ultimate Speed' , model - ULG 3.8 A1

They also occasionally sell a ULGD 3.8 A1 model which has exactly the same features as the one above except that it displays the Voltage, friend of mine has one for his camper van and it works away fine but is really only good for topping up/maintaining when used on bigger batteries.

welton john

cjmc wrote: »

Never took much notice of the specs exceplt it can be both 6 and 12 v
So i think it would charge a 24v fine
Just as its only 3.8 amps it would take a while.
Though low amps are better for the battery than say a 20v chatger if using regularly
The tester can also test an alternator, and has decent size crocodile clips for attaching

think you would need a charger with 24v capability to do that

cj maxx

welton john wrote: »

think you would need a charger with 24v capability to do that

Yeah your right . I think

Nekarsulm

Bought a 10amp CTEK a year ago. I screwed it to the shed well and this saves a lot of the abuse and knocks chargers usually get. Very happy with it, it'll charge any size of 12 volt overnight, and if a battery is damaged and unchargeable, it shows this as well.

cj maxx

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Bought a 10amp CTEK a year ago. I screwed it to the shed well and this saves a lot of the abuse and knocks chargers usually get. Very happy with it, it'll charge any size of 12 volt overnight, and if a battery is damaged and unchargeable, it shows this as well.

I got the same . , how did you screw it to the wall ?
It will chage a low battery enough to start the tractor in 20/30 mins
Good job but dear

djmc

Had ye any success charging totally dead sulfated battery's.
I've a few around just left idle too long and it messed them up.
Thinking of trying new smart charger or even Epsom salts to recharge them.

Nekarsulm

It had two lugs provided to allow you screw it to a wall or timber.
The most important thing is to always unplug/switch it off from the mains before disconnecting the charger leads from the battery being charged or connecting to a battery.
I succeeded in reviving a couple of battery that had been lying about for a couple of years, but twice as many others were lost causes.

zetor 4911

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Bought a 10amp CTEK a year ago. I screwed it to the shed well and this saves a lot of the abuse and knocks chargers usually get. Very happy with it, it'll charge any size of 12 volt overnight, and if a battery is damaged and unchargeable, it shows this as well.

Are they expensive and where can they be got? Thanks

Nekarsulm

I got it off ebay.co.uk, a seller called motounion
It was 91 sterling.
It's an English seller, I think, and the charger came direct from Germany.

patsy_mccabe

Where did you buy it Nek?

fepper

Cheapest I could see online is amazon at £105.30(€148.50)delivered

Nekarsulm

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MotoUnion/_i.html?_nkw=ctek&submit=Search&_sid=1001471040

fepper

Nothing at £91 there now and postage extra as well so all bout €150 delivered

einn32

Used ctek chargers in work and I always found them reliable.

blue5000

If anybody is buying stuff <10kg in UK I'd recommend using parcel motel.

djmc

blue5000 wrote: »

If anybody is buying stuff <10kg in UK I'd recommend using parcel motel.

+1 very handy especially when you have a courier who couldn't be ars*d trying to find you.

patsy_mccabe

I have a small 3A charger myself but it takes forever to charge the old tractor battery I use on the electric fencer. I use the jump leads and connect to the battery on the tractor and then connect the charger to the leads. (All connected in parallel).I leave it that way then overnight.
Even at that it can take another 2 days to get the charge up fully on the fencer battery. Might have to invest, I think.

welton john

have the 120 amp one 4 years, its still working fine. a good budget charger.

http://www.clarkedistributors.ie/index.php?route=product/category&path=46_393

djmc

I have old type charger's like those Clark but would prefer a newer smart charger like the ctek as after looking online YouTube etc.
I think they are better at charging battery's in that they charge in stage's prolonging the life of the battery and have a mode for desulfating old battery's as well as some telling you if battery can't be charged.

popsmar

if solar panels was charging a battery and the battery started producing hydrogen gas could that lead to something like the applegreen explosion in Donegal

should people with solar panels and batteries have hydrogen detectors?