CTEK charger advice please.

[badlywornroy]

Your advice will be appreciated again guys. 😘

After a lot of reading I am now going to buy a Battery charger, (before I need it ) 😇

Amazon are selling the CTEK mxs 5.0 for £62.99 so that is a definite purchase.

They suggest I may need the following two items.

' CTEK 56-304 2.5m extension cable. ' How much cable does the charger have ?

and ' CTEK 56-870 Comfort Indicator Cig plug. '  So am I correct in thinking  I can charge my Battery via this 56-870 plugged into the Cig plug socket. Is there power to this socket at all times ? This item seems a no brainer if charging is that easy.

I don't mind buying the extra items if worthwhile.

What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

[Basil-BarryC]

I use the CTEK MXS 5 regularly it’s a very good charger.

I use it with a waterproof extension lead/ box and leave the charger under the bonnet with the waterproof box under the car, the Ctek extension has its own plug /socket IIRC it’s about 2.5m long - but the connectors are not waterproof 

Also bear in mind the cigarette socket will not be “live” once you turn the ignition off

Hope this helps

[jthspace]

Definitely won't charge through the 12v "cig socket" as its powered off with ignition off so don't bother UNLESS you fit a socket near the Battery that is connected to the Battery via a suitable fuse (5 amp).

Probably worth getting the extension lead regardless as you will find you are often just a foot or two short whenever you need to use it.

[Johnel]

Roy, having had CTEK chargers for over ten years, one useful accessory I have always put on them is the rubber guard which surrounds the body of the unit and saves the casing from bumps and damage - it's an official CTEK product.  Many times I have been glad that it was attached!

[badlywornroy]

Many thanks guys. 

I did doubt that the cig charger socket would have permanent power, it would seem not, so the CTEK 56-870 is now off my shopping list.

@Johnel I wasn't aware of the " rubber guard " for the  charger. I will check it out. Thanks for the 'heads up'

[50p]

2 hours ago, badlywornroy said:

@Johnel I wasn't aware of the " rubber guard " for the  charger. I will check it out. Thanks for the 'heads up'

I wasn't aware of it either. Had a look online and Halfords seem to be the cheapest by far.

[JasonM]

Depends a little on a few things, do you have off street parking and do you have a 1.8 (Battery in engine bay) or 2.0 (Battery in boot).   I use a CTEK MX5 without any accessories as just connect up my Battery to the CTEK which I leave in the boot when charging and run a 240V extension lead from my garage through a slightly open rear window into the boot compartment.   
 

I only find I need to charge the battery 2-3 times a year so just use the crocodile clips, if it was going to be more often I would connect the eye terminals permanently to the battery so it’s a simple plug a go.

I like the idea of the rubber protector as have kicked the CTEK around by mistake a few times so will look into that.  

[Corolly Poly]

£74.99 here with extras including the bumper

CTEK MXS5.0 Value Pack, MXS5.0 Charger, Bumper, Connector & 5000mAh p/bank | eBay

[badlywornroy]

7 hours ago, JasonM said:

Depends a little on a few things, do you have off street parking and do you have a 1.8 (battery in engine bay) or 2.0 (battery in boot).   I use a CTEK MX5 without any accessories as just connect up my battery to the CTEK which I leave in the boot when charging and run a 240V extension lead from my garage through a slightly open rear window into the boot compartment.   
 

I only find I need to charge the battery 2-3 times a year so just use the crocodile clips, if it was going to be more often I would connect the eye terminals permanently to the battery so it’s a simple plug a go.

I like the idea of the rubber protector as have kicked the CTEK around by mistake a few times so will look into that.  

Thanks Jason,

I have secure off street parking and I have the 1.8 ( Battery in engine bay) 

You say you only charge your batttery 2-3 times a year. Is that because you use the car sufficiently or do you check the Battery voltage ?

[badlywornroy]

7 hours ago, Corolly Poly said:

£74.99 here with extras including the bumper

CTEK MXS5.0 Value Pack, MXS5.0 Charger, Bumper, Connector & 5000mAh p/bank | eBay

Wow ! that seems a ' stonking ' good buy,  hopefully all genuine CTEK kit ?

That kit is £136.95 on Amazon 🧐

P.S Have purchased the above ' value pack ' kit for £74.99. Huge thanks ' Corolly Poly ' I would have missed that. 😀

Edited October 9 by badlywornroy
update

[Corolly Poly]

3 hours ago, badlywornroy said:

Wow ! that seems a ' stonking ' good buy,  hopefully all genuine CTEK kit ?

That kit is £136.95 on Amazon 🧐

P.S Have purchased the above ' value pack ' kit for £74.99. Huge thanks ' Corolly Poly ' I would have missed that. 😀

Yes, its all good. I bought it a couple of months ago.

[JasonM]

14 hours ago, badlywornroy said:

Thanks Jason,

I have secure off street parking and I have the 1.8 ( battery in engine bay) 

You say you only charge your batttery 2-3 times a year. Is that because you use the car sufficiently or do you check the battery voltage ?

Yes, I do around 2 hours or more driving a week which keeps the charge up and once or twice a month leave the car on the drive in Park with the air con switched off for 30-45 min.  I can check the Battery state on my phone using a BM2 monitor (£19 Amazon) and if it gets below 12V charge it in park for a while.  Seems to work for me👍

[badlywornroy]

10 hours ago, JasonM said:

Yes, I do around 2 hours or more driving a week which keeps the charge up and once or twice a month leave the car on the drive in Park with the air con switched off for 30-45 min.  I can check the battery state on my phone using a BM2 monitor (£19 Amazon) and if it gets below 12V charge it in park for a while.  Seems to work for me👍

Thanks Jason, So a combination of keeping the car in 'Park' and occasionally using the CTEK charger to  keep  the Battery in A1 condition  ?  I wasn't aware of that BM2 monitor, looks useful. Just looked at a video on youtube. Do you have  the monitor installed in the car wired across the  battery  terminals ? 

[JasonM]

On 10/9/2024 at 6:10 AM, badlywornroy said:

Thanks Jason,

I have secure off street parking and I have the 1.8 ( battery in engine bay) 

You say you only charge your batttery 2-3 times a year. Is that because you use the car sufficiently or do you check the battery

[JasonM]

Yes I have the Bm2 connected permanently across the Battery terminals and gives a very useful graph of Battery voltage as below.   You can see the voltage was around 12.2v then I went for a short drive the left the car in park with the air con off charging at nearly 14v.  After about 1 hour of this the voltage increased to around 12.4v.  

[badlywornroy]

8 hours ago, JasonM said:

Yes I have the Bm2 connected permanently across the battery terminals and gives a very useful graph of battery voltage as below.   You can see the voltage was around 12.2v then I went for a short drive the left the car in park with the air con off charging at nearly 14v.  After about 1 hour of this the voltage increased to around 12.4v.  

Thanks again Jason.

I have the CTEK mxs 5.0 charger now, it came with a useful M8 connector that allows easy connection. This M8 connector has a simple ' traffic light ' display showing Battery condition. I find this unduly pessimistic, i.e I had driven 60 miles the previous day and the next morning the M8 was flashing red ( charge Battery ) Reading Amazon reviews many agreed it is pessimistic. So I will buy a BM2 monitor and ' piggy back ' it on the Battery alongside the M8. I assume ( hope ) the battery drain of the 2 items is sufficiently tiny not to make much difference. While I will not need the M8 ' traffic lights ' the quick connection to the charger is excellent.

[yossarian247]

I've found the 'traffic light' system on the connector over zealous too. If you took any notice of it you'd be putting the Battery on charge every other day. 

[badlywornroy]

4 hours ago, yossarian247 said:

I've found the 'traffic light' system on the connector over zealous too. If you took any notice of it you'd be putting the battery on charge every other day. 

Yes, I fully charged my Battery yesterday pm and on checking this morning sure enough the red light is blinking. Good job  the CTEK charger is not a  '  waste of space ' 

[Red_Corolla]

The state of health of my Battery isn't good at all and, although I recharge it periodically, it doesn't stay above 12.2v for very long afterwards. This represents only 50% charge on a good Battery, so I'd expect to see a red indicator light most of the time, if I had one connected. That's not zeal, it's reality. But it's good enough to start the car every time (so far). I suspect a lot of these cars are in a similar condition, but we get away with it in the majority of cases because it takes so little power to 'start' them.

[badlywornroy]

2 hours ago, Red_Corolla said:

The state of health of my battery isn't good at all and, although I recharge it periodically, it doesn't stay above 12.2v for very long afterwards. This represents only 50% charge on a good battery, so I'd expect to see a red indicator light most of the time, if I had one connected. That's not zeal, it's reality. But it's good enough to start the car every time (so far). I suspect a lot of these cars are in a similar condition, but we get away with it in the majority of cases because it takes so little power to 'start' them.

You may of course be correct and I am blaming this CTEK M8 gadget for giving me false signals. 🤬

[JasonM]

10 hours ago, badlywornroy said:

Thanks again Jason.

I have the CTEK mxs 5.0 charger now, it came with a useful M8 connector that allows easy connection. This M8 connector has a simple ' traffic light ' display showing battery condition. I find this unduly pessimistic, i.e I had driven 60 miles the previous day and the next morning the M8 was flashing red ( charge battery ) Reading Amazon reviews many agreed it is pessimistic. So I will buy a BM2 monitor and ' piggy back ' it on the battery alongside the M8. I assume ( hope ) the battery drain of the 2 items is sufficiently tiny not to make much difference. While I will not need the M8 ' traffic lights ' the quick connection to the charger is excellent.

My understanding is the Bm2 unit draws 1.5mA so very low and should make practically no difference to the Battery charge.  For a 45Ah Battery it theoretically would take 30,000 hours to fully discharge a new fully charged Battery or 3.4 years.  

[yossarian247]

5 hours ago, Red_Corolla said:

The state of health of my battery isn't good at all and, although I recharge it periodically, it doesn't stay above 12.2v for very long afterwards. This represents only 50% charge on a good battery, so I'd expect to see a red indicator light most of the time, if I had one connected. That's not zeal, it's reality. But it's good enough to start the car every time (so far). I suspect a lot of these cars are in a similar condition, but we get away with it in the majority of cases because it takes so little power to 'start' them.

I've noticed this behaviour with the CTEK indicator even with a brand new, fully charged 54Ah Varta Silver Battery, so I'd say it is zeal 😊

These CTEK indicators are known for being flaky. Mine has recently begun flashing really fast like a strobe light for no apparent reason. 

[Derek.w]

Your Ctek probably dislikes the amount of time it below the 12 volt value personlly I always keep my Battery above the 12.3 volt line thats checking state af Battery next morning.

[badlywornroy]

On 10/9/2024 at 8:27 PM, JasonM said:

Yes, I do around 2 hours or more driving a week which keeps the charge up and once or twice a month leave the car on the drive in Park with the air con switched off for 30-45 min.  I can check the battery state on my phone using a BM2 monitor (£19 Amazon) and if it gets below 12V charge it in park for a while.  Seems to work for me👍

Hi again Jason,

I followed your lead and installed a BM2 monitor. ( how easy  is that) ) The 1st time I used the app the  battery was 12.2 I think and it advised charging. Am I correct in thinking on a conventional car this would be good advice ? What scale of voltage reading would you react and charge the Battery ?

 

[CassUK]

22 minutes ago, badlywornroy said:

Hi again Jason,

I followed your lead and installed a BM2 monitor. ( how easy  is that) ) The 1st time I used the app the  battery was 12.2 I think and it advised charging. Am I correct in thinking on a conventional car this would be good advice ? What scale of voltage reading would you react and charge the battery ?

 

A fully charged 12v Battery should be 12.7v

As a guide the below figures are near enough for a decent understanding and reference as to how your Battery stands:

Lead Acid

12.7v - fully charged

12.5 - 90%

12.4v -75% 

12.2v - 50%

12.0v - 25%

11.9v/below - fully discharged