Trickle charger, yes or no

[guyjohnwood@aol.com]

Dear all,

I have historically used a trickle charger mainly when the car is locked up for most of winter. Recently a friend of mine suggested that they should be avoided if possible. I am minded to carry on using one, but would welcome comments.

Regards,

Guy

[andrewh]

Does your friend actually know why? Does he/you mean a trickle charger or a conditioner? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing as the saying goes!

[adam]

I have used a C TEK battery conditioner for seven years on my car no problems.Still the same battery in all that time.

Adam

[Gfhug]

One idea is to not leave the trickle charger on all the time, but to have it on a timer switch to be on for a few hours each day.
Have done this with my aeroplane over winter for several years and battery was in fine fettle each spring.
Just a suggestion

[andrewh]

I think the key here is the description trickle. A trickle charge is completely different from a conditioner which exercises the battery in a way which replicates normal use. This reduces the build up of sulphur between the plates from a static battery. As I understand it a trickle charge does not achieve this .

[trondvo]

It is wise to have a maintenace plan, from my experience automotive batteries need be used regularily to last and good batteries are getting expensive. Changing them out after 2-3 years due to little use / bad charge pattern is bad economy.

The cost to buy a good battery is much higher than that of a good conditioner/smart charger.

Recently bought a set of Noco smart chargers (1100mah) and will probably get one of the G4 model they have as well the 3500mah one with "repair modus to desulfate a bad battery".

https://no.co/products/charging

Spent time to look at the alternatives but decided to buy NOCO due to their price and lots of positive reviews. You get 2-3 for the price of one CTEK. (Amazon have NOCO at better prices than their website). Norway is a 220V country and a cheap stepdown transformer is used to run the 115V NOCO chargers.

I always take out batteries for winter or long term storage and use the smart chargers about every 2 months and leave them charging for the weekend. They may be left in 24/7 though.

[malcolm]

I've got an optimate 6 and swear by it. Doesn't permanently trickle charge, but permanently monitors and trickle charges when needed to keep battery up. Also, it will "recover" a battery with a series of high voltage blasts for very short periods to de sulphate if necessary. Just leave it permanently plugged in and it decides what to do and when to do it. I used an earlier version of optimate on a motorbike battery. Being so small, they have a notoriously short life. Mine was fine when I sold my bike with battery 10 years old.

[Eadib]

I have been using Ctec maintainers for years with no problems whatsoever.

[Robsan]

Another vote for the C tek from me................. Its more than a trickle and exercises the battery too

[caveman]

on my modern cars and an air chamber version on the ‘E’. First battery lasted 14years so I’m definitely a fan of conditioners. The CTEK is ££ but worth every penny when used with modern stop/start batteries which can be costly to replace. I payed over £400 for a modern battery before CTEK purchase and hopefully increased longevity.

[cactusman]

Constant trickle charging is not good...battery conditioners very good. I have a c tek...

[dlgis]

Hi all, Having just bought a series 1 i had hoped to be able to put it on my ctek 5.0 from time to time. Then i realised the car is positive earth so presumably i would have to disconnect the battery before connecting the ctek?

Darryl

[Gfhug]

Or over winter convert to negative earth? Worth thinking of doing this with your new car. And welcome to the best place for all things E Type

Geoff

[mgcjag]

Darryl...your charger dosent know what polarity a vehicle is....so long as you connect the pos lead to battery pos and neg lead the battery neg it will work ok.......Steve

[dlgis]

Aha thanks, thats nice and straightforward then