Battery charger

[The_Ox]

Hi. I have a Chim 500 and find myself in need of a battery charger. Does anybody have any suggestions or experience as to a good quality one that will be up to the challenge (I have managed to break a couple of cheap ones in the past).

Cheers,

Ox

[Timja]

The ones i have heard good things about are Accumate and Ctek

[BliarOut]

Wait till Aldi or Lidl have a motoring day

[miniman]

Timja said:

The ones i have heard good things about are Accumate and Ctek

Yes, these are the popular charger / conditioners. I had an Accumate which was connected to my Chim whenever it was not being driven. Never had any battery problems.

[rolex]

Don't be put off because Halfords sell them but you cannot go far wrong with one of these http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/... a bit pricey but top quality and made in Germany.
They have a solid metal casing and are built to last,dropped a trolley jack on mine and it still works! Read the customer reviews.

[nrick]

ctek for me

[Allandwf]

nrick said:

ctek for me

+1

[Matt172]

The_Ox said:

Hi. I have a Chim 500 and find myself in need of a battery charger. Does anybody have any suggestions or experience as to a good quality one that will be up to the challenge (I have managed to break a couple of cheap ones in the past).

Cheers,

Ox

Although not with a TVR, we have the lotus plugged into one of these when not is use, and have never had a problem. Comes with an extra set of leads so you can hard wire it to the battery

http://www.accumate.co.uk/accumate.htm

[athomp04]

I have used Accumate, CTEK and Accuflow in the past and they are all good. It really does depend on what you want to use it for - conditioner and/or charger and/or re-condition dead battery. Certainly worth shopping around on e-bay to save yourself a small fortune.

[Tuscan Wil]

Accumate for me.

[The_Ox]

Thanks for the replies guys. I was just a little concerned as some of the chargers state that they are only suitable for engines up to a certain size. I know that the battery in something like a TVR put out a lot of power and therefore, presumably require a large current to charge (which is why I think I managed to destroy one a while back) hence my concerns.

I'll check out the ones that have been suggested.

I use the car relatively frequently so it would be for general battery charging duties if the battery is feeling a little dead or, more importantly, if the lights etc. are left on!

Ox

Edited by The_Ox on Saturday 20th August 09:25

[miniman]

You will be much better off with a conditioner than a straight charger in that case. Keeps it topped up constantly.

[jimed]

I used a small CTEK for a couple of years; the blurb said it was suitable for maintaining batteries up to a level that was Ok for the car I had then (an S) and it was fine. I then changed to a Griff and it didn't do too well at all as after a while it kept tripping out so as it was still under warranty I asked around and found that the "maintaining" was simply that - ie once the battery starts to deteriorate a bit it is no longer up to it as it wouldn't put out enough - no doubt this was helped by the immobiliser on the Griff as that does draw a small current which doesn't then leave much for the charging. I replaced the CTEK with an Accumate which so far has been more than up to the job. So the message from me is CTEK are excellent but make sure you get one that has a large enough charging capacity and for one of those I found an Accumate to be a bit cheaper. As the BBC says though there are other chargers ...
Jim

[The_Ox]

Again - many thanks for the replies. Having checked out my battery (type 072), it is about 70Ah so this is only just in line with that the Accumate charger mentioned above could cope with...

Alternatively, just looking on Amazon (cheaper ones may be available so I'll check that out in a bit), the following ones are available:

CTE-XS3600 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ctek-CTE-XS3600-Battery-Charger-Functional/dp/B000RHWCNY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313830388&sr=8-1 )

CTE-MSS5.0 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-CTE-MXS5-0-12V-Battery-Charger/dp/B004ZWV1JI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1313830388&sr=8-3 )

CTE-XS7000 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ctek-CTE-XS7000-Battery-Charger-Functional/dp/B000RI0BUE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313830388&sr=8-2 )

Does anybody have any thoughts about these?

Cheers,

Ox

[athomp04]

I have got the 7000 model - great bit of kit

Ashley

[jeff m]

The_Ox said:

Thanks for the replies guys. I was just a little concerned as some of the chargers state that they are only suitable for engines up to a certain size. I know that the battery in something like a TVR put out a lot of power and therefore, presumably require a large current to charge (which is why I think I managed to destroy one a while back) hence my concerns.

The battery size does not govern the charging rate. Charging on a low rate is pref.
Just make sure it is "auto shut off".

[blueg33]

This one for me CTE-XS3600 plugged in via the cigarette lighter (I bought the optional lead) Its very well made and works a treat

[Englishman]

blueg33 said:

This one for me CTE-XS3600 plugged in via the cigarette lighter (I bought the optional lead) Its very well made and works a treat

+1

[Chimpafrolic]

I am sure the CTEK & Acumate products are excellent but they are pricey.

I have a Halfords maintenance charger on my Chim that has been doing an excellent job for many years.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

It comes with all the fittings you need, I have mine hard wired to the battery.

For just £25.00 you can't go wrong.

Why spend more when it does the job perfectly?

[blueg33]

Chimpafrolic said:

I am sure the CTEK & Acumate products are excellent but they are pricey.

I have a Halfords maintenance charger on my Chim that has been doing an excellent job for many years.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

It comes with all the fittings you need, I have mine hard wired to the battery.

For just £25.00 you can't go wrong.

Why spend more when it does the job perfectly?

Halfords one died on my G33, so did its replacement after 6 months. CTEK has been fine.