Best battery charger
- Thread starter Surgery
- Start date
Campbell
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
Have a Sealey 160 charger booster, survived a fire and still working after nearly 30 years..
That is where an Optimate is good...
Paddington
Member
- Location
- Soggy Shropshire
I have a CTEK charger in the workshop on full time charging up fence batteries and can hear it across the workshop. Not a loud noise, or a 50Hz hum that you get with transformer chargers, but I am aware of it chirping away like the noise from energy saver lightbulbs. My workshop radio always seems to have poor reception these days but we are in an area of poor tv, radio, sat nav, mobile signals etc so just put up with it. Swopped batteries on charge yesterday and the radio interference disappeared, the charger is the source ! The thing is sat on a metal filing cabinet which is just raised off the ground to stop the thing rusting when the workshop floor lets in water in heavy rain, so must be acting as an aerial. A piece of wood under the charger and I can listen to the radio in peace.
Please God, not Radio Shropshire though......I have a CTEK charger in the workshop on full time charging up fence batteries and can hear it across the workshop. Not a loud noise, or a 50Hz hum that you get with transformer chargers, but I am aware of it chirping away like the noise from energy saver lightbulbs. My workshop radio always seems to have poor reception these days but we are in an area of poor tv, radio, sat nav, mobile signals etc so just put up with it. Swopped batteries on charge yesterday and the radio interference disappeared, the charger is the source ! The thing is sat on a metal filing cabinet which is just raised off the ground to stop the thing rusting when the workshop floor lets in water in heavy rain, so must be acting as an aerial. A piece of wood under the charger and I can listen to the radio in peace.
- Location
- Breconshire
The recording box for our security/calving/lambing cameras was sat on a filing cabinet in my office directly under the bedroom. The hum at night was driving me bonkers until I sat the control box on a thick sheet of polystyrene.I have a CTEK charger in the workshop on full time charging up fence batteries and can hear it across the workshop. Not a loud noise, or a 50Hz hum that you get with transformer chargers, but I am aware of it chirping away like the noise from energy saver lightbulbs. My workshop radio always seems to have poor reception these days but we are in an area of poor tv, radio, sat nav, mobile signals etc so just put up with it. Swopped batteries on charge yesterday and the radio interference disappeared, the charger is the source ! The thing is sat on a metal filing cabinet which is just raised off the ground to stop the thing rusting when the workshop floor lets in water in heavy rain, so must be acting as an aerial. A piece of wood under the charger and I can listen to the radio in peace.
The ctek will cut out if it stays in one stage for more than 20 hours, maybe 24 hours. Only happens if you are trying to charge a large battery with a small charger, or your battery is faulty. Eg if trying to charge a 120ah battery with a 5A charger, it will cut out as the charging time is too long and it suspects a fault. Just restart it, and it will charge the rest. It’s basically a safety feature, to avoid a faulty battery going pop. That’s what I do and have no issues. I could buy a larger one, but they are too dear for all the use they get here. Don’t have any electric fencers, and prefer to spend the money on fixing the vehicle charging system, than having an expensive charger sat on bench.
TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
I have a 7A C-tek which is rated for 150Ah & all my batteries in use are under that (mostly 110Ah) so it's not a case of undersizing the charger. The batteries aren't faulty because they take a full charge on the buzz box & pass a proper on/off load test with a professional test unit, the C-tek will sometimes charge them and sometimes fail them. At £100 for the C-tek, I'd rather buy two basic chargers and still have some change left over...
Just out of interest, what stage does it fail in? Your basic charger only does steps 3 and 4.
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TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
Hard to say for certain because I've never stood around to see the fault light go on, but it's certainly happened when a battery should be in float (I've put fully charged batteries on) & also likely to have happened during either bulk or absorption. I gave up using it some time ago and have not had any battery problems since.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
I bought a Ring charger recently for a special 24v project. Never really been a fan of Ring as they seem fairly cheapish quality, but £30 or so for a smart charger capable of 24v charging was miles cheaper than the alternative.
It’s handy that is shows the battery voltage too.
www.ringautomotive.com
It’s handy that is shows the battery voltage too.
RSC808
www.ringautomotive.com
- Location
- East Sussex
The Ring is probably ok but I know a chap that bought a similar looking thing from China ebay. The voltage readout is not only woefully inaccurate but you also get a mega arc off the clips when clipping them on. Avoid the Chinese ones!I bought a Ring charger recently for a special 24v project. Never really been a fan of Ring as they seem fairly cheapish quality, but £30 or so for a smart charger capable of 24v charging was miles cheaper than the alternative.
It’s handy that is shows the battery voltage too.
RSC808
Dat is very gud. Do u nid somewon to drive ze van?
- Location
- East Sussex