I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: battery
I have a Halfords Smart Charger and have used the ring connectors for an easy connection to the battery. As the MX-5 is in a carport 100ft+ from the house, I have to run a cable down the garden to plug the charger in, so I was thinking of trying a solar conditioner to maintain the charge. Problem is, the solar panel has a standard SAE plug on it, while the Halfords charger has something similar, but not standard SAE. It’s not an EC format that I’ve been able to find either, does anyone recognise it?
I fit one of these CTEK ‘Comfort’ connectors to my car; eBay item: 154540312892
The connector shows battery charge state which can be real handy saving me getting my multimeter out to check the battery state and the connector simply clicks into place, it is easy to disconnect too and has an inline fuse already built into the cable.
The CTEK MSX5 or the even better MSX7 comes with the appropriate connector on it’s trailing lead; I do not know if they sell the opposing connector separately, perhaps give them a call if interested. Alternativly they do sell an extension lead you could cut and connect to your existing charger but that would work out costly.
I like CTEK chargers they are the best as far as I’m concerned and I wouldn’t use anything else. They are very helpful if you give them a call.
Thanks, that was kind of plan B if I couldn’t find out what the Halfords plug is. I’ve got the Halfords ring connector lead on the battery now, but I could swap that for the SAE on that comes with the solar panel. There’s also an open ended lead like you linked to in the solar kit, so that could go on the Halfords charger.
Thanks for the suggestion. That does look like a good alternative if I was starting from scratch, but the Halfords charger does the job. If the MX5 didn’t drain batteries so fast, or it was in a garage close to the house, I wouldn’t have a problem.
