Well, your choice of course.
But to me …, to pay £60 for a charger with decidedly mediocre reviews from previous customers,
versus
About £13 for a Lidl/Aldi smart charger that generally receive very good reviews…
or
the most popular version , I think, of the Ctek range at around £70
just seems odd.
As I understand the Aldi/Lidl ones they’re time limited offers. Lidl’s web site doesn’t list it at all (or I couldn’t find it) and Aldi says it’s not in stock online and provides no way I could see to check for stores that do have it.
Yes, I could’ve ordered the Ctek online and waited for delivery, vs a trip to Halfords and functioning car next morning.
Well, I did say the Lidl ones are in the shops now. As with Aldi, these are items that come into the shops in a batch round about this time of year,
and when they’re gone…, I think that’s about it till next time. In the past week, I’ve visited both Lidl’s in Weston super Mare, 10 miles from me,
and also the Lidl in Wells, 12 miles in the other direction. They all had the charger in stock…, branded as Ultimate Speed. I’ve had mine about 3 years
now. Very happy with it.
Anyway, all the best with the Halfords one.
Thats how mine is wired.
Aldi has them on at the minute for £14…get down there quick,m great for bike and car batteries, gel or wet cell.
M-m
+1 for the CTEK. Comes with a plug that can be permanently fitted to the battery, so really easy to use.
I must admit, rather more expensive than Aldi though.
JS
Can I jump on this post and ask if a Battery Conditioner can be plugged into the charger socket inside the car? I read somewhere that you can get an adaptor.
Yes you can. The ctek I have just bought has such an accessory…however, the cig ( or cigar in the case of my Jaggggggggggg ) lighter socket must be live when the ignition is switched off. Most modern cars do not seem to be so.
That lighter socket in the MX5 is switched off by the ignition.
However, if your car has an OBDII connector, that has permanent live 12V and 0V, and can be useful for hooking in a Solar charger panel.
Snag, there is no commercial lead and you will need to buy an OBDII plug and wire it up with a suitable fuse (and possible protection diode) in the 12V wire. See Mellens or the Wiki for the standard pin connections.
I just don’t understand this trickle malarky.
I have owned a second car for 13 years now (my Seven) and it has had one new battery in that time, a Bosch Silver. It started off with a new alternator.
It will be SORN’d today and re-taxed for March. I don’t for one minute expect a failed start.
Same with the Five. Bought it June '17, replaced the O/F gel battery as it was 15 years old.
As it has a hard top it will get used on the odd occasion during the winter. Again, don’t anticipate failure.
People seem to use chargers to alleviate an existing problem rather that fix that problem. IMHO
God help us if the BinB enforced the parking light regs.
It seems to me that modern batteries have improved, modern bulbs have improved, but the ability to switch them on has vanished.
Paul G
Hi Paul
Part of my job is to test Yuasa warranty batteries and had about 2 to 3 true warranty failures in 4/5 years the rest are car or user related,
The problem you have with batteries is no one other than the owner of the car knows what state they last left the battery in before parking ie a good 30/40 minutes run, battery full chraged by alternator then car parked up I would expect the battery to last through winter.We strore them in a cold wharehouse for 12 months before they need a recharge.
In my case I must have started the car 20 times just moving outside the house and travelled 10 miles in 2 months, then when I went to start the car the battery was flat(yes I should have know better) luckily it recharged back to a good battery.So because of my circumstances i’ve bought a smart charger don’t think there’s a fault with the car more the owner.
Plus the batteries on the Mazda’s are on the small side performance wise
I have a Lidl one and it decided to stop working and not on sale there at the moment and being about 4 years old i went and bought the AA smart charger from Argos ar £29. Was a bit dubious as its quite low output but its like the Lidl one a great little thing.
I don’t have the garage anymore but I’m luck enough to have a big drive with a double outside mains waterproof socket, thanks to Screwfix at a tenner on offer so as i can get car right up to it and the charger came with a hard wire fused kit i decided to go that route, bit of a faff on a Mk3 getting the connector end from battery down to where i wanted it just below the number plate through the honeycomb grill. Very tight for space and any gaps on my 2.0.
Connector vrtually invisible when not connected and has a nice rubber bug over the connector end when not in use. Charger itself is IP65 so could be used in the rain but have put it in a small waterproof box which just slides under the front of the car. Went this route as only way i could use the supplied croc clips was to shut the bonnet on the cable which is a tight fit and pinching the cable.
Its a second car and love on a cold sunny day taking her for a run so didn’t Sorn it as i had planned and just so simple now to keep her fully charged through the winter
The AA branded unit is a smart charger and should not be described by them as it is on the box as a trickle charger.
It can be used for keeping the car battery charged while the battery is connected to the car due to its microprocessor control and its very stable DC electical output.
Trickle chargers were inexpensive, badly regulated low current DC output chargers and the AC spikes that were present due to poor mains regulation that can be present on their output can damage alternator diodes.
Therefore with a proper trickle charger, you cannot condition the battery by having the trickle charger connected to the battery while the battery is connected to the car as it can damage the alternator.
A bad product description but may other vendors also mis describe battery chargers.