Smart Charger And Maintainer

[fossyant]

Recommend me one please. Short list is Noco 10A or a CTEK MXS 5 / 10.

Getting a van soon and it will be sat on the drive all week. Want to ensure the stop start battery is maintained.

I'm also looking to carry a booster jump starter just incase we flatten the battery when camping (had to jump start a fello campers Merc people carrier in the summer as they had charged phones and left doors open from the van).

Thinking separate charger and booster rather than an all in one.

Noco favourite as they do chargers and separate boosters. CTEK do have an all in one device.

 

[Drago]

NOCO very popular with the VW van lot.

I was recently gifted an AA smart charger/maintainer and it is proving most excellent. They come with a permant loom so you can plug-in rather than clip-on if you fancy, and are only £30 or so.

 

[I like Skol]

You know I'm a bit old fashioned/tech averse, but I always look to the simple solutions that do not introduce complexity and additional failure modes. Instead of the boost jump starter that you may never use and could well itself be discharged or faulty if you do ever eventually find yourself needing to use it, why not just carry a set of jump leads? These will always work and really, how often do you think you will be camping alone? There is always someone else around that you can jumpstart from.

Trickle/maintenance chargers are plentiful and cheap. I expect there's not much to differentiate between them so take your pick.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Recommend me one please. Short list is Noco 10A or a CTEK MXS 10.

Getting a van soon and it will be sat on the drive all week. Want to ensure the stop start battery is maintained.

I'm also looking to carry a booster jump starter just incase we flatten the battery when camping (had to jump start a fello campers Merc people carrier in the summer as they had charged phones and left doors open from the van).

Thinking separate charger and booster rather than an all in one.

Noco favourite as they do chargers and separate boosters. CTEK do have an all in one device.

The CTEK one's are first class. They have various modes ranging from maintainence to a deep charge.

Computer controlled and no danger of overcharging.

Ours has various options for connection too. We use the engine bay option ie a little plugin socket is fixed to the battery terminals - very easy to use.

If you get a BMW or Ferrari badged 'authorised' one from the appropriate dealerships they are CTEK models with the car manufacturer logo on! At 3 -4 times the price for the same model!

 

[Electric_Andy]

I have a 14 year old Oxford Oximiser and it has been fantastic. I've used it on bikes mostly but cars as well. It has a low output so will take a good few days to fully charge a large car battery from flat, but I have also revived a battery with it over time. The pigtails to hardwire to your battery are plentiful and only about £8. It has lived in damp garages, been dropped and broken, and now the pigtail ends live outside ready to be plugged into a moped, and it's still going strong.

For a jump pack, we bought a Yaber one for £50 last year, now reduced on Amzon to £34. It's worked well on our sons moped and also on 2 peoples car. It has stayed in the cupboard for 360 days of the year but doesn't seem to lose a whole lot of charge. I wouldn't even be surprised if a lot of these units were all the same but with different cases.

I think Project Farm did a test on all of these types of jump packs - they all seem pretty good and you don't necessarily get a better one by paying more, or for a "trusted" brand. The test rig was IIRC a 5 litre diesel so I'm guessing for UK cars any of them would do the job.

 

[fossyant]

Good to get opinions. The trickle charger most important as the cold weather has hammered my car's battery and that of the Aygo as neither have been used much recently. Got proper heavy duty jump leads anyway.

 

[fossyant]

Decided on the CTEK MXS 5 with the battery connector socket and an extension so charger etc can be inside garage with the lead out to car/van with nothing exposed to rain etc. Much cheaper than the other options.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Decided on the CTEK MXS 5 with the battery connector socket and an extension so charger etc can be inside garage with the lead out to car/van with nothing exposed to rain etc. Much cheaper than the other options.

Same model as ours.