The battery in my car has sadly not survived the lack of use this year so I’m ordering a new one. I’m looking at trickle chargers to make sure the next one doesn’t meet the same fate
The use case for the CTEK charger seems to be classic and sports cars tucked up in garages over winter so people seem to be using cigar lighter attachments or a 2m long 12v extension cable to the charger mounted on the garage wall
My car will be parked out on the driveway (garage is for bikes) so the cigar lighter is no use (can’t leave the door open) and I don’t particularly want either the charger or a 240v extension plug sitting on the driveway getting wet
Car is a VW transporter so loads of space under the bonnet for as much of the hardware as possible to be permanently fitted to the car
In an ideal world the solution would be some sort of connector mounted in the grill so I could just park up, pull a mains flex from the 240v socket at the front of the garage and plug it into the grill without having to open the bonnet and fanny about with extension leads and crocodile clips.
As a minimum I’d like a single cable between the inside of the garage and the inside of the bonnet so there’s no connections exposed to the elements
I can’t be the only person with a car used infrequently due to working from home and lockdown, but not quite mothballed - so what are you all using
I have a CTEK MSX 10 on my motorhome as the onboard charger packed up, it came with plenty of cables so it could be plumbed in. But at the same time it has an inline plug so I can take it out plug in the crocodile clamps to charge another battery.
I decided a trickle charger was too much hassle to hook up. I went for the Halfords Advanced Smart charger. I run an extension cable out to the drive and plug it in every 2-3 weeks on the Mondeo (which I'm not using much) and it charges back up to full in a few hours.
Yup, my car is often parked outside whilst on a CTEK.
It came with two ring terminals connected to a fly lead with an online connector. I spliced and extended them, and put the connector behond the rear bumper.
My campervan is parked up all winter, a few days per month I connect the mains hook up cable, switch on the leisure battery charger, and use a short croc-clip lead to operate the split charge relay, so vehicle and leisure battery are connected together and to the charger. Traditional Lucas split charge relay, this method might not be applicable to modern voltage activated sply charge relays.
This thread reminded me it been on charge for serveral days, so I just popped out and switched off.
I should get round to fitting a small solar panel and dual battery controller. Even a small number of watt-hours per day in winter will keep the batteries topped up.
I used to leave my motorbike on an Optimate 3 over winter, just ran the 12v lead to the bike.
CTEK charger here used to charge the mower and boat batteries - both have fly leads hardwired to the batteries and I move the charger between them as required.
My optimate came with extra tails/connectors so you hardwire your bike or car and have an easy plug tucked away you can hook the charger up to.
For our second car though I just use the clips, extension lead and charger fit ok under the bonnet out of the rain. I find a day a month on it is fine to keep it in good shape.
Even cheap chargers seem mostly to come with quick connectors now. Which i thought I'd use, but in fact I've just kept connecting straight to the battery with the croc clips, it's just as easy ime (unless it's a vehicle with bad battery access)
My Mk2 GTi sits next to the house and is connected to a CTEK charger which is inside the house via a long extension lead - actually a Optimate one - threaded through a closed window. Connection is via a permanently connected tail on the battery with a quick release connector which sits under the bonnet for weather protection. I just need to remember to disconnect the lead before driving off.
Solar chargers in the UK?
Straightforward job on a transporter, just get a leisure battery charging kit and mount that up and connect to the main battery. Is it a van or a car? You can mount the hardware underneath the front passenger seat, run a hookup and battery connection point into the engine bay.
Usually mounted under the bonnet for ease of access, I have one under the rear bumper but it’s a pain to get to so it’s easier to flip the bonnet up.
There’s now a couple of very neat transporter hookup options, one sits behind the grill badge but isn’t cheap, vision automotive do it at around £400 and I’ve seen a couple of other small ones advertised but can’t find them now. Honestly the under bonnet is simplest, exactly what you want is achievable but for the extra £400 I’d rather flip the bonnet up!
Excellent - hadn’t heard of optimate but they do the long flex. Ordered. Thanks everyone
Cheap eBay solar panel on the dashboard for me. Makes the difference between starting after a few weeks of sitting and having to get the jump leads out.
I run an extension cable out to the drive and plug it in every 2-3 weeks on the Mondeo (which I’m not using much) and it charges back up to full in a few hours.
This... I just use a normal charger used once a month or thereabouts over the last year of lockdowns and WFH.
I use one of these connected directly to the battery. Works really well.
Oxford Solariser
I use one of these connected directly to the battery. Works really well.
Oxford Solariser
I might need to get one as my battery is slowly dying and had to use trickle charger from time to time but car is parked on the road so no long cable etc ...