3.6 amp CTEK any good for?

Submitted: Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 18:53

ThreadID: 29926 Views:2424 Replies:4 FollowUps:7

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bouncer

I am looking at battery chargers and the ctek 3.6 amp is looking good but as I don't know nuttin about them any advice would be appreciated.

It is to charge a 130ah trojan?

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Reply By: Dazmit - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:02

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:02

Hi Bouncer

As far as I'm aware they are a good charger and should be a 3 stage unit which has the float mode. However I would go for a higher current model like 10 amp, otherwise assuming the trojan is 50% discharged the 3.6 amp unit will need 18 hours to pump in 75 A/hours - this is best case as usually when a battery is getting close to being charged the smart chargers lower the charging current - could take at least 24 hours to charge it back up.

My 2c worth.

Cheers

Darryl
Brisbane

AnswerID: 149895

Follow Up By: bouncer - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:14

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:14

Thanks Dazmit,
So then in theory a 15amp charger would be better but would it be better for the battery or just for charging it quickly eg: does quick charging a trojan deep cycle shorten the life of the battery?

FollowupID: 403223

Follow Up By: Dazmit - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:25

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:25

Bouncer

15Amps wouldn't hurt the battery - I prob wouldn't put a 40 - 50 Amp charger on just 1 battery - be diff if 3 batts connected together.
The good chargers like C-tek just don't whack in the full current for the whole charge cycle so it's certainly not a problem.
Personnally I would look at a 15A type model.

Cheers

Darryl

FollowupID: 403236

Follow Up By: Dazmit - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:28

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:28

oops - meant to say 10A - 15A models

Darryl

FollowupID: 403237

Follow Up By: bouncer - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:33

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 20:33

:) Thanks again Dazmit,
So what about the 3-Stage Smart Battery Charger 15Amp on ebay are they any good??

FollowupID: 403238

Follow Up By: Dazmit - Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 15:51

Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 15:51

Sorry I don't know anything about them.

Darryl

FollowupID: 403388

Reply By: BenSpoon - Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:39

Friday, Jan 20, 2006 at 19:39

I'd also recommend a higher amp charger. The ctek charger is a great product and the larger capacity models have added features made for large capacity batteries (like your 130Ah). Maybe look at the 7000 model for your battery.

AnswerID: 149902

Reply By: Mark T - Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 08:52

Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 08:52

The C Tek is a great charger.. have one myself for the CT

The big advantage of the C tek is that it has low ripple and so won't overheat your battery. We leave ours on on permanently and have no problems at all.

Read up about ripple on the Ctek wb site.

I'm an auto sparky by trade but it is explained in simple terms.

Cheers

MArk T

AnswerID: 149964

Reply By: Member - Norm C (QLD) - Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 19:34

Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 at 19:34

I had a CTEK 7000 (7Amp) but recently upgraded to the CTEK 25 Amp model. The 7 Amp was a great piece of kit, but as I have 2x 120AH AGMs in parrallel in the CT, I went for the bigger one to charge much faster. I seem to get a full charge overnight now when it used to take much longer (more than 24 hours) with the 7 Amp model.

Great chargers. Fool proof, which is what I need.

I certainly wouldn't go for anything less than 7 Amp.

Norm C

AnswerID: 150041