Battery chargers

Hi Brett

Yep thats the only reason, faster charging.

Robin Miller

Yep, your correct, both will do a good job for what you have, but the bigger charger will do it faster, depends on your circumstances !!

For me, it doesn't matter because my batts last for 4 days while I'm away then when I get home I whack the charger on and leave it for a day ( wouldn't matter if it was two )

CTEK ?? Yep one of the better brands.

Brett,

Remember that you are charging two at the same time.

Rule of thumb is a charging rate of 20% of the battery caapacity is best.

No offence, but you guys obviously don't know a lot about batteries and charging.

brett patrol, read this

site link - battery FAQ

and then make a decision abouta charger.

Cheers,

Russ.

If you're considering CTEK you may also consider Durst. We ended up getting the Durst BCS-1215B (15amp), price is about equivalent of CTEK but at least it's an Aussie company and should you have any need for warranty or repairs I imagine it would be an easier process. They do also have cheaper models made mainly for the caravan industry where the lower price point is of more importance.

www.durst.com.au/

Had to use it yesterday for the first time. Flattened the battery when trying to start the car (turned out to be the starter motor). Anyway it took roughly 1.5hrs to get the Orbital 50amp battery to over 90% charge. The battery was initially at <25% going by the voltmeter. This particular model also has a temperature sensor which makes it a bit more efficient.

I would agree with the idea that all else being equal having a 7amp compared to a 15amp simply means it will take twice as long to charge, and going over 20% of capacity is a bad idea.

Our last camper had an Arlec charger in it from memory which is probably a cheap unit and it did the job just fine too.

Must say I was pretty clueless about chargers and the like before coming to explore oz and asking questions.

My KK had an Arlec basic charger when I 1st bought it and it worked just fine as well, as long as you didn't leave it on too long , which means you had to keep an eye on it ( pain in the neck )

A 3 stage charger is sooo much easier, just turn it on and 1 or 2 days time turn it off ( have AGM's, so once charged, no more charging needed )

I have 4 x 35ah batts with an Absorbed Power charger ( 10A ...$155 ) and works well

Hi Brett,
I purchased the CTEK 7000 a couple of months back and I am extremely happy with it. It certainly outstrips the cheap models, and it outshines in all respects
The only problem I found was don't have your Engel fridge on line while it/batteries are on charge as the Ctek doesn't like the fridge cutting in/out.
Ian

I sold thousands of SLA batteries to my scooter customers over 13 years.

Here are some tips:

A cheap charger will stuff SLA batteries. I saw it over and over again.

Use a properly regulated multi-stage charger.

The "Charged" indicator will come on when the battery is only 80-90% charged. The charger will then go into "trickle mode", and it will take as long (or longer) for the battery to get to 100% as it took to get the "charged" light on. So leave the charger on for a few days at least.

Our advice to customers was to leave the charger on while ever their scooter wasn't being driven. This gives the longest battery life, but can only be done with a good quality charger. We supplied EPS switch-mode chargers.