CTEK MX5 Battery Charger What Do You Think?

[4WD]

Originally Posted by krismoriah72
I have the Schumacher SC1319 I have used it and abused it for a couple of years on my UTV, riding mower and also several car batteries. Can be had at tractor supply or amazon for $25.

I always put a multimeter on after the green light kicks and batteries are always fully charged..


Only brand I have … 20 year old Farm & Ranch model just did garden tractor … also have their marine trickle chargers and static/load tester …

 

[wrcsixeight]

Unless you're using 2 multimeters. One showing voltage, and the other one amperage. You cannot discern full charge.

Voltage only corresponds to state of charge on a battery that has not seen charging or discharging currents for a good period of time.
And is still not always accurate. And each battery can vary as to full charge resting voltage despite the broad brushes painted by many.

Surface charge retention can vary greatly with the battery, its health. Temperature and who made it. To what standard and what alloy was used in the plate paste.

So you cant just put a voltmeter on a battery fresh off the charger and declare it is fully charged. A high voltage 24 hours later is a much better indicator. Especially with previous measurements on that specific battery when newer. But fresh off the charger? No. Not possible.

Charged enough? Good enough? Subjectively yes.
But true full charge? No. Absolutely no.

 

[wrcsixeight]

Unless you're using 2 multimeters. One showing voltage, and the other one amperage. You cannot discern full charge.

Voltage only corresponds to state of charge on a battery that has not seen charging or discharging currents for a good period of time.
And is still not always accurate. And each battery can vary as to full charge resting voltage despite the broad brushes painted by many.

Surface charge retention can vary greatly with the battery, its health. Temperature and who made it. To what standard and what alloy was used in the plate paste.

So you cant just put a voltmeter on a battery fresh off the charger and declare it is fully charged. A high voltage 24 hours later is a much better indicator. Especially with previous measurements on that specific battery when newer. But fresh off the charger? No. Not possible.

Charged enough? Good enough? Subjectively yes.
But true full charge? No. Absolutely no.

 

[bobdoo]

Originally Posted by edyvw

CTEK are made for AGM batteries mostly and gained popularity with BMW owners when BMW went all on AGM.
They are very slow chargers and that is what AGM batteries like.


This is not true. Why are you posting lies?

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by bobdoo
Originally Posted by edyvw

CTEK are made for AGM batteries mostly and gained popularity with BMW owners when BMW went all on AGM.
They are very slow chargers and that is what AGM batteries like.


This is not true. Why are you posting lies?

OK, tell us than what is truth?

 

[meep]

I built a couple of desulfators a long time ago. For them to truly work, they need to be left on for a couple of months in deeply sulfated batteries. Mine reached up to 60V peaks in the 1khz spike in batteries which were badly sulfated (high internal resistance). This meant 2 things - it could damage other things connected to the battery, such as an automatic charger, and other connected devices with any capacitance would dampen the signal. So - in my experience, real desulfation can't be done in the car, and takes a long time. I suspect that anything we buy claiming it does desulfation would probably be pretty anemic, as to not damage vehicle electronics, and also even further anemic once connected to a battery installed in a vehicle.

And the results were mixed. I did see some improvement in some batteries, but not all.

 

[carloz]

I have a ctek also and have no complaints. I use it whenever I can't drive my car for a week or more.

 

[bobdoo]

If the batteries are at the end of their life, NO charger will fix them.

Having said that, does your charger allow for 'reconditioning', which will attempt to balance the charge state of all cells (you can verify with a hydrometer)? That *will* help.

I've got 2 Cteks, and a Battery Tender. Plus a string of cheap, dumb chargers that I threw out. The Cteks charge all my batteries now.