Buy Cheap , buy Twice...Battery Conditioner

[Jam911]

My car has been in the garage on a trickle charger since June.

Got a Aldi trickle charger and all was fine, checked it most weekends.

Went to the car today and the charger has stopped working and the battery is completely dead, of course with the bonnet shut.

So I cut off the cables and have ordered a Ctex MX5 , what I should have got in the first place, and I will connect it up and hopefully it will sort the battery and I will be able to open the bonnet and connect it properly.

Note to self...Aldi NO !!!

 

[GMG]

...tbh note to self should be; don't close the bonnet when the car is in a garage! Why invite a problem...I'd be inclined to ensure your battery is okay ? Might not be the charger?

 

[TurboRob]

Conversely, I've found my cheap Aldi XS smart charger better than any CTek I've had before.... it's recovered batteries that no other charger would touch, and switches to a true trickle function once peak voltage has been cycled to a few times.

They're a rebranded Medion unit (a german electronics co owned by Lenovo).

Not sure which model you have? Mine's this -

https://www.aldi.co.uk/auto-xs-car-battery-charger/p/802686417123000

 

[Gt3Owl]

3 year Warranty with Aldi, but Ctek all the way!

 

[Senoj]

Don't discount the possibility that the battery itself has just given up.

Had very similar last week and I have the 5 amp CTek. It was the battery that gave in not the charger.

:thumb:

 

[MisterCorn]

I've had at least 2 cteks die over the years.

MC

 

[moorhouse]

Not a massive fan of Ctek either - had two which have consistently failed to perform reliably on my 996. (There was a thread about this a while back with a number of people reporting similar symptoms of the Ctek dropping off charge at level 4 of 7 and going to fault mode - see here
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=137047&highlight=ctek+charger.
Of my two, one seems to work OK on other older vehicles with more basic electrics, one is just flaky on anything and is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.
Have changed to using a NOCO Genius on the 996 and a Clarke smart charger form Machine Mart on other vehicles - both are more robust, especially he NOCO and working better than the CTeks. Tried contacting Ctek on at least two occasions but never had a response.

Just my experience..Cheers..Ian

 

[arry]

I have an Optimate 4 that I've had in constant use for at least 10 years that has been utterly flawless and is currently plugged into the 911 doing its thing. Best £45 I ever spent.

With that said, with 3 vehicles in the garage now I have a Lidl cheapy charger which has been in use for ~5 years and the number of batteries that's gone down on its watch is precisely zero.

You may have just got unlucky.

 

[takeflight]

My indie told me he as had so many customers that cteck etc have killed batteries, including mine that he recommends, when garaged for any length of time, simply disconnect and fully recharge when your ready to use the car again.

 

[Gt3Owl]

Trickle chargers are great as long as they are used correctly and on a decent battery 🔋🔋🔋

If not not the relationship doesn't end well 👍

 

[Schuey-M]

I have an Optimate 4 that I've had in constant use for at least 10 years that has been utterly flawless and is currently plugged into the 911 doing its thing. Best £45 I ever spent.

With that said, with 3 vehicles in the garage now I have a Lidl cheapy charger which has been in use for ~5 years and the number of batteries that's gone down on its watch is precisely zero.

You may have just got unlucky.

Interesting you say Optimate, I swear by these for my bikes and have two of them currently, one Lithium version for the BMW and a regular one for the Triumph.

I suppose you'd have to have the car specific ones for the car though :?:

 

[911TEL]

I've had at least 2 cteks die over the years.

MC

+1 I have had 2 go t1ts up for no apparent reason , then replaced by a different (C tek) all was ok .....

That said .... the newer models seem more functional and able to 're-con ' a poor battery but always check your electrolyte sg ..and each individual cell health ...no use trying to charge a faulty battery.....

 

[Marky911]

I'm still on my first Aldi conditioner from about 15 years ago. I've bought another whenever they've appeared on sale so have a few different models now, all of which I haven't used. I've given a few away actually to my dad etc and they're all going strong. Total bargains.

The only minor snag with mine is that when you power it up you have to press a button to cycle through the various modes to get the correct one. If there's a power cut the conditioner comes back on but doesn't charge until you select the mode.
I'm in my garage regularly though, so it isn't hard to keep an eye on it.

As suggested I doubt it's the fault of the conditioner here. At worst you may have had a power cut.

 

[Zingari]

3 year Warranty with Aldi, but Ctek all the way!

C-TEK are all 'smoke and mirrors' if you ask me. Whilst the Illuminati in the 993 world would not entertain anything other than the brand :roll: the cheaper ones give as much functionality for c£20. Aldi don't always sell cack

I've got an old Halford's trickle charger that looks very basic must be +15yrs old but still seems to work fine. It came with a car I bought. Green LED fully charged, Red LED charging up :thumb:

 

[Les Richards]

I have an Optimate 4 that I've had in constant use for at least 10 years that has been utterly flawless and is currently plugged into the 911 doing its thing. Best £45 I ever spent.

With that said, with 3 vehicles in the garage now I have a Lidl cheapy charger which has been in use for ~5 years and the number of batteries that's gone down on its watch is precisely zero.

You may have just got unlucky.

Me too, had one since 2000 and used ever since. Got a cheapy as a back up but still in its box.