‘Intelligent’ Battery Chargers

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I've been using a couple of the Lidl chargers for several years now on a variety of lead acid batteries, gel free electrolyte, car, truck, motorbike etc.
No complaints from me thus far, so much so that I've just picked up a third one.

I also have a couple of golf cart chargers, but these now get little use, as I have more confidence in the Lidl ones.

Also have an early Oxford charger, which seems OK too, though with less user feedback, just a few LEDs.

Bill

[Cabinet EnforcerParticipant @cabinetenforcer]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 30/01/2018 07:53:07:

Posted by Joseph Noci 1 on 30/01/2018 07:29:02:

I may be wrong, but I do suspect that Michael in not really after LiPo, NIMH,LiON, KniFe, LiFePo, etc style chargers but an intelligent Lead Chemistry cell type?…..

Joe

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Quite so, Joe … You are correct.

Topic-drift is almost inevitable though; and I'm sure the other information will be useful sooner or later.

Thanks

MichaelG.

Michael, the ctek mxs 5 appears to do all the useful features of the NOCO. Unless you tell us what specific features you are after then no-one can offer any more specific advice, can they?

I killed two aldi chargers, one just died, another decided that all batteries were faulty, they also don't like charging deep discharged batteries even when they were working properly, the ctek will do so as long as you disconnect the battery.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Can't recommend the LIDL charger for long term connected use on small batteries. I've got a couple which seem to work OK on intermittent use but left on permanent charge have destroyed two motorcycle batteries and one back-up generator battery. All relatively small so intolerant of overcharge. Maybe the twin batteries on my Norton Commander upset their algorithms but no excuse for the generator one.

Back in the day when such things first became common on the motorcycle market I had an Optimate, highly touted, and another brand, maybe Oxford. Cost me a couple of batteries each before I gave up. Investigating the Optimate showed that any resemblance between what it did on a real random battery and what the blurb said was fairly remote. Helped that I'd done some battery testing and characterisation when a youthful lab rat at RARDE and had some idea how to go about testing. Mostly high capacity, high discharge NiCad and one time use thermal batteries. The latter being a bit scary as they get very hot and push out a lot of current in their 3 or 4 minute active life. These days being told to plonk them on an asbestos sheet and not to touch them until they had cooled down might be considered a bit inadequate on the safety and risk assessment instruction side!

To assist that assessment work I had access to a three inch thick tome prepared for MoD going into tedious detail as to battery chemistries, including many of the modern lead acid variants, their performance and charging requirements. Hung onto it for many many years but left it behind on redundancy in 2004. Sometimes I wish I'd taken it with me. Bottom line according to that book was that regardless of chemistry pretty much the only way to properly maintain any mobile capable battery is a controlled series of charge discharge cycles with appropriate float and rest periods. Restoration of a battery in unknown condition was said to be possible only by analysing a set of charge discharge curves. Allegedly wet NiCads and wet "pure" Lead Acid batteries could have a near infinite life. The Soviet military wet NiCad pack out I had about the place was still quite happy after twenty years with minimal attention.

Realistically given the considerable overlap in behaviour between the various lead-acid chemistries around these days the odds that any intelligent charger can select an optimal strategy for any random battery in unknown condition are pretty slim. I'll bet all of them merely use a few hefty spikes to get some life out of an over discharged battery an a trickle / rest float cycle to maintain charge. Probably a few bobby dodger variations to make things look good but unlikely to be any real science behind them. Murray would know far more than I about that. Most are probably apparently successful purely because they "usually" don't trespass too far on what a battery can cope with outside its theoretical optimum and because most folk have pretty low expectations, not understanding what the real performance limits of a truly heathy battery are.

For over 40 years my go to charger has been a Winfield (Woolworths) unit rebuilt with a much heftier semi-constant voltage transformer and proper high current diodes. Maybe 8 amps max. Lots of lovely ripple on the output. Oven timer to remind me to check it periodically until done. Not killed a battery yet.

Clive

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Cabinet Enforcer on 30/01/2018 13:06:39:

Michael, the ctek mxs 5 appears to do all the useful features of the NOCO. Unless you tell us what specific features you are after then no-one can offer any more specific advice, can they?

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I don't wish to appear ungrateful, but; if you read my opening post you will see that I asked specifically about the 'goodness' of the NOCO device; and Joe is the only person so far to actually answer that question.

All of the other responses are, of course, welcome … and I am close to settling on the CTEK MSX 5

For me: The only significant omission in its spec. is the lack of 6Volt charging, but it's the design/build quality that matters more to me … hence the CTEK, by reputation.

MichaelG.

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Michael, I guess the 'Pro-User' unit is not available in the UK/your area? It has proved as good as the CTEK, only a lot less expensive. If not available, the CTEK is a good choice.

Joe

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Joseph Noci 1 on 30/01/2018 15:49:02:

Michael, I guess the 'Pro-User' unit is not available in the UK/your area? It has proved as good as the CTEK, only a lot less expensive. If not available, the CTEK is a good choice.

Joe

There seems to be a generous selection of them on Amazon.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Nobody's going to be able to give you much advice beyond anecdotal experience based on a very limited sample size. Best advice is to put your money on one of them and find out. These products all talk a good talk but that's par for the course….

If you post about something as nebulous as this, you will have to expect a load of rabbit holing – that's what we do here! Tell us how you get on though.

Murray

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Joseph Noci 1 on 30/01/2018 15:49:02:

Michael, I guess the 'Pro-User' unit is not available in the UK/your area? It has proved as good as the CTEK, only a lot less expensive. If not available, the CTEK is a good choice.

Joe

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Joe,

Yes, available … but [this example] not well-documented, and compared to yours; nudging a little closer towards CTEK prices

**LINK**

Date first available: 2 April 2012

MichaelG.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

Posted by Muzzer on 30/01/2018 17:17:43:

Nobody's going to be able to give you much advice beyond anecdotal experience based on a very limited sample size.

Yup. But l'll contribute anyway…

I spent ages looking for something to put in my camper van so it auto-charges when hooked up to mains. The problem with CTEK in this instance was that it always comes up in a default mode at power on which was inappropriate for maintenance charging in the camper. Some other chargers can remember the last state on new power-on. The one I ended up with also does maintenance charge on two different batteries at once.

Otherwise, my internet research led me to the conclusion that you wouldn't go far wrong with CTEK for general charging duties.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Muzzer on 30/01/2018 17:17:43:

Nobody's going to be able to give you much advice beyond anecdotal experience based on a very limited sample size. Best advice is to put your money on one of them and find out. These products all talk a good talk but that's par for the course….

If you post about something as nebulous as this, you will have to expect a load of rabbit holing – that's what we do here! Tell us how you get on though.

Murray

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Exactly, Murray

That's why I asked a very specific question in the first place !!

I even emboldened the word 'know' and emphasised that I had already dismissed the Lidl option.

MichaelG.

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P.S. I put a new Bosch battery in the 'drive it for the pleasure of driving' car today; so the urgency has probably gone out of the question.

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