Aldi battery charger?

single said:
Would these be any good? https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-16-october/product-detail/ps/p/car-battery-charger-1/
I have a standard engine start battery and x3 110Ah domestics so how would the charger setup work?
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As Stemar says only a low output current. Suitable maybe for maintenance charging but it would take an extremely long time to recharge a large battery bank from a low state of charge. It only has one output therefore not ideal for 2 battery banks but cheap enough to fit two.

IIRC the Lidl charger is 3.8amps but Aldi do not advertise the max output of theirs.

Like the Lidl charger ITYWF that the Aldi charger does not restart after a power interruption. A bit of a drawback if you want to leave it unattended for a prolonged period.

For recharging a 330 Ah battery bank Id be looking at perhaps a 25 amp charger or bigger.
 
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I've got one of these and have connected it to my 2 batteries for the winter. I've put a link in at the battery switches so i can charge both. When i connected it, the domestic battery (85ah) was showing just over half charge and the starter (55ah) under half charge. Within 24 hrs the charger light has changed to green indicating fully charged which was quicker than i expected. I'll leave it permanently connected now as the solar doesn't do much in winter.
 
I've got one, works fine. My bank is only 110Ah so when I arrive and plug in my worst case is only 55Ah down I hope. If I leave 14 hrs later, job done.

It keeps every thing topped up for extended periods of use in the marina.

No, it does not reset after an outage but I disconnect when I leave the boat unattended.
 
Thi battery charger should be far better than nothing. However much depends on your access to power points. If you now have a berth or power at a storage yard for winter then the question is do you wish to leave the charger connected while you are absent. Many do but this can present problems of possible fire if the charger gets a fault and if in the water possible electrolysis damge unless you go to galvanic isolator etc.
Now if you only want to provide a boost while you are present on the boat or temporarily at a jetty where power is available then a much more powerful charger would be worth having.To give you an idea if you have 330AH of battery all being charged at once. (the preferred way) then your 3 amp charger will take 100 hrs to recharge. or in practical terms to add 10% of a full charge will take 10 hrs. (that would be just a top up). But if you had a 30 amp charger that same 10% could be done in 1 hr.
Now these figures are by no means precise. A good charger will have an amp meter and show what is actually going and this is typically only a part of the max current rating so again for a few hours visit to the boat you put the charger on it is going to be useful to put some in to overcome natural discharge but a bigger charger would be better.
If on the otherr hand you are taking the batteries home (mind your back) then the smaller charger won't matter cos you could leave them on charge for a week.
So it all depends good luck olewill
 
VicS said:
Like the Lidl charger ITYWF that the Aldi charger does not restart after a power interruption.
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On your recommendation I bought two of the Lidl variety. After extensive modifications and rectifications to the house wiring with numerous mains switch-offs, I checked the MG charger and it was indicating 12.5 volts. I was going to say it was still working but it might have just been showing the volts readout. I'll check.
 
Graham_Wright said:
On your recommendation I bought two of the Lidl variety. After extensive modifications and rectifications to the house wiring with numerous mains switch-offs, I checked the MG charger and it was indicating 12.5 volts. I was going to say it was still working but it might have just been showing the volts readout. I'll check.
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At 12.5 volts its not charging. That's just the battery volts and, although Ok if its been standing for a few weeks, not brilliant either.
 
VicS said:
At 12.5 volts its not charging. That's just the battery volts and, although Ok if its been standing for a few weeks, not brilliant either.
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Checking a charger witha meter can be tricky. Older style chargers charged with a pulsed sort of waveform like half a sine wave. So measuring the voltage especially with a digital meter can give a variety of results. The DVM sampling the voltage for a short period only which can be any part of the cycle. Using a moving coil volt meter can be more successful as the mechainical inertia of the movement averages out the reading. However even this may not be useful. The average voltage may well be less than that needed to overcome the inherent voltage of the battery yet the peaks of the waveform will push current in to some degree.
So really in these old simple battery chargers the only real test of performance is a moving coil (analogue) amp meter testing charge when connected to a battery. The results of which is exactly what you need to know to relate it to time hence charge percentage.

Now more modern voltage sensing and constant voltage type chargers will generally have a more smooth DC like output. Here you cna measure the output voltage when not connected to a battery. Though some won't work without a battery connected. So that again your best test is of amps into a battery. In this case a digital volt/amp meter should be OK. The battery volts being an indication of how the charge is going and obviously should be higher with charger charging than not.
So while I don't know much about the chargers mentioned I still reckon amps in is what matters or final battery volts on charge. good luck olewill
 
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