ctek chargers

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nathanlee

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I've traditionally always had Sterling, but given some problems with two of them in the past, and the fact that they're flippin' expensive, I'm now considering a ctek.

Are they fit and forget? i.e. if I'm consuming 12v whilst batteries are on charge, will it behave?

As with the sterling, I'd sort of like to know that as soon as I plug that shore line in, the boat is fully powered for both 230 and 12v.

10amps would be plenty, but I could probably live with 5 if the charger is protected against pulling too much whilst its connected.

Anybody got one that can advise?
 
Yes to all those questions. Fit and forget. The larger ones work in power pack mode if you have to remove the batteries. Quiet and very soft start so they work well with gennys.
 
I've also got the 5amp ctek on board and it's fine. Also got the smallest trickle charger at home for the caravan battery over winter. But it wouldn't charge my wifes Jazz when she left the ignition on a few days ago - had to dig out the ancient big charger which did work!
 
But are they really fit & forget.

From my understanding, if there is a power cut, the C-Tek reverts to stand by mode and you have to re-set to charge mode. Mine is about 4 years old and that's exactly how it works. Not much good if you leave it for long periods; which is in essence, why we buy them.

I also have a Lidl one, which is based on the C-Tek, and rumoured to be made by them, and that reverts to stand by after a power cut.

The 2 Halfords ones I have work differently in that they are charging once switched on so if they do suffer from a power cut, when mains power is resumed, they go back into charge mode.

The Lidl and Halfords items are less than half the price of the C-Tek anyway.
 
Denis O said:
But are they really fit & forget.

From my understanding, if there is a power cut, the C-Tek reverts to stand by mode and you have to re-set to charge mode. Mine is about 4 years old and that's exactly how it works. Not much good if you leave it for long periods; which is in essence, why we buy them.

I also have a Lidl one, which is based on the C-Tek, and rumoured to be made by them, and that reverts to stand by after a power cut.


The Lidl and Halfords items are less than half the price of the C-Tek anyway.
Click to expand...

Nope, restarts after power cut and gets going straight away. You may have a faulty one.
 
I think that the earlier (black button) versions did not revert to charging. If you have a red button charger, it does.
 
Denis O said:
But are they really fit & forget.

From my understanding, if there is a power cut, the C-Tek reverts to stand by mode and you have to re-set to charge mode. Mine is about 4 years old and that's exactly how it works. Not much good if you leave it for long periods; which is in essence, why we buy them.

I also have a Lidl one, which is based on the C-Tek, and rumoured to be made by them, and that reverts to stand by after a power cut.

The 2 Halfords ones I have work differently in that they are charging once switched on so if they do suffer from a power cut, when mains power is resumed, they go back into charge mode.

The Lidl and Halfords items are less than half the price of the C-Tek anyway.
Click to expand...

My Ctek 7 amp smart charger always re-starts after a power outage. I also have two Halfords chargers. The non-intelligent charger, which is basically just a transformer, resumes charging after an outage but you would not want to leave this sort of charger on permanently as you would run the battery dry. The Halfords intelligent smart charger does not resume after an outage. As you say, the Lidl smart ones do not resume either.

You need to make sure that you are buying a smart charger which will resume.

Richard
 
Richard,

My C-tek definitely reverts to stand by after a power cut. Thankfully it's used in the UK and we rarely have a power cut so not a problem. However, when I unplug it and plug it back in I then have to use the mode button to get it back to charging; like the Lidl ones.

As for the Halfords ones I have used them frequently on both cars and the boat without issue. They are the Intelligent Chargers as per this link

http://www.halfords.com/motoring-tr...battery-chargers/halfords-maintenance-charger

and in the case of the boat are plugged in from mid October to mid April. Outside of that period it's in the water and this year I'm trying out an 8.5w solar charger. Early indications are good. Anyway, back to the Halfords chargers, after a power cut they both revert to charging. They only have 2 (not counting 6v or 12v) modes so surely this has to happen.
 
nathanlee said:
I've traditionally always had Sterling, but given some problems with two of them in the past, and the fact that they're flippin' expensive, I'm now considering a ctek.

Are they fit and forget? i.e. if I'm consuming 12v whilst batteries are on charge, will it behave?

As with the sterling, I'd sort of like to know that as soon as I plug that shore line in, the boat is fully powered for both 230 and 12v.

10amps would be plenty, but I could probably live with 5 if the charger is protected against pulling too much whilst its connected.

Anybody got one that can advise?
Click to expand...

Had the 5 amp C-TEK smart charger for years now brilliant bit of kit, suggest you order spare plug leads so you don't have to bother with wires and clips, just wire each charging lead to each battery and all you need to do it just swop plugs in seconds to change.
 
Caer Urfa said:
Had the 5 amp C-TEK smart charger for years now brilliant bit of kit, suggest you order spare plug leads so you don't have to bother with wires and clips, just wire each charging lead to each battery and all you need to do it just swop plugs in seconds to change.
Click to expand...

I have mine so you can leave the switch to both and both get charged.

Also seems to work when plugged in with no manual intervention. So I assume it would restart after a power cut.
 
Denis O said:
Richard,

My C-tek definitely reverts to stand by after a power cut. Thankfully it's used in the UK and we rarely have a power cut so not a problem. However, when I unplug it and plug it back in I then have to use the mode button to get it back to charging; like the Lidl ones.

As for the Halfords ones I have used them frequently on both cars and the boat without issue. They are the Intelligent Chargers as per this link

http://www.halfords.com/motoring-tr...battery-chargers/halfords-maintenance-charger

and in the case of the boat are plugged in from mid October to mid April. Outside of that period it's in the water and this year I'm trying out an 8.5w solar charger. Early indications are good. Anyway, back to the Halfords chargers, after a power cut they both revert to charging. They only have 2 (not counting 6v or 12v) modes so surely this has to happen.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that the Halfords model you have is not a smart charger but a trickle charger. It's basically a 12V transformer which is why it always comes on after a power outage. I think you'll find the Halfords Smart Charger does not restart unless they have changed the spec since I bought mine.

How old is your C-Tek charger? I'm pretty sure that all the current C-Tek smart charger do restart but call them to confirm before you buy.

Richard
 
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