Great battery charger at Aldi - £12.99

RichardS

RichardS

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I've just bought one of the battery chargers that appeared in Aldi on Sunday.

It has a direct function so it will charge completely dead batteries until they have enough power to switch to intelligent charging, it displays the battery voltage and the charge current, it displays the % state of charge, is auto select 6v or 12v and, for the first time for these discount chargers I believe, it resumes charging after a power cut.

Basically it is as good as my Ctek one at a fraction of the price, but the Ctek does not have a voltage/current display.

Plus the 3 year guarantee. :)

Richard
 
They are good, but, if used to charge a car battery, don't start the car engine with the battery charger connected to the battery; they malfunction. Also, I connected the battery charger to my inverter generator to charge the boat batteries; it didn't like it, it has been playing up since then.
 
RichardS said:
I've just bought one of the battery chargers that appeared in Aldi on Sunday.

It has a direct function so it will charge completely dead batteries until they have enough power to switch to intelligent charging, it displays the battery voltage and the charge current, it displays the % state of charge, is auto select 6v or 12v and, for the first time for these discount chargers I believe, it resumes charging after a power cut.

Basically it is as good as my Ctek one at a fraction of the price, but the Ctek does not have a voltage/current display.

Plus the 3 year guarantee. :)

Richard
Click to expand...

Don't suppose you can tell us how many amps it is?

I'm tempted to buy two online, free postage over £20 and don't have to go to Aldi...
 
lw395 said:
Don't suppose you can tell us how many amps it is?

I'm tempted to buy two online, free postage over £20 and don't have to go to Aldi...
Click to expand...

3.8A which is perfect for normal garage use. My expensive Ctek is not much more. Mine will be permanently connected to a car in storage but I will be using it on the 0.8A setting as it will be on trickle charge most of the time. 3.8A is overkill for a permanent connection. :)

The really important issue is that it resets after a power outage.

Richard
 
Two ordered.
I have a couple of Cteks, the little 0.8A ones, they are great, but now have a couple of extra things to keep charged.
I get lax about moving the chargers around the various bikes and batteries.
At 13 quid it's not worth putting a home made float charger in a box.
It's about the minimum for an unbranded item from ebay.
3.8A should be enough to get something going overnight, or charge a yacht battery in a day or so.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
Thanks Richard, I still have one of the originals but have ordered two of the new ones, great news that they'll resume charging after an outage!
 
Roger52 said:
https://customer-service.lidl.co.uk...-charger?language=en_GB#q=car battery charger
Lidl have this one which I think I saw in store in the last few days. Is it the same one.
I appreciate they don't look the same I was more interested in whether the functions are the same or similar.
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According to reviews online, that latest Lidl version has a higher current rating of 5A but does not re-start after a power outage, which is the problem with my older Lidl charger. We have very unstable mains supply with a power cut every couple of months so it's the restart function which is a top priority for me.

Richard
 
Last edited:
awol said:
Just shows that online reviews are not always accurate nor even make sense!
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It's a simple typo. Why is that such a big deal when every single person on here can read the link provided for themselves and everyone knows that battery chargers do not run at 5V. After your childish comments in your post #4, and now #11, you will see that several forumites have already ordered what appears to be an excellent product. :)

Do you have a problem with me trying to help other forumites? :confused:

Richard
 
Murv said:
Thanks Richard, I still have one of the originals but have ordered two of the new ones, great news that they'll resume charging after an outage!
Click to expand...

Great news indeed. My old one does not. I bet they are all sold out by the time I get back next week.
 
lw395 said:
That looks much like the run of the mill chinese ebay 5A jobs which I was looking at.
Not much documentation with any of these things, I want to know that the long term float won't trash a battery over winter.
Click to expand...

The Aldi one, and I believe the Lidl one, both give the float current and voltage in the manual although you're right that it doesn't appear in the online specs. It also doesn't say online or even in the Aldi manual that it re-starts after a power outage so I was very surprised when I saw that it does. I've deliberately turned it off at the mains several times now and it just continues to charge when the power is restarted.

There are several different profiles to choose from with the new Aldi charger, but, in general, the battery is held at a voltage greater than or equal to 12.8V using a current of 50 -150 mA. If the voltage drops below 12.8V, charging resumes at 0.8A.

Of course, a battery on long term charge which has no drain will simply remain above 12.8V / 100mA indefinitely.

We have the previous Lidl version which does not have the display but does not re-start. It has been connected to a battery/car in storage for the last 2 years and the battery is still in perfect condition. The only problem with it is that after each power outage I have to re-start it.

Richard
 
I have tended to use various lab power supplies and home-made float chargers set at 13.6V or similar.
The lab psu's get borrowed for other things, one of them died and a couple of home-made lash-ups got broken due to never getting boxed.
I bought a Ctek and was very impressed, so I bid for used ones on ebay and got another.
Bikes and RIB now have Ctek plug in points, some have flashing LEDs to indicate charge level. They are pretty good. The sockets seem to survive rain etc on the bikes.

I sometimes want to actually charge a battery rather than float it. The Cteks do that but can take a long time as you'd expect.
I can use a big PSU if I need to, but something that turns off automatically seemed like it might be worth £26 the pair.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
I have 4 of these chargers, they do deliver 3.8 amps.
Click to expand...

The "don't hold your breath" was to imply they're slow, not that the figure wasn't to be believed.

My workshop battery charger is a 20amp one (came installed as original equipment on the boat, till I upgraded) but my pattern of use is different to, say, Richard's.

Pete
 
I have four of the previous (grey) Lidl ones. Or rather, I had, because although they work fine when new, two of mine died abruptly and totally after a couple of years. Furthermore one went on charging my old DS's battery after a cell failed, whacking up the current to 3.8A to compensate, drying out the cell and blowing the covers off the battery. Could have been worse,

I have one of the new Aldi ones now, and it seems fine. Hadn't realised it would restart after a power cut.
 
What's the advantage of these types over a basic transformer, rectifier and regulator type? They sound rather delicate. I just use sealed lead-acid batteries in boats and cars, nothing fancy.
 
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