What leisure battery charger?

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jpay

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Hello...

Rather than asking for advice I thought I'd go more direct, If you can help can you please post a link to the product for sale of which I can choose and buy :).

I want a battery charger which can be moved between 2 boats.
Charging leisure batteries
be great to have some sort of indication of stage of charge

Cheaper the better but don't wanna buy junk, I don't know whats recommended as a fair price but I'd hope around £30 would do it.

Thanks,
 
You won't get much for £30 other than a low powered (about 5 amps) car battery charger which is a single stage and little more than top up. Huge choice of makes - just Google.
 
Ctek as above probably the standard by which other compact automatic chargers are judged

However more of a "budget price", and one did well on a recent magazine (PBO ?) test, the Ring Smartcharge + range .

http://www.ringautomotive.co.uk/uk/content/battery-care

Up to you what size, ie max current output, best suits your needs 4amp, 8 amp, 12 amp, or 16 amp

Choose which one and then Google for the best available prices.
 
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Urm...

The whole electrics on my boat is really confusing, at the moment I'm using croc clips for my vhf because thats the only electrics I need to use.

But I believe they are deep cell leisure batteries. I recognise them as the long larger than car battery battery cost me around £75 from a standard battery shop.

Novice as you can tell...
 
jpay said:
Would £50 make me closer to a decent charger?
Click to expand...

£50 would get you an 8amp Ring Smartcharge +. £57 would get the 12 amp version and £68 the 16 amp version. Googling may find better prices though.


The choice would depend on the amp-hour capacity of your battery. The larger the battery the more powerful the charger you need to charge the battery in a reasonable time.

An 8 amp one would be slow charging a battery more than say 100Ah but adequate for smaller
 
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Don't buy the ring smart charge, they are very flaky.. I had one and the internal fuse went. Pain in the butt to replace it. If you google you'll find its a common problem with them.

Buy the ctek, I swapped over to one, and its been great.
 
I'll come back to these questions tomorrow when I am on the boat. :)

Thanks everyone, it's so confusing to me, the boat electrics are something I really wanna tackle but don't know where to start.
 
jpay said:
Hello...

Rather than asking for advice I thought I'd go more direct, If you can help can you please post a link to the product for sale of which I can choose and buy :).

I want a battery charger which can be moved between 2 boats.

Charging leisure batteries
be great to have some sort of indication of stage of charge

Cheaper the better but don't wanna buy junk, I don't know whats recommended as a fair price but I'd hope around £30 would do it.

Thanks,
Click to expand...




I have had a couple of fancy modern efforts expire after very little use.

I suggest you buy one of these:

http://www.toolsbypost.com/product_pp.php?id=5118&category=967

Fine for your requirements and probably tough enough to pass on to your grandchildren.

PS. The same people do an 8amp unit for about 25 quid.
 
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Eight years ago I bought a Halfords charger. It is still going strong. Their current version is here: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_815325_langId_-1_categoryId_255205
What I did do is replace the croc clips with 12v plug and I put a socket onboard connected to the batteries so I didn't have to faff around with croc clips. It works a treat. When I get in I simply plug the charger in and off she goes. It is happy charging the batteries even though the fridge is working.

Simples!

Gerry www.sadler32forsale.com
 
Installed a C-Tek M200 after having a Halfords job croc-clipped to the terminals (2x110Ah). This was OK-ish but you had to turn it on manually if the power was cut for any reason (i.e. someone unplugged you to 'borrow' the socket for a while or to untangle their own cable). If you didn't notice, batteries would soon be flat, as the Halfords unit needed to be activated manually.

The CTEK is beautiful, , smaller, more powerful, extremely quiet and self-starting. It's quite amazing. A lot more than you were looking to pay, but made for the job and designed to provide a power supply as well as charge. Can be left hooked up permanently without wrecking the batteries.

Good luck.
 
nigelmercier said:
From the Halfords Q&A:
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends on what you would describe as "long periods of time".
I don't leave it running when away form the boat (couldn't do even if I wanted to, being on a buoy).
When I go into a marina I plug it in and it happily runs, even with extended periods.
It isn't a trickle charger so I wouldn't expect to leave it running for weeks at a time but when I am a marina over the winter I put it on a timer to run for 4 hours a week.

As a matter of interest when my 2x80Ahr domestic batteries are charged it goes into a holding charge cycle (not sure if that is the correct terminology)

All I can say is that it is simple, easy to use and works well!

Gerry www.sadler32forsale.com
 
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