baden87 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Hi folks just wondered what's the attraction of the ctek chargers over others ( to justyfie the price ) I have seen other smart chargers for £13.99 in lidl are these comparable or not any advice gratefull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 The attraction is the fully automated charging and can be left connected. The older lidl ones are very good. I am not sure about their latest ones as not tested one and have heard of some faiing. At that price worth a punt I would think. Fully automated chargers should not be expensive now with modern integrated circuits and cheap switch mode power supplies. One of the problems with the lidl ones is if left permantly connected and there is a power cut it will not automatically switch on again whereas the Ctek I believe does but you will need to check. As a back up charger -- perfect as low cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Sorry but the old adage 'You only get what you pay for' stands strong for me on this. I bought a sub £20 'Smart' charger (very similar to the one mentioned) and it boiled every battery I tried it on! Very disappointed I threw it in the bin (I should really have taken it back but just couldn't be bothered) and went out and paid just over £50 for a CTEK 8 stage with battery recovery and what a difference! I can now leave it on a battery and not have to worry about pools of acid all around where it has boiled over. So, You pays your money.... but I know where to spend my money if ever I need a new charger. Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartkingswood Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 You are quite correct Brambles the Ctek will switch back to its original programme after a cut in mains power, whilst the Lidl ones don't. The reconnection is useful if you are away from home (without the Van) and want to connect the charger via a timer switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Cup Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 baden87 - 2014-01-26 11:59 PM Hi folks just wondered what's the attraction of the ctek chargers over others ( to justyfie the price ) I have seen other smart chargers for £13.99 in lidl are these comparable or not any advice gratefull I have used these LIDL/Aldi chargers for many years with no problems. No fried batteries. For the money they are great, the CTeks are very expensive and offer very little more. The only issue is that the 3.8 amps max is not really sufficient for 200+ amp hour batteries - but I'm still using them, it just takes a little longer to charge (fine for topping up though). I keep hoping they'll introduce a more powerful version, can't bring myself to pay the huge difference in price. I carry 2, one permanently set up to connect when on EHU, one with the clips for the van battery should it ever prove necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 which ctek one is suitable then folks ? i have got the battery master fitted with 5amp solar panel but the cab battery is flat (new beginning last season) only alarm taking anything must admit its a couple of months since i started MH thought solar panel would have kept it topped up ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Cteck have quite a useful site which details chargers for varied applications http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/rvs It depends on what you require; how much amp hour-age you want to top up ? (80 to 240 depending how many leisure batteries you have) I use two, one for the vehicle battery and one for the leisure battery. The former is a multistage but simple maintenance charger, the latter is a bit more powerful and will act as a 12V Power supply unit up to 7 amps if needed. (Also has a reconditioning function for waking up older batteries) Had them years, they are permanently connected to the batteries when the m/home is parked. and apart from a occasional peak to see that the indicator lights are showing all is well, I leave them to there own devices. I have direct connections to the batteries (via fuses) and the Ctek traffic light connectors showing the battery state. Not the cheapest, by my baby deserves the best ! Rgds Edit In answer to your question I use a MXS 7 and a MSX 3.8 ( or the older versions which seem to have similar specs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 baden87 - 2014-01-27 3:40 PM which ctek one is suitable then folks ? i have got the battery master fitted with 5amp solar panel but the cab battery is flat (new beginning last season) only alarm taking anything must admit its a couple of months since i started MH thought solar panel would have kept it topped up ? The "Battery Master" product marketed by VanBitz will only pass a maximum of 1.1Amp (a 'trickle charge') from the leisure-battery to the starter-battery, and will only pass that charge when the starter-battery's voltage is below that of the leisure-battery. It would be reasonable (on the face of it) to expect your 5amp solar panel to be able to keep your leisure-battery well charged and, consequently, for your leisure-battery to be able pass sufficient charge to your starter-battery to replace the charge being taken from it by the alarm and the vehicle's electronics (clock, etc.) As this apparently is not happening, perhaps your Battery Master isn't working properly or there's a problem with the starter-battery even though it's pretty new. Before investing in a battery-charger, it would be wise to try to confirm why your starter-battery has gone flat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBW Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Some years ago most Motorhomes were fitted with 12 volt chargers. They supplied the van interior lights, etc, The only problem was, it had a set voltage output, they never charged the leisure battery to full charge. This is the reason for the CTEK charger. It can be use for topping up, fully charging and monitoring the leisure battery. I have noticed though, in my washroom I still use the long tube lamp, the CTEK uses pulses to charge. This pulsing can be seen on the long tube lamp. Another reason I must convert to LED lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Share Posted January 28, 2014 i think your right about finding out why its gone flat like you say on the face of it the solar panel should keep it topped up i think this needs more investigation clueso Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 i suspect the leisure batteries are not getting up to the correct voltage for the battery master (cak tanks)to kick in ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 BrianBW - 2014-01-28 4:13 PM Some years ago most Motorhomes were fitted with 12 volt chargers. They supplied the van interior lights, etc, The only problem was, it had a set voltage output, they never charged the leisure battery to full charge. This is the reason for the CTEK charger. It can be use for topping up, fully charging and monitoring the leisure battery. I have noticed though, in my washroom I still use the long tube lamp, the CTEK uses pulses to charge. This pulsing can be seen on the long tube lamp. Another reason I must convert to LED lights. Historically, leisure-vehicle onboard battery-chargers restricted their outut voltage to 13.8V to prevent any possibility of the leisure-battery 'gassing'. This restriction meant that a leisure-battery would not be charged to its full potential capacity. This is no longer so, and the majority (all?) of onboard battery-chargers fitted to motorhomes in recent years will have a similar 'intelligent' charging regimen to that of the CTEK products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 baden87 - 2014-01-29 2:08 PM i suspect the leisure batteries are not getting up to the correct voltage for the battery master (cak tanks)to kick in ? The "Battery Master" gizmo is (I believe) marketed only by VanBitz, but it's fairly common to see the name used for other products that do something similar. If your 'battery master' came from CAK Tanks, it may well be a cbe-made CSB-2 unit. The two equipments are discussed here http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-43129-0.html If the information about the CSB-2 is correct, charge will only be pass to your starter-battery when the solar-panel is passing charge (at 13.6V or higher) to the leisure-battery, which may not be too often this time of year. (A VanBitz "Battery Master" would pass charge even though the solar panel was not charging.) This might explain why your starter-battery has gone flat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Some solar chargers float charge stage is 13.2 volts for flooded batteries, if this is the case then you may not be reaching a high enough charge voltage to charge the engine battery. The temporary solution is to draw some power from the liesure batteries so they charge at the bulk rate and voltage rises to 13.8 or indeed up to 14.3 volts from the solar charger. Once the engine battery starts charging again, then this lowers the charge on the liesure battery and so they continue to charge at higher voltage and hopefully you are back into the cycle of the solar panel keeping both topped up...until you reach the stage again where the solar panel drops back to float charge. Hmmmm - just some thoughts I had while reading the posts above. It can take a long time for batteries to reach absolute full charge on a float charge and if they are not charging such as vernight with solar panels then ther is often enough collapse of the voltage to initiate a charge cycle again raising the volts to over 13.8 for a short period. The systen with solar panels charging at 13.2 volts float and a battrey master fitted may not be infallible. My suggestion is , use some habitation power and then see what happens. Just switch on a heavy load on for a few minutes is all that is probably needed IF my armchair theoretical scenario is remotely correct. It could all be Tosh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 For identification purposes, a VanBitz "Battery Master" is shown here http://www.campervanstuff.com/shop_stuff/index.php?mod=product&id_prd=976 while the cbe CSB-2 device is shown here http://www.cbe.it/en/content/csb2 http://www.cbe.it/sites/default/files/CSB2.pdf http://www.theoystercentre.co.uk/magento/oyster/satellite/oyster-satellite-accessories/12v-accessories/cbe-distribution-unit.html This Caravan Club forum thread discusses motorhome starter-batteries going flat http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/community/discussions/technical-and-advice/motorhomes/vehicle-battery-discharge/rt/506248/?p=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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