XSeries-forum

Tired of the fleets batteries running down and not wanting to recharge on a normal Halfords charger, so invested in one of these to "recondition" sulphated batteries......seems to be rescuing the batteries so far, I'm impressed, anyone have any experience with them?

I've got a normal run-of-the mill Silverline 12v/24v old style charger which served me well for years, then "upgraded" to one of those fancy electronic ones at Halfords, which was actually more expensive than the CTEK. If the battery is just "flat", the Halfords and Silverline chargers work easily, but they don't recharge severely discharged ones - the Halfords charger just gives an error if a battery is severely discharged in order to get you to chuck it away, I guess and.....go buy another one at Halfords of course!!!!!

I know the technology in these chargers has moved on lightyears, just wondering what others think of the CTEK.

I bought one to try and resurrect the battery on my last car (Porsche 996) but it was too far gone. Since then I've just used it occasionally to keep batteries topped up and in good condition.

CTEK is considered to be the best. I have 3 of them on 3 of my cars, works great.

I'm impressed. Its already rescued one battery and charged it up nicely - the other chargers claimed it was FUBAR - and is well on its way to resurrecting the second one which was also rejected by the lesser chargers and I very nearly threw the battery out last week!. Very happy - its saved me the outlay on 2 batteries so far(approx £80 for one, £100 the other) in 24 hours - given that it cost £70, its paid for itself already........

I bought a lesser CTEK model a few years ago , think it's a 3600 , and have been very impressed
by them .
They do exactly what they say on the box , and you can leave them connected to a car
indefinately , and there is no cause for concern , which is more than can be said of the Smiths
one I had before !!
I've lent it to friends and they've gone out and bought one on the back of it , 'nuff said .

3600 is plenty big for the capactity of the batteries we have. Superb units, the CTEKS are.

The 7000 gives the added flexibility of use as a power unit itself, I think that's the only thing the smaller one doesn't offer. I'm really really pleased I bought one now - should have done so ages ago!! That electronic Halfords unit was more expensive!! And only half as good!!

What do you mean with "power unit". You mean you can start a car on it?

No, its not a booster pack - it provides 12V DC current itself, like a battery in effect - it becomes a power supply. There is a mode outside of charging mode and maintenance mode called supply mode, where it acts as a power supply. Useful I suppose if you don't want to lose settings when a battery is exchanged. In my case, its also useful to use as a power supply unit for various bits of Ham Radio equipment.

Looking at the OEM BMW units they seem to be rebadged 3600s or 7000s (at a suitable repricing too) - which are getting new numbers for 2011 according to CTEK. The 3600 has been replaced by a slightly higher powered unit with an extra 1A to play with, nothing for us to worry about there. There do seem to be some good deals about so I may buy one, seeing as HRH has 'lost' our charger. Don't ask me how, but she has.
I mean, how do you 'lose' a battery charger

Might get the 7000 as the 'supply' function means I can run the car fridge on mains. Ours is 12V only so having a 230V to 12V option could be handy.

X5Sport, these deals you see - can you point me in their direction as and when...

I'm thinking about it....

Not sure if anyone else has tools passed down from their dad, but I have a charger and I feel it's worth more than any super duper charger at thw minute, hence the reservation...

£45 delivered seems to be the cheapest I can find.

I take it that's the 3600? The 7000 is about £80 upwards.

Agree, have the CTEK 3600 taking care of my Corrado VR6... battery always on form... top piece of kit, and as mentioned chosen/rebranded by BMW

[quote=""X5Sport""]I take it that's the 3600? The 7000 is about £80 upwards.[/quote]

Yes - I thought that was what Sanj was looking for.