Trickle Chargers

[rfurzer]

I now have an ugly long list of cars, mowers, tractors etc and am motivated to keep the batteries in good nick.

Who can advise me on trickle chargers?

[UncleHo]

I have a "CTEK multi XS4000 which I find quite good but it is 12volt only but CTEK also Do a 6 V or a Dual unit from memory.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I use a ''Battery Fighter' only puts out about 1 amp,,

[BMKal]

I have the same as UncleHo. Have found the CTEK pretty good for just about anything. Also very lightweight & compact. Take it with me on trips just in case ..............

[Eevo]

CTEK
/thread

[superquag]

I've got the 7 amp C-tek. Recommended, but Not Cheap. Excellent 2nd choice are the JAYCAR look-a-likes. From unreliable memory, they sell 6/12 volt ones.
Since you're only 'float' charging, any Multi-stage unit around 2 Amp would be more than amp-le. :angel:

[mick88]

On our tractor shed which doesn't have electricity connected i have a solar panel and just clip a lead with a couple of crocodile clips onto the battery. We have three tractors and a ute garaged there so i just swap the lead around ever few days. It has always worked well.
Where we have power connected i have a couple of mains power trickle chargers on Kambrook timers and just rotate them around the vehicles garaged there. They are only on for four hours per night and that has worked well keeping motorcycle, cars and lawn mower all charged. Since setting up this system it has doubled the life of batteries for us.

Cheers, Mick.

[Mick_Marsh]

You've got to watch those solar panels. They may be unregulated. That is to say, on a bright sunny day they may be pumping out high volts. That may damage a battery.

[mick88]

You've got to watch those solar panels. They may be unregulated. That is to say, on a bright sunny day they may be pumping out high volts. That may damage a battery.


Thanks Mick.
I made this set up myself, purchased the parts separately, it has the module that supposedly controls the voltage. I will have to check the voltage on a sunny day to see if it's overcharging.

Cheers, Mick.

[ian4002000]

I have a Cetek charger and it works great on normal batteries, will even recharge large batteries if given 3-4 days.
But it didnt like being on my electric fence unit and battery when the fence was working. It started screaming, dont know why I just stopped using it on the fence and all is well. It is still going many years later.

[LandyAndy]

I have a Ctek too,the Multi XS 25000.
Its 25amp.Brilliant for charging big batteries and does small ones without damage too.
It also has a supply mode so you can use it as a regulated 12V power supply if need be.
Not cheap but well worth the coins spent.
Andrew

[richard4u2]

On our tractor shed which doesn't have electricity connected i have a solar panel and just clip a lead with a couple of crocodile clips onto the battery. We have three tractors and a ute garaged there so i just swap the lead around ever few days. It has always worked well.
Where we have power connected i have a couple of mains power trickle chargers on Kambrook timers and just rotate them around the vehicles garaged there. They are only on for four hours per night and that has worked well keeping motorcycle, cars and lawn mower all charged. Since setting up this system it has doubled the life of batteries for us.

Cheers, Mick.would it work if you run the power from the charger into a junction box then run from the box to all of the batteries at the same time, the same with the sola panel ?

[drivesafe]

Hi rfurzer, and probably the cheapest and easiest way to keep all those batteries charged is to get a SMALL multi stage battery charger and once every few weeks, connect it to one battery at a time and leave it connected for say 24 hours at a time per battery.

The other way is to simply fit a small solar panel to each battery and leave it connected all the time.

If you want to go the solar panel way, a simple rule of thumb for sizing the panel, pick a solar panel with a wattage of no more than 10% of the battery it is to be connected to, and you then don’t need to have a solar regulator.

EG. If you have a 100Ah battery, use a solar panel no bigger than 10W.

If your smallest battery is say a 60Ah battery and you want to fit solar panels to all your batteries, just get a number of 5w panels and fit one to each battery and you will be fine.

[CraigE]

I have several.
The CTek 5 amp is the best at around $100. I plan on getting a couple more.
I also have a Matson 5amp 6 stage and 3 Supercheap brand items. The supercheap items are OK for car batteries as is the Matson which are also supposed to be OK for motorcycle batteries but ARE NOT, they boil & ruin motorcycle batteries when on float.

[mick88]

On our tractor shed which doesn't have electricity connected i have a solar panel and just clip a lead with a couple of crocodile clips onto the battery. We have three tractors and a ute garaged there so i just swap the lead around ever few days. It has always worked well.
Where we have power connected i have a couple of mains power trickle chargers on Kambrook timers and just rotate them around the vehicles garaged there. They are only on for four hours per night and that has worked well keeping motorcycle, cars and lawn mower all charged. Since setting up this system it has doubled the life of batteries for us.

Cheers, Mick.

Just checked the 240 volt chargers in the shed and they Projecta Onboard Boat Chargers, 2.5 amp. I purchased them at K-Mart about 15 years ago for about $40 each and they are still working well.
They do cut in and out but if they are on a battery continually for weeks on end the electrolite level will drop down, so that is why I put them on timers to just cut in for four hour per night.

Cheers, Mick.

[Yorkie]

I have the jay car 3 stage charge, for $80 works fine. :)

[mick88]

would it work if you run the power from the charger into a junction box then run from the box to all of the batteries at the same time, the same with the sola panel ?

Not sure but i asked a guy at work who is a tech and he said to do multi batteries i would need diodes in the lines (i think from memory) to stop the charge feeding back from higher charged batteries to lower ones or a failing one.

Cheers, Mick.