Basic 12v Battery Charger - Confused

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Originally Posted by superquag

Thought this was what you meant... https://www.usingenglish.com/referen...otch+mist.html :)

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Hi again superquag, and that is exactly what I meant.

The comments made by your battery shop were nothing more than a backhanded attempt to get people to buy a Ctek, because they, and/or the battery WHOLESALER, sell them.

Many of the battery WHOLESALERS sell a range of 12v products from battery chargers to DC/DC devices, inverters and so on.

The catch is that these are battery WHOLESALERS, not battery manufacturers. There are very few battery manufacturers left in Australia and most of the well known brands are imported.

If you check with the actual battery manufacturer's web sites, they either have no reference to any specific brand of charger, or, like Optima, they have their own brand.

BTW, they need to be careful threatening customers, if they don't use a specific brand of charger, that they risk voiding their warranty. Ford tried something like that 20 odd years ago, trying to get people to buy their Ford brand ( rebadged ) of driving lights or you risked voiding your new vehicle warranty.

They lost in court and the court ruling is used whenever some seller tries something similar.

As has been said many of the so called "smart" chargers won't look at a dead flat battery including Ctek's, I have two of them ;-)).
Find an old transformer based charger at garage sales, etc and it will serve you well for many years including charging FLAT batteries that the newer chargers refuse to do.
Picked up an old Projecta 2 amp job yeatserday for a mate for the princely sum of $2!
I've got an old Arlec transformer based charger that pumps out 7 amps, approaching 40 y/o and still going strong. Remember though the old chargers can't be left on a battery indefinately, YOU must monitor voltage and charge levels!

I use a Projecta 7 stage I bought for about $150 some time ago. The camper has a 3 stage cheapie that does the job.

If a battery is so flat the charger won't recognise it I put it on a 15 watt solar panel and leave it for a few weeks.

An AGM that was flat has had 2 months on the panel and now seems to be holding 13 volts, but I havent tried putting a load on it yet, so we'll see what happens.

Using solar means it is agitated during the day and rests at night, which is a good pattern, as Drivesafe points out. Its similar to what happens to vehicle batteries, which get charged when the engine is running and then get a rest.


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I've had the same 7 amp Projecta for a few years. It's been good. However the neighbour has the bigger amp version and he reckons it fries his batteries and now refuses to use it.

Bigger isn't better. Slow and steady is the way.

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