Advice on CTEC charger

[David Collins]

hi

got a low battery warning when out today

battery less than 2 years old 

car used yesterday for short runs in town

put my CTEC charger on

Went to setting 3 quickly

have I connected the negative lead to an ok position as understand it has to be on chassis and not attached to the negative side of the battery 

how long would I expect it to be on setting 3?

thanks

 

[Jimbov8]

Always better to use the ground point David, here’s mine

As you can see I have used the main negative ground of the battery so as not to bypass the BMS.

[David Collins]

Thanks jimbov8

will do that

how long do you think it will be on setting 3

[Jimbov8]

Hi David,

My CTEK 10 goes to stage 4 fairly quickly, it will then take quite some time before it shows fully charged. You don’t say which CTEK you have but I would imagine it will be the same. The manual should give some indication.

[Old Peter]

My CTEK is exactly the same. —  Good battery chargers.

Peter.

[David Collins]

To add to my post

advice on a good battery tester to buy please 

think you can get some that test alternator too?

I have seen the sealey bt102 recommended but on an old thread

Thankyou 

david

[Wrinkly]

1 hour ago, David Collins said:

To add to my post

advice on a good battery tester to buy please 

think you can get some that test alternator too?

I have seen the sealey bt102 recommended but on an old thread

Thankyou 

david

David 

With the CTEK  you can buy a easy plug in adapter (I have one on my S-Type) which will show you the battery charge with a series of traffic lights colours, and allows a quick plug in when you want/need to use the CTEK. I find it adequate to control/identify the state of the battery. I do though religiously put mine on the CTEK at least once per month and for at least twelve hours. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304658209966?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143230%26meid%3Dfea948544cb1430bb818233e7baa26d0%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D275466040484%26itm%3D304658209966%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWeb%26brand%3DCTEK&_trksid=p2047675.c101224.m-1

 

 

Best Wishes and Regards, John

[Denis Oxon]

I believe that the time taken to charge your battery is dependant on the maximum amps of your charger.  So take the amp hours of your battery and divide by the charge rate of the charger. This should give you the time taken to charge your battery.

For example the CTEK MXS 7.0 gives 7 amps. So a 77 amphour battery will take 10 hours to fully charge

[Wrinkly]

11 hours ago, Denis Oxon said:

I believe that the time taken to charge your battery is dependant on the maximum amps of your charger.  So take the amp hours of your battery and divide by the charge rate of the charger. This should give you the time taken to charge your battery.

For example the CTEK MXS 7.0 gives 7 amps. So a 77 amphour battery will take 10 hours to fully charge

That concurs with my regime of charging for at least 12 hours (7amps 95amp/hr battery = 13.57 hrs.)

Regards, John

[JOE-DOT-COM]

hi

the amount of time to charge the battery will vary on how low the battery is, but should take no more than a couple of hours, if the battery is healthy

you cant calculate how long it will take to charge a battery going off the AH rating of the battery, you can only calculate how long it will take to go flat from fully charged.

because of the different states of the battery, from flat to fully charged.

I have a Jaguar CTEK charger, which if the car has been used, once the charger is plugged in will go to fully charged and the monitor state in about 30 mins and there only a 3.3 amp charger, if the battery were a bit low, down to 12.2volts would only take just over an hour to fully charged state.

The CTEK charger can be left on long term because it does bulk charge, then drops to a trickle charge, then completely knock off, with no charge and only monitors the battery voltage, no current, then once the battery voltage drops to around 12.2-12.4 volts the charger kicks in again and trickles up to it knock off voltage, so even if you have had it connected to you battery for 24hours, does not means its been charging for 24hours, if its a healthy battery it many of only charged for 2 hours in that period, depending on battery state, older the battery, the more the battery will discharge and the ctek has to kick in to top it up.

also worth mentioning, make sure the battery has the factory breather still fitted, which vent the explosive gases vent outside the boot area, usually the pipe goes behind the rear bumper, this is usually not a problem without a trickle charger, as gas is only generated as the car is driven and general ventilation will get rid of it, but if your car is store in a garage and not moved, it can create gas in you boot, hence why they fitted a vent pipe.

cheers

Joe