is this battery charger suitable for A2?

bye_bye_alfa

bye_bye_alfa

Member
Hi folks


I've just started having this 3/4 beep malarkey from the alarm siren.
I've been reading that it is probably to do with the siren battery... that said on a thread someone thinks it may be to do with the car battery.

Ours is on the same battery... 7.5 years!
I've just bought a battery charger for my piaggio scooter and wondered if I could use it on the car to see if it needs a charge?

This is what I bought??

http://www.optimate-chargers.co.uk/?gclid=CK7U4dG4kp4CFU0A4wodgBSCpA

bba
 
I have an 'ordinary' Optimate permanently connected to the battery on my rarely used A2. Had it for years - it is good. Decided recently to get another for my other car. No luck in car parts shops; motor bike shops best. I went in Harley Davidson Manchester (any excuse) but they only sold the Optimate with the conditioner function that you have, which is intended for motorbike batteries stored during the Winter. They thought it might not be suitable for a large capacity car battery, partly because of the rather aggressive-sounding anti-sulphation cycle. I ended up buying a Swedish C-TeK at a good price from Manbat in Manchester.
Paul
 
Got a C-Tek myself - Costco were doing them for a very good price last year. It's actually permanently connected to the bike battery at the moment, so the direct opposite of Paul!

The Optimates are good - all my biker mates used to swear by them (but in those days, I used the bike all year round, so had no need of a charger).

I'm sure you'll be fine using it as a trickle charger, but it'll not have the beef to charge a large A2 battery from flat.

Cheers,

Mike
 
bye_bye_alfa said:
Hi folks


I've just started having this 3/4 beep malarkey from the alarm siren.
I've been reading that it is probably to do with the siren battery... that said on a thread someone thinks it may be to do with the car battery.

Ours is on the same battery... 7.5 years!
bba
Click to expand...

I changed the siren unit a few years ago and it cured the 4 beeps and the alarm going off randomly. I still have the same battery and its 8.5 years old now.
Keeping the main battery fully charged may help but if the siren unit back-up battery is on the way out it won't be a long term fix

Cheers Spike
 
I went to charge my battery at the weekend as I've been doing lots of short runs in the dark (yeh, I know short runs are not good for cars).

Anyway, luckily I looked at the manual. It said only use a low charging rate as a high rate was dangerous and should only be done by a dealer with specialist equipment. I _think_ it mentioned a fire/explosion risk on high charge.

Fortunately my old Woolies charge has a high/low setting. Low setting was 1 amp. On a 40amp hour battery thats 40 hours! I gave it 12 hours and the battery was reading 12.75 volts afterwards.

I suppose the lesson is not to let the battery discharge, otherwise it's a long wait to charge it. Alternatively jump start it and have a long drive, but at night with all lights on it could be a very long drive.
 
Cheers fellas


The car battery is not flat, and think is holding good charge.
I have got a multimeter, but it's in my motorhome, so I'll check the voltage before thinking of charging.

Thanks for the replies.

bba
 
Battery Charger

I'd recommend an Oxford Maximiser 360T ~ suitable for Bikes/Cars/Any 12v.
Can be left connected for long term maintenance.
Mervyn
 
The big risk with battery charging is over charging. This is when the charger puts in too many amps and causes the voltage across the cell to be above the decomposition voltage for water, and hence hydrogen and oxygen are evolved (the battery bubbles). This occurs above ~14.5V (there is a good section on Wikipedia explaining this). This gas mixture is very explosive and of course there is a big risk of sparks too, hence a fire is possible. Old fashioned chargers delivered a constant amp level until the cells bubbled (hydrogen and oxygen evolution). But if the battery is old, or has been discharged then the lead plates react with the acid to for lead sulphate, which coats the cell plates stopping the battery taking on any charge, and hence it will bubble instantly.

Modern chargers (Optimate and Ctex for example) monitor the voltage across the battery and vary the current (amps) being delivered to avoid boiling the cells. I have a Ctex 3600 and it can bring a very dead battery back to life by pulsing high current across the cells, this removes (or redisolves) the lead sulphate slowly allowing the battery to retain some charge. On a very low voltage battery this pulsing may take 16-32 hours (depending on the current available from the charger, the bigger the faster). Once the desulphonation has occured the smart charger will continue to pulse current to the battery until the desired voltage is acheived. It then goes into a conditioning mode, where it tops up the battery when the voltage drops below a certain level.

New smart chargers are completely safe if used as instructed. With the Ctex model you don't even have to disconnect the battery from the car!. Just attached the red lead to the red terminal and then attached the black lead to part of the car that is earthed (the boot lid catch loop is ideal) and away you go.

Hope that is useful, sorry if I am expaining how to suck eggs, but the scientist in me can't help coming out occasionally!!

Cheers,

David
 
Resurrecting an old thread, rather than starting a new one, simply because there is good information in the preceding posts.

I am "looking after" three cars:
  • my A2 TDI 90 - 12V 85Ah (AGM)
  • spouse's Seat Mii - 12V 36Ah
  • mother's Honda Civic IMA Hybrid - not sure on the battery fitted; it doesn't live here
None have been used much in the past three weeks; the Honda not at all.

As UK government #coronovirusuk advice does not include "going out for a drive for an hour to keep the battery in good condition", I think I need to buy a decent Smart Charger. I know absolutely nothing about battery chargers, smart or otherwise, and (sorry folks) have no interest in them, other than I would like one which will work for all three cars.

I don't see battery charging becoming my new hobby, so I don't need anything which is configurable. I would like to connect, and let it tell me when to disconnect. I hope to keep the batteries charged rather than having to start from flat, but maybe I need that as an option.

I have browsed a couple of review sites, and because they don't draw the same conclusions, thought I would ask here, please, for your recommendations for a smart charger which will be suitable.

Thank you, Andrew
 
Any ‘smart charger’ should be perfectly fine. I’ve got a £19 charger which does everything you need.

You just need to avoid a dumb unregulated charger which would ram in a ton of excessive power and boil the battery. Any electronic charger should be able to avoid that

Typically they will have multiple ‘stages’ of charging and use words like ‘maintenance phase’ or similar.

Ring is a decent brand I think. CTek is top dollar and great quality. Those cheap ones from Halfords and Lidl and so on seem fine as well whenever I’ve looked at them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I bought one of these: NOCO genius5UK

I didn’t want to spend this much, but did want to make the purchase today, and cross the task off my list.

Taking my considerations into account, the other in my shortlist was CTEK MXS 5.0

I chose the NOCO because it will charge a completely flat battery; the CTEK can’t. I don’t think I will use it anywhere near it’s potential, but it does mean my 87 year old Mum should be able to start her car in however many months’ time

Cheers, Andrew
4A76CE1E-BD3C-4A66-8886-422334641FFE.png
4A76CE1E-BD3C-4A66-8886-422334641FFE.png
 
Good stuff.

Charging a completely flat battery is usually impossible but this will probably have a pulse setting to shove very high voltage onto the plates to try and break up sulphation which is what normally looks like a totally dead battery. It’s a real hassle when your battery says 5v, your charger refuses to even try - and you know it’s recoverable with only a bit of effort!

Looks pretty good. Have much joy with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
birdsd01 said:
The big risk with battery charging is over charging. This is when the charger puts in too many amps and causes the voltage across the cell to be above the decomposition voltage for water, and hence hydrogen and oxygen are evolved (the battery bubbles). This occurs above ~14.5V (there is a good section on Wikipedia explaining this). This gas mixture is very explosive and of course there is a big risk of sparks too, hence a fire is possible. Old fashioned chargers delivered a constant amp level until the cells bubbled (hydrogen and oxygen evolution). But if the battery is old, or has been discharged then the lead plates react with the acid to for lead sulphate, which coats the cell plates stopping the battery taking on any charge, and hence it will bubble instantly.

Modern chargers (Optimate and Ctex for example) monitor the voltage across the battery and vary the current (amps) being delivered to avoid boiling the cells. I have a Ctex 3600 and it can bring a very dead battery back to life by pulsing high current across the cells, this removes (or redisolves) the lead sulphate slowly allowing the battery to retain some charge. On a very low voltage battery this pulsing may take 16-32 hours (depending on the current available from the charger, the bigger the faster). Once the desulphonation has occured the smart charger will continue to pulse current to the battery until the desired voltage is acheived. It then goes into a conditioning mode, where it tops up the battery when the voltage drops below a certain level.

New smart chargers are completely safe if used as instructed. With the Ctex model you don't even have to disconnect the battery from the car!. Just attached the red lead to the red terminal and then attached the black lead to part of the car that is earthed (the boot lid catch loop is ideal) and away you go.

Hope that is useful, sorry if I am expaining how to suck eggs, but the scientist in me can't help coming out occasionally!!

Cheers,

David
Click to expand...

Had had this Ctek MXS5.0 for a few years.

Here is a good price after the quick search. (It is possibly to find a better price if to search more.)

www.demon-tweeks.com

CTEK MXS 5.0 Battery Charger

The updated CTEK MXS 5.0 is a battery charger that offers state of the art technology that was previously only found in CTEKs professional product range. It is a compact, fully automatic 8-step battery charger that delivers a selectable 0.8A or 5.0A to 12V batteries from 1.2 to 110Ah, and it can...
www.demon-tweeks.com www.demon-tweeks.com

What I love is that the current or whatever it gives in the battery is not more than 5A, so it does not burn the fuses. And I charge the battery through the cigarette lighter.

Absolutely recommend.
 
gromand said:
What I love is that the current or whatever it gives in the battery is not more than 5A, so it does not burn the fuses. And I charge the battery through the cigarette lighter.
Click to expand...
Thank you @gromand. I can't understand this: "charge the battery through the cigarette lighter".
In the picture in my head, the cigarette lighter runs off the electric power in the battery :confused:

Best wishes, Andrew
 
I have several of the ones Aldi sell for just under £15 and used them for quite a few years with a lot of success in reviving totally flat batteries . I have two cartoons as well with their conditioners in which are good . I don’t use c tek anymore after one goosed a brand new and expensive ford square post battery on a show car . A lot swear by the Aldi ones
 
andrewparkeruk said:
I can't understand this: "charge the battery through the cigarette lighter".
In the picture in my head, the cigarette lighter runs off the electric power in the battery :confused:
Click to expand...

Unlike modern VWs etc, the cigarette lighter socket is live with the ignition turned off on A2s, so can be used to charge the battery. With a charger connected, a battery will charge if the voltage of the charger is greater than that of the battery. A diode or similar will prevent reverse flow of current when the charger is switched off.

Rather than using a charger to recover a flat battery (not good for battery lifespan), it would be much better to use a suitable solar charger such as this:

FSI Battery Advice

Hi All, Lousy timing, my battery appears to have died. It was flat this morning and won't go past the first stage on the Smart charger. I'm going to try a dumb charger to kick start it but it looks like it might be time for a new battery. Luckily I have a very good battery supplier just...
www.a2oc.net

No mains connection required!

RAB
 
JOHN JOHNSON said:
I have several of the ones Aldi sell for just under £15 and used them for quite a few years with a lot of success in reviving totally flat batteries . I have two cartoons as well with their conditioners in which are good . I don’t use c tek anymore after one goosed a brand new and expensive ford square post battery on a show car . A lot swear by the Aldi ones
Click to expand...
With the Aldi and Lidl ones, you have to be there when the offers are on.
Up to now I had never considered that I needed a charger; normally our three cars get used (at least weekly). Hence the “emergency purchase” (I hate spending more than I need to) :confused:
Andrew
 
Thank you @RAB. Your link didn’t take me directly to a product, but I presume this was the article?
Based on your comments, do you put the solar panel outside the vehicle; or you use the 30W rated solar collector to compensate for the windscreen?

44D77AD4-2957-48D2-B29D-455B21358A89.png

Andrew
 
andrewparkeruk said:
Thank you @RAB. You4 link didn’t take me directly to a product, but I presume this was the article?
View attachment 63024
Andrew
Click to expand...
Yes, you have to make it yourself (only simple electrical connections). I haven't found a suitable ready-made solution because most are only 10 watts. 10 watts is the maximum output which is insufficient for winter; you lose about 60% of that if you place it under the windscreen.

RAB
 
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