CTEK Battery Charger Install

Read a post about one of THESE a few weeks ago and thought I'd get one to install into Ginger to keep her battery topped up over the winter months. The unit will condition and charge the battery. It's also IP65 rated so it doesn't matter if it gets a bit wet and dirty.

The unit come with leads that can be permanently connected to the battery.




Once the lead was connected I fitted secured the charger inside the engine bay.




And wired the other end into my Hookup socket




Once that was done, I connected the battery lead to the charger, plugged in the Hookup lead and Hey Presto the battery is now being charged






The advantage of plugging it into the hookup lead also means it's connected to my Hookup Buzzer so I don't accidentally drive off with the lead plugged in.

Another possible advantage is, I think by looking at my intelligent split charger relay, when the starter battery is charged the relay will then switch over and charge the leisure battery, not 100% on this though

Hi KM what protection do you have for the charger how do you turn it off, the smart com if you take the cover off there is a pot you can change the threshold voltage you may find if charger output approx 13.6 it may activate smartcom all the time. Tim

It's a smart charger so once the battery is charged it will swap to trickle mode. Not sure what the output is but think the charging voltage is around 12v. Will put the meter on it when I get home and see what it says

If it's like mine (I have a Ctech MXS 5.0) then the output will change based on the charging stage - recondition, absorption, float etc.

Dennis wrote:

Hi KM what protection do you have for the charger how do you turn it off, the smart com if you take the cover off there is a pot you can change the threshold voltage you may find if charger output approx 13.6 it may activate smartcom all the time. Tim

Just checked both batteries and they are both reading 13v. Should have measured them before installing the charger but looks like they've both got a charge.

Working well what I meant with protection did you connect it direct to back of blue plug or did you put it through a low rating mcb if not you are relying on the protection of the hookup box wherever. Tim

It's wired direct into the blue hookup plug so relying on the hookup box when out and about. To be honest I very rarely use hookup when camping, it's more for when she's parked up at home and not being used.

Kiteman, notice from pics that your leisure battery located in engine bay same as mine. Need to replace mine but having problem finding a battery of suitable width (as space is an issue), what make/ model have you got (my current Battery not made any more).

Thanks, eddy

Not at home at the moment but from what I can remember it's a 75Ah battery, not sure on the size, I'll measure it when I get home later and let you know

Thanks Steve, width and make/model please,
Regards, eddy

My battery size is 240mm long by 165 mm wide

All the label says is

Dynamic batteries
Leisure
Green technology

That's all the info I can give you I'm afraid, may not even be 75ah as I can't see any other markings

Have a look at Tayna Batteries, their site includes a filter by battery length.

Tayna Batteries

kiteman wrote:

My battery size is 240mm long by 165 mm wide

All the label says is

Dynamic batteries
Leisure
Green technology

That's all the info I can give you I'm afraid, may not even be 75ah as I can't see any other markings

thanks steve....

Tallulah wrote:

Have a look at Tayna Batteries, their site includes a filter by battery length.

Tayna Batteries

thanks Tallulah will take a look.

Hi Kiteman.
seen you've had one of these ctek's for a while now. Would you recommend it as i think i could do with one.

I've got one Tim and funnily enough I've just had an issue with it. I've got the connectors permanently connected the battery and it looks like one must have come lose because I got a call this morning to say there might be a flat battery issue.

I've been out and checked, fitted the other crocodile clips lead and it's now being charged again.

Apart from that issue, the ctek has been great. It's on all the time via a lead into my garage when the van's parked up and it's maintained the battery brilliantly.

I've had no problem with mine at all. It's been plugged into my other car for the last 3 months and it started straight away

I think my connection may have come off earlier in the year and I've got away with it until now.

Well thats great thanks.
We've got Ronnie parked up for the winter in a unit and thought he'd not have a problem as its dry and not cold either...
wrong!... so time for a Ctek...thanks guys.

Right... just got my Ctek delivered, Im going to charge my battery while its still on the kombi and the instruction book says positive crocodile clip to the positive terminal and the negative clip to the chassis.
does it actually matter if its to the chassis and not the negative terminal? or is it just been over cautious?

some modern cars have battery management systems that monitor current draw and they then work out the battery voltage and drain and the system can get upset if its bypassed by direct connection, the T2C doesn't have this

Personally when charging mine I just use the battery terminals and a normal battery charger, it does seem to stay charged for weeks and months as long as nothing is on inside and pulling current mainly aftermarket bits and Danbury usually connect those to the leisure battery anyway

Thanks RayC.
Better safe than sorry.

I'm looking to fit one of these into the engine bay and wire it to the hookup socket (in the same way that Kiteman did in the first post)
My fridge is only powered from the leisure battery even when hooked up so the idea is that the CTEK unit continually tops up the battery whilst the fridge is running. Will this work?

harryhornet wrote:

I'm looking to fit one of these into the engine bay and wire it to the hookup socket (in the same way that Kiteman did in the first post)
My fridge is only powered from the leisure battery even when hooked up so the idea is that the CTEK unit continually tops up the battery whilst the fridge is running. Will this work?

I believe so, and depending on the model of the charger you get, you will also have the option to run a 'reconditioning' cycle on the battery occasionally to keep it all tip-top.

You might want to go for the MXS5 or 7 as they will provide more power than the 0.8 that I went for