best and easiest to use trickle charger.

am looking into buying one, and would like to know what people use on there cars, been told that the CTEX XS3600 12V car battery charger/conditioner is a good one.

Yes - I use the same Ctec connected via a permanently live lighter socket.(I understand it is the same model supplied by Porsche). Plug it in, close door with flexible cable trailing out, forget. Of course, it assumes you have a garage with a power supply!

not garaged unfortunately, so am looking for one that i can use direct on to the battery.

+1 for CTEK which comes with a selection of connectors (but the cigarette lighter plug is often an extra!) So are we talking driveway or roadway here? Presumably driveway, so it is easier to connect into the cigarette lighter than the battery as the door can be closed and locked with the cable (again presumably you would use an extension lead) in place. (I take mine through just in front of the wing mirror)

its parked at back of house so very near the house, so easily accesible to power, just wandered about the multi XS700 one, is this one far to powerfull for the car.

Did you mean xs7000? Will obviously do the job but is probably overkill for what we need to condition the batteries on our cars - 3600 seems to do it very well for most folk! However, yer pays yer money etc etc.........[ ]

CTEK [ ]

I got the one from Aldi (or it might have been Lidl) CTEK rebadged for a little over a tenner. Works fine. Might be worth a try to see if they have em in again and save yourself some hard earned matey

Rebadged or not it us not a Ctek for a tenner, the parts in a Ctek cost way over a tenner.[8|] but if it works for you Ding Dang Do [ ]

It was a special clearance deal when i got mine, hence the price. I'll drag it out in the morning and see what the make is, but i'm failry sure it was a CTEK rebadged. Anyway it works well

Oxford Maximiser 360T, can be had for around £40.00, has recovery mode, trickle and fast charge, also maintains battery. Has a standby mode too. Comes with crocodile clips, permenant large tamiya connector and works fantastic. Has three charge modes for varying AH of battery and will do anything from motorcycle / jetski batteries to industrial. I've had a lot more expensive optimisers before but this one has by far been the best.

+1 for the CTek 3600 I got mine from Amazon with the cigarette lighter attachment for £50 all in. The extra (£5/6?) for the lighter attachment is well worth it as others have said... it really is plug n drive. Stating the blindingly obvious this is a battery conditioner - which is cleverer than a trickle charger. The latter simply manages a constant flow; the former does recharging and maintenance via pulses. I believe that this is better for longer battery life.

cheers all, ordered a ctex last night, will need it asap as car been stood for 5 wks now.

Just out of interest how long does it take dor a battery to flatten when a these cars are parked up for periods of time?

just got a Halfords Conditioner charger .... seems to do exactly what it says on the label, and has various cables ... about £27.00, works o/n on the 996 but did take 48hrs to breathe life back into a Renault Master van. ... Image

Just for the record, don't buy the cheaper CTEK XS800 as it's not man enough to charge a 75Ah battery, but it will maintain it's voltage. I've got one and whilst it's fine for my 55Ah battery on my X1/9, it's permanently on charge light, just to keep up with the drain I suppose, yet it's not actually charging up the battery! I think it's only 0.8A so not surprising. This on a brand new battery as well. BTW just ordered a XS4003 with cigar adaptor

To save the hazard of trailing mains cables with extentions, I simply place a second 12v battery in the boot to power a CTEK type battery charger via a 150W inverter. Typical charge rate is 0.5amp and 5-8hrs is usually enough to bring the green fully charged light on.