Battery Conditioner

Hello All This time of year my car gets a little less use, the battery takes a bit of a hammering i have recently replaced the battery and am thinking of getting a conditioner, are they recomended and easy to use as in just connect to the battery terminals and leave on, also can any one recomend a decent one. Sorry if i asked obvvious questions. Regards Phil

See this thread, Philippe. I think it will answer your questions. Yes they are a good idea and you can connect into the cigarette lighter socket - so don't need to fiddle around with the battery. [link=http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=333425]http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=333425[/link]

Hi Philippe, I have a CTEK conditioner and it's been brilliant. It does seem to be a favoured product. I don't use my car daily so I have a CTEK 3600 conditioner plugged in all the time. The thing cost less than £50 and paid a bit extra so I could use the a cigarette lighter adapter to charge my battery. They are very good and so far it hasn't let me down. Porsche do one which looks similar to the CTEK but cost almost double! I have a cabriolet so just lower the small rear quater light and pass my adapter into the cabin and plug in to the lighter. You do get fittings that you connect permanently to the battery but they came up a little short and I couldn't be bothered to adapting them to fit. But I remember a really neat job someone had done by having a charging point next to the petrol filler. Although the safety aspect of such a position was challenged by other forum members, with the petrol cap on and the connection made before power was switched on, it did in my mind, reduce the risk to acceptable and it did look conveinent if you use the car a lot. Theres a good description of the conditioner at the link below. [link=http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/Store/Product/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=104&gclid=CJLA64u0zZcCFUoa3godxXd-8w]http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/Store/Product/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=104&gclid=CJLA64u0zZcCFUoa3godxXd-8w[/link] RB (I am no way involved with either CTEK or the website selling them - Honest)

I use an 'airflow' make of battery conditioner. Its small, unobtrusive and a doddle to use. If you dont use your car throughout the winter (like me), then just attach to the battery, lower the bonnet so it just clicks, and leave it till you need it, works perfectly....having 'lost' 2 batteries initially, the airflow was worth the investment.

As always you get the right information from here. I like the idea of the CTEK devise, i looked on the previous correpondance that Alan attahched and i like the idea of using the cigarette lighter socket and being able to run it through the door and be able to shut it sounds a good and very easy way of doing it, however i am surpriced that you can shut the door easily? Regards Phil

I've got one of these at £23.99 from Halfords [link=http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_190498_langId_-1_categoryId_165629]http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_190498_langId_-1_categoryId_165629[/link] It's great because the lead between the charger and the clamps joins in the middle. I lift the battery cover, put the clamps on, put the cover back on, and leave the lead in the boot permanently. When I want to charge, I just connect the lead to the charger at the join, placing the cable at the bonnet/headlight area, which gives the cable enough space so I can click the bonnet shut. It charges, then maintains. Takes no longer than 5 seconds every time.

There's plenty of give in the rubber seals to be able to feed the cable through the door frame I find. Choice is yours, direct to battery or into cigarette lighter socket. Either way it's nice to know when you've left the car for quite a while that the battery will be tip-top.

CTEK 3600 is excellent. I plug it in the cigarette lighter and run the cable under the door near to the hinges. No problems.

Does the cig lighter socket stay live without the ign turned on?[8|]

Agree with the Halfords one - I have used the permanent connectors and the lead easily comes out under the trailing edge of the bonnet with the car all locked up. Walk into garage; unclip charger leads; drive car out; open bonnet and tuck leads in safely; close bonnet and drive away.

Depends on the model year. Later (facelift) cars stay on all the time, but early ones (like my '98 C2) went off with the ignition. Not sure exactly when they changed it.

Got the ctek3600 and the equivalent unit from Lidl (£12 vs £50). Noticed Aldi were doing the same equivalent last week for £12.59

Thats interesting what was it labeled as i have an Aldi close to me so i will go and have a look, i didnt think those guys sold that sort of thing or am i missing somthing? Phil

I popped in to my local Aldi today on the way to work but couldn't find one.[ ] I did see they've got some car related bits coming Thursday 15th (it's in the leaflets but not yet on the website, probably be on tomorrow) There's various testers and a one of those combined battery starter/air compressor jobs I like the look of the Packs of 3 Microfibre Polishing Cloths for £2.23 and some sort of 2 pack Paint Scratch Removal Kit for £5.35 (although I'll perhaps try that out on the wife's car first)

At last i bought a CTEK 3600 looks well made should have checked Richards post about ciggy lighter not being live in older cars as i bought the adaptor and of cause it doesnt work, that will have to go back unless anyone has any bright ideas? If not does anyone use the permanent connects to the battery terminals if so is it a matter of just connecting them to the battery and leaving and using as and when you wish too? I didnt think the instructions were great. Phil

Also got the Ctek 3600 great bit of kit have it plugged into the mains and an adapter under the bonnet just have to remember to unplug it before I reverse out the garage[ ] also bought the Lidl one as it was so cheap can never resist a bargain bought a wheel brace and a jack the other week for £20

Aldi run the car related offers approx every 6-8 weeks, unfortunatley the battery conditioner/cherger isn't always part of the deals. If one store is out, quite often with these type of items the next nearest store will have one or two hanging around for a while. The Aldi and Lidl ones aren't made by CTEK in Sweden, the Aldi one is made by Tronic (its labelled model T4X and features on the Troni website) in Germany, the Lidl one by someone else in Germany; all units carry the same electronics type approval certificate (albeit registered with their own manufacturers). The body and operation of them is as per the CTEK unit - i sadly checked all the specs and operating modes in both my CTEK and Aldi Tronic manuals [&:] . My Aldi unit only had croc clip attachments, but i found an old accessory lead with a the ciggy lighter plug on it, and connected this to the charger leads in place of the clips (free upgrade [ ] ) The Aldi units normally turn up on ebay at about £24 each, about 24hours after the offers start in the stores ! This is just one thats on ebay now - already £15 and £5 p&p [link=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TRONIC-T4X-12V-BATTERY-CHARGER_W0QQitemZ320332092737QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories?hash=item320332092737&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TRONIC-T4X-12V-BATTERY-CHARGER_W0QQitemZ320332092737QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories?hash=item320332092737&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318[/link]

I also have the CTEK 3600. Mine came with the permanent battery connection kit which fitted straight onto my battery. It then just leaves a small trailing connector in the boot. When I put the car in the garage I just open the boot plug in the connector from the CTEK and shut it again. The front corner seal has splenty of give for the cable. In 6 months its worked perfectly.