Charging

The CTEK XS700 Battery Charger is now the only charger we sell!

This is the only 12v battery charger you will need!  It replaces separate deep cycle, maintenance and starter chargers that used to be required. 

For size and efficiency, and to ensure it operates over a wide range of voltages it is “switch mode” rather than using an old fashioned transformer.

It is suitable for charging ALL battery types, including GEL, AGM, LEAD ACID, STARTER, DEEP CYCLE, MARINE, ETC.  (Do not use for other types such as Ni-Cad or Lithium batteries!)

It can charge, equalize, and maintain ALL types of lead acid batteries from 16Ah up to 225Ah. It has a special setting for OPTIMA batteries.  Full specification here (Adobe .pdf format)

A short list of things that KILL around 99% of all lead acid batteries! 

1. Leaving a battery stood, even for quite short periods in a very discharged or even slightly discharged condition WILL damage your battery!  This may only be a few days, or a week or so. Its long enough!  It causes them to become chemically damaged through sulphation.  This is the MAJOR cause of ruined batteries.  They then will hold less charge or go “flat” sooner than they did before.  In extreme cases they cannot even be recharged at all.  And the situation gets worse the more often you do this. So if you leave your car or boat unattended and unused for over a week you really do NEED to have a maintenance charger left connected up to it permanently.  It may well start your car/boat still, but you definitely will have caused “some” damage to it.  Modern cars slowly “use up” the batteries charge even when parked up, with engine management systems, alarms, clocks, remote locking, radio station memories etc all drawing some power at all times.  So at an airport for example you would do very well to disconnect your battery until you return!   The battery will still lose SOME charge (due to its natural internal losses) but will be much less damaged.  A good battery will have enough energy left to start your car after up to a year if it has been disconnected, but may be totally dead after a month if left connected in some cars!
    
2. Discharging any lead acid type battery too “deeply” as this destroys the active plate material.  Deep Cycle batteries can survive typically 300 80 percent discharges only.  A typical car starter battery will survive only 25 or so of these 80% discharges before it is ruined!  Starting a car typically only removes 5 to 15 percent of the charge so used regularly, and KEPT PROPERLY CHARGED during long periods of inactivity a starter battery will last for many, many years.
    
3. Overcharging…  A cheap charger just “keeps charging” long after the battery is fully charged.  Modern maintenance free batteries cannot cope with this!  Years back when we all used wet acid batteries, all that happened was that the electrolyte “gassed” and its level dropped. Later you just topped it back up.  Modern batteries do not gas at all, and are sealed.  If overcharged as all taper or cheap chargers will do – they WILL gas, and this causes permanent loss of electrolyte and battery damage.  A modern logic controlled pulse charger like the one on this page prevents this and can (and should) be left connected all the time.  They both charge safely, AND maintain your battery.

Remember your battery is like a piggy bank.  If you take out more than you put in it will become empty!  And batteries do not actually “like” being discharged.  The secret to long battery life is to discharge them as little as possible! (not always possible of course!) and to charge them back up as soon as you possibly can!   But NOT overcharge them.  This requires a complex matched charger that suits your batteries. 

Battery Life
ANY decent quality lead acid battery kept on a “float” charge can last 10 years or so as in the case of back up batteries used for telecom, or UPS systems. This is because they are kept at their natural “fully charged” voltage and no chemical reaction is taking place.  If your battery fails then it is extremely unlikely to be the batteries fault, but very likely to be due to a lack of understanding of the chemistry involved, and incorrect usage. 

On the other hand a deeply cycled (80 percent) battery used in say a power chair, daily can expect a life of around 300 cycles or days!  And that is less than a year, even when charged correctly, and looked after.   This is why deep cycle batteries generally have shorter warranties than starter batteries, because the use to which they are going to be put is unknown.