CTEK Battery Chargers/Analyzer

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Setec Astronomy

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You know I was just itching to buy something during the sale that ended last night, but I have bought stuff the last 2 or 3 sales and I have so much stuff already...I mean I really wanted that new Pinnacle tire dressing but if I use up my other stuff first the Pinnacle would be scheduled for about 2025 or so.

So anyway, I resisted placing an order, but I was recriminating about not placing an order after it ended, so I was browsing the store and saw something I had never noticed before, a CTEK battery analyzer! Going to the CTEK page I saw they have a range of chargers that seem to have some pretty cool features...and it was something I could have bought ON SALE! At least it's an easy way to get up to the free shipping threshold if there was that one bottle of (insert object of yearning here) that you have to have.

You guys have any experience with these tools? The battery charger I use is older than most members here and for some years I have wanted to get some sort of simple (but effective) analyzer. Another plus is the chargers seem to be very small.
 
CTEKs are what I recommend to all my customers for battery maintenance and all that I use in our shop and the dealership. They are the recommended maintenance charger for Porsche, Ferrari, MB, ect, ect.

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I was mostly interested in the analyzer, any experience with that?
 
Played with it for a few min. while the Matco truck was here. It's no better than the diagnostics built into their top tier chargers. I tested a 24 year old battery with it which I knew was bad and it just told me to charge and retest. I wish it could save me the 2-3 days of waiting on a ctek full "recondition" to revive or pronounce dead, but no such luck. I already have a cornwell battery tester but it's rarely needed these days as I generally don't trust it b/c the cteks have refurbed batteries that the Cornwell tester said was toast, so SOP is now toss questionable battery on a 7002 for a few days and see what happens.
 
Wow, good info.

EDIT: OTOH, I still gotta have some kind of tester for when someone calls me and says their battery is dead, like happened to me the other day. In that case the battery was old, the voltage was low, so I just replaced it. But it's not always that clear cut.
 
It looks like the Solar BA9 is a little more substantial and does a few more things than the CTEK analyzer, I think I'm going to go with that.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
It looks like the Solar BA9 is a little more substantial and does a few more things than the CTEK analyzer, I think I'm going to go with that.
Click to expand...

The Solar tester looks to be on point, and seems VERY similar to my Cornwell tester.:props: I still keep mine in my toolbox in case someone just has to have a test on a battery today. But I've had a lot of fun trying to see what the oldest battery I can bring back with a CTEK is. I've been known to happen upon some pretty old batteries. :eek:

Untitled by systemdelete, on Flickr
 
2.ooohhh said:
The Solar tester looks to be on point, and seems VERY similar to my Cornwell tester.:props: I still keep mine in my toolbox in case someone just has to have a test on a battery today. But I've had a lot of fun trying to see what the oldest battery I can bring back with a CTEK is. I've been known to happen upon some pretty old batteries. :eek:
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That does sound like fun, I'm going to get a CTEK charger at some point down the road. But I wanted to have some sort of test tool for what happened the other day where someone was stranded and I have to make a replace/charge/jump decision, and of course for general health monitoring.
 
Trying to decide whether to get the 7002 or the 4.3. 7002 has the "supply" mode and higher peak charge rate, while the 4.3 is cheaper and has the rubber bumper option...
 
You can always buy the new Pinnacle Onyx Tire Dressing as a sample 2oz bottle for $7 to try it out. I buy samples from AG or get them for free quite freq just to try them out. But, you still have to pay for S&H somewhere along the line. $7 + $6.95 shipping. I'd go for it!
 
Yeah, I'm a little past the dressing and working on which model charger to buy, but thanks!
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Trying to decide whether to get the 7002 or the 4.3. 7002 has the "supply" mode and higher peak charge rate, while the 4.3 is cheaper and has the rubber bumper option...
Click to expand...

Gosh darn internet...now I see there are NOCO Genius and PulseTech chargers...they are "wicked smart" and have patented pulsing, respectively...I dunno what to do...
 
Setec, before seeing this thread, I did exactly as you suggested and used the CTEK charger to pad my order to get to free shipping ... great minds think alike. :laughing: I got the CTEK 4.3 in last AGO order. Haven't even had a chance to crack open the package so I can't give my opinion on it yet.

Before buying, I got my google-fu on and read up on the differences between CTEK and NOCO as those were the 2 smart chargers I was considering. Not sure if this dude was totally on point but I did take it into consideration, specifically K Burton in the thread below.

  Vintage Veloce™: Choosing a Battery Charger: CTEK or Noco Genius

"The main difference between these two chargers is the charging algorithm – and it’s a very important difference:

The Ctek applies full current until the optimum voltage is reached, and then continuously reduces current whilst the battery is locked at that optimum voltage. This stretches the battery, as it is kept at its optimum voltage throughout pretty much the entire charging cycle (Bulk, Absorption and Float).

In sharp contrast, the Genius uses an inferior methodology of simply stepping the current down as soon as the battery achieves its’ maximum at that cycle (purporting to be additional steps!); as a consequence the voltage also drops and the battery is rarely ever kept at its’ optimum state during the charge cycle. In fact, the charging algorithm used by Genius chargers is almost identical to some of the very cheap supermarket own-brand smart chargers, and there’s nothing “Wicked Smart” about that!"
 
FYI, the CTEK line will also desulphate a battery. BatteryMINDer looks like a decent product as well. I just felt more comfortable with the CTEK line as they are well reviewed and supply rebranded chargers for BMW, Lamborghini, Audi, Chevrolet, etc.

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