dr bob

It restarts in the mode it was in when power was lost. Greg and Rob were talking up a Bosch maintainer that they liked, and I was ready to pull the trigger on that until some of the reviewers mentioned that it needs to be manually started again after a power outage. It's not a big deal, but I get to go visit project sites sometimes for weeks at a time, and I wouldn't expect K to notice if the maintainers need to be reset.

The CTEK's come in several flavors, differing in max charging rate available, and the available modes for non-standard batteries and conditions. I went for the 7002US because of the higher charging rate, after I managed to drain the battery pretty well when I didn't close the glove box door completely. A few days later there wasn't a lot left. It took a combination of dumb charger then smart maintainer, with a lot of babysitting in between, to bring the battery back over the course of a few days. Does everybody need the 7002US? No.

dr bob

Coincidentally, I just tossed my last Schumacher ride-along maintainer, after doing a little in-service testing with some new electrical test toys. I have one of the mini-brick maintainers that I need to check for function. If it isn't great, it's going too. The ride-alongs did the duty in boats and water toys for a very long time, but for some reason they just got tired of working after a while.

This points to a need to stick a meter on the battery every once in a while to make sure things are actually working. A cheap Harbor Freight throw-away DMM is plenty for this duty, just reading terminal voltage.

Nicole pointed to a charger/maintainer she found, one that has a digital display showing something. Might be worth looking at one of those too.

voskian

I have three of the CTEK Multi US 3300. Two have been going strong for the last 4 1/2 years. Both the 928GT and the MBSL500 draw power even when off and I have never had a battery issue with either car. If power goes out, it resets to the program it was on before as dr bob said. $59.95 on amazon.

docmirror

I have a Schumacher shop unit with 12/24V that was made back in the 80s. It's the 15/6/2 amp version. I use it for shop and aircraft 24V systems and it just - won't - die. It was made in the midwest US. I had to put a new AC plug on it a few years ago when it got intermittant but the charging stuff never fails.

Damn shame what happens to some mfg companies, but - they cut their own throat.

dr bob

My ancient but still flying Schauer 6/10 amp 6-12-24 was made just after Tesla joined Westinghouse. i converted it from whale oil a few decades ago. Case has seen better days, and the thing is about as dirt-simple as one could be: Multi-tapped transformer with a full-wave rectifier behind it. "Charge Regulation" is via a simple self-resetting thermal circuit breaker. If the battery is too dead, the breaker opens for a bit, then re-closes for another try. Gotta love high technology! It was this one that did the first duty after I drained the battery with the glove-box light. It doesn't care if the battery is dead or alive, it just wants to get it to 14.5 volts however long that takes. It's safe to say that it's been connected to at least a hundred different batteries during its life and it still does what it was designed to do. Who needs those uber-tech switching supplies when a good old magnetic-field transducer is so readily available?

oldfrat

My Ctek, which was working fine, now does nothing when I hitch it up and plug it in. No lights. Nothing. Has anybody else had this problem and found a fix?

Brad

dr bob

Simple stuff first -- Is there power at the outlet where it's plugged in?

jpitman2

Note that Ctek have an email support address - info@ctek.com , not at all intuitive ! I queried them on behaviour of mine and got an answer.

jp 83 Euro S AT 57k

oldfrat

I checked all the basic stuff and was able to charge/maintain the battery with another brand plugged in the same way. The problem is definitely within my Ctek unit. I notice there is a fuse in the section leading to the alligator clips. Has anybody had a problem with this?

Thanks!

Brad

dr bob

With that fuse out or blown/failed, it's the same as not having a connection to the battery. For the unit I have, the basic power light comes on plus the light for the mode it will go to once a battery is connected. So you should see at least 1 panel light immediately when plugged in, then more as it sees a battery and goes through its battery testing/evaluation step.

Start off with CTEK customer service if you are having a more serious problem, like no indication at all when plugged in. I've had no need to "look under the hood" on mise since they have been working well, so far anyway.

bd0nalds0n

I'm sure this is absolute heresy but I use a harbor freight maintainer and plug it into the cigarette lighter.

Wisconsin Joe

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

The HF maintainers are pretty cheap. Both to buy and in construction.

If you search around, they have been known to fail and instead of "maintaining", they just keep charging and cook the battery dry.

OTOH, I know people who have them, use them, and are very satisfied.