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No worries, I actually own all three models and purchased the last one, a MXS 5.0 from CTEK's Amazon Store, assuming that you are in the US a great deal right now!
Hi all,
bumping this thread up. I just received by ctek mxs5.0 4.3 charged with the cigarette lighter adapter.
Two questions I have since I had not used a tender before. Is it as easy as plugging it in and keeping it charged until I remove it until the springtime? Do you disconnect it every so often or just plug it
and forget it.
I did not alter the modes since it is already on the car picture. The first three lights were yellow in the morning now are orange.
I also have it coming out of where the window seal is. I assume that's ok and won't compromise the seal?
I saw some posts about keeping it locked vs unlocked. The car is locked. Any issues?
Hi all,
bumping this thread up. I just received by ctek mxs5.0 4.3 charged with the cigarette lighter adapter.
Two questions I have since I had not used a tender before. Is it as easy as plugging it in and keeping it charged until I remove it until the springtime? Do you disconnect it every so often or just plug it
and forget it.
I did not alter the modes since it is already on the car picture. The first three lights were yellow in the morning now are orange.
I also have it coming out of where the window seal is. I assume that's ok and won't compromise the seal?
I saw some posts about keeping it locked vs unlocked. The car is locked. Any issues?
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you can set and forget it for the most part, I have never had the system disconnect, however a power failure in the house could do this so I always walk by the car at least weekly to check the they CTEK is still doing it's thing. For our cars you can also select the AGM setting.
It looks like you car is in the garage, mine is too so I don't lock it, if your did have the unfortunate luck of a dead battery getting into the car is going to complicated by having it locked, I don't see the need inside.
As for the cord exit, it could leave a depression in that seal, I would recommend through the lower part of the door approximately 1/3 of the way back from the front, there is a depression in the sill at that point to proved a low pressure exit for the cable and if there ever was a depression the seal you wouldn't see it there, see the picture I posted above: battery tender - Page 4 - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums
1) Make sure you put it in AGM battery mode, which is what our cars have. In your picture, it's in regular flooded acid battery mode, which is wrong. The wrong charge mode will not keep the AGM battery charged properly and can actually damage it. Your charger may not be capable of auto-detecting the battery type.
2) Just leave it always plugged in. It's a smart charger and will regulate charging itself. (as long as it's in the correct battery mode.)
3) I would not put the cord through the window gasket where you have it pictured. Over time, the rubber gasket will probably deform there and create wind noise right next to your head. I would put it through the bottom of the door. There is actually a cut out in the lower passenger door metal for this.
4) If there is a power interruption, check on the charger afterwards and make sure it's still in the correct AGM mode. In my experience, Ctek chargers do not remember what charge mode they were last in when power is disconnected. Other brands I've used like NOCO do remember the last mode. My Ctek chargers have all defaulted to standard flooded acid charge mode when powered on.
On my 981S, I have to run the car before plugging in the charger to make sure that the 12 volt outlets are still alive - I believe they turn off after a certain amount of time. If I don’t see most of the lights on the charger after about 4 hours I know that it is not charging. I don’t know if this also applies to the 781 or to an AGM battery, but you may want to check the charger after 4-6 hours to make sure the accessory circuit is still on.
Charlie thanks for thatr piece of information. I haven't started the car in 3 weeks, It is snowing today so I didn't want to move the car underneath so got on a ladder and researched far enough inside to plug in the charger. I will check to see my progress but as of right now I'm still on #3.
Just picked up the CTEK one, next day delivery via Amazon, which was very nice. I got the extension cable as well. It was $114 for the charger, cigarette power adapter and extension cable. Not bad at all and it works great.
I'm glad I took a look at this thread. I did not have my tender on AGM battery mode. Ran down to the garage and made the correction right away. Thank you!
I agree jay great to have this thread up! Agm mode and on step #7. Gunna just keep checking it every week
There was a long discussion on this item in the 718 Forum under the thread title "Winter is Coming". I had done a some research on this last year & even had CTEK tell me to run the Polar mode in my cold garage. Note that the Polar mode runs higher 14.7V charging voltage like the AGM setting.
I no longer believe the AGM setting is right for our cars as I did a search through the PCA site, since the Good to Know app doesn't have anything that's Good to Know regarding batteries, and found the following. Note that It's not necessarily 1:1 with our cars but I do think it's applicable:
---------------------------------------------------------------- From the PCA website search -------------------------------------------------- I have been in touch with Porsche NA and many dealerships and cannot get a straight answer. The question is: What type battery maintainer should be used on a Banner battery used in a 2016 GT4? This battery is a VRLA battery (listed right on the battery). Online information indicates VRLA batteries (Type of AGM battery) has a typical absorptive range from 14.2 to 14.5 volts. ... I received a Porsche Bulletin No 1401 that stated " All 9x1 vehicles use AGM batteries. Any battery changer/power supply used must be set to this type battery. It is critical for AGM batteries that charging voltage not exceed 14.5 volts for more than very brief periods. I would interpret this as one should use a typical Lead Acid battery maintainer as it's absorptive phase is 14.5 volts.
---------------------------------------------------------------- End of PCA website search --------------------------------------------------
For me this says Porsche does not want their batteries to be charged beyond 14.5V. And from the manual for my MUS 4.3: The cold weather program seems to be for low temperatures and for "Power" AGM batteries like storage batteries for solar arrays, etc.
I'm going to keep my maintainer on "Normal" mode from now on. FWIW & MOO
Saw this AGM discussion and contacted CTEK since I have 4 chargers, newest a couple years old. Here's the response. Depending on which CTEK chargers you have, the mode maybe labeled as “AGM Mode” or “Snowflake Mode” on the charger.
Even without either of these modes, all CTEK lead-acid battery chargers can be used on all type of lead-acid batteries including WET, MF, Ca/Ca, AGM and GEL.
Saw this AGM discussion and contacted CTEK since I have 4 chargers, newest a couple years old. Here's the response. Depending on which CTEK chargers you have, the mode maybe labeled as “AGM Mode” or “Snowflake Mode” on the charger.
Even without either of these modes, all CTEK lead-acid battery chargers can be used on all type of lead-acid batteries including WET, MF, Ca/Ca, AGM and GEL.
Absolutely correct. However, the mode selected determines long term charging voltage. I'm using Normal mode rather than Polar/AGM mode for the reasons listed above.
MOO & FWIW
Absolutely correct. However, the mode selected determines long term charging voltage. I'm using Normal mode rather than Polar/AGM mode for the reasons listed above.
MOO & FWIW
Do you have a copy of the Porsche Bulletin no, 1401 as this would be an interesting reference and read.
This from the MXS 5.0 Charging program pages in the manual would indicate that if you wish to prevent the charger from applying 14.7V to the battery you should not select the AGM specific option.
Do you have a copy of the Porsche Bulletin no, 1401 as this would be an interesting reference and read.
This from the MXS 5.0 Charging program pages in the manual would indicate that if you wish to prevent the charger from applying 14.7V to the battery you should not select the AGM specific option.
I do not have the bulletin and didn't see any reason to search for it. Maybe I will.
Regarding mode to use, I believe that is pretty much exactly what I said. My last post was "Absolutely correct. However, the mode selected determines long term charging voltage. I'm using Normal mode rather than Polar/AGM mode for the reasons listed above.", where "reasons listed above" show Normal=14.4V & Polar/AGM=14.7V. Maybe I'm missing something. Please let me know if I am.
MOO & FWIW
12-18-2020, 01:44 PM
