paradocs98

Just picked up a CTEK 3300 battery charger/maintainer for my GT4. I'm posting over here as well because I figure there may be more battery maintainer users in this forum. I read the instructions and hooked it up. Initially the amber "battery charging" light glowed steadily, as it should. After several hours, it then transitioned to the green "fully charged / maintenance charging" light, which is also correct function. When it transitioned to fully charged, however, the amber light is now blinking. So the green "fully charged" LED is steadily lit while the amber "batter charging" LED continually blinks. Seems like it's trying to tell me something about a potential error or issue, but I can't find an explanation for this particular LED combo in the CTEK manual, on the CTEK website, or after an extensive google search. I double checked all connections, verified that the electric outlet is good, and tried the adapter in both the center console cig lighter and the passenger footwell 12V outlet. Same thing. I emailed CTEK to ask them, but it's been radio silence from them so far. Anyone have any idea what this means?

The Pope

I have a 3300 and a GT4. This happens to me only when I unplug the charger from the car. Nothing to worry about or at least I haven't worried about it for a long time. After a drive and when I plug the charger back in, the yellow/orange light goes back on showing that it's charging again.

PistolPete

I've seen this happen on my 4 yr old CTEK 3300 as well. Never used to do it before and I chalked it up to the unit aging. Unplugging and plugging it back in will give me a few days of steady lights but then the blinking will be back.

Antigravity

Hi all,

Figured I would chime in on this. We are a new sponsor to the forum, Antigravity Batteries. We do Lithium Batteries and over the next few days I will start to participate a bit more.

If you getting the full charge, and the yellow light comes on don't worry about it.... But take if off the charger. If you have a later year Porsche they actually have a great Battery Managment system that really works well to go into a deep sleep mode after you have locked it and you are not near it with the key. So while all the model may vary on how long they will sit without being driven before the battery goes dead there have been dramatic improvements in how low the parasitic draw is on the new models. So the reason I say to take the charger OFF the battery after its charged is because even quality chargers continue to cycle the battery after it has been fully charged. And batteries are based on the number of cycles they can be rated for before losing performance. So a charger that is left on the car more often with cycle the battery more than necessary. Just a heads up for those of you who think you HAVE to leave a charge on the car.

Some who have added after market accessories may have more of a draw in which case a maintainer might be needed, or if you don't drive for a LONG time... but I am stating in general the theory I mention hold true. So just watch for having a charger on there too much.

HelpMeHelpU

Thanks for asking the question and for the others chiming in...I just bought my second CTEK 3300 (for an extra car and not issues with the first one) and had some questions and found the CTEK website wholly lacking.

Perimeter

I respectfully disagree as you are mixing terms battery "charger" and battery "maintainer". They are different devices and operate with different goals so please do not mislead readers here that they are the same

- A Battery Charger outputs a constant voltage and current regardless of time. Once the battery is topped off, the charging continues which risks electrolyte boil off (your statement "continues to cycle" makes no sense).
- A Battery Maintainer charges AND monitors then alters charging based on battery cell voltage levels and current absorption rates. Some even condition the battery. Upon being topped off the maintainer stops charging, preventing electrolyte boil off. The latest CTEK 3300, MUS 4.3 and 5.0 are maintainers. They will not overcharge the battery. In fact, modern CTEK have maintenance modes such as plate desulphation (adding an AC ripple on DC charge) to extend the life of your battery.
PLUG THEM IN AND LEAVE THEM

A sad fact is that the OEM Porsche factory charger is an outdated CTEK 6721 with a Porsche face label which only performs basic charging then shuts off when topped off. It has no maintenance modes, low power charging and CTEK no longer sell that old model to the public.

When Ferrari used the same old unit, CTEK 6721, with a proprietary car connector (those basta*rds!) so they could charge you $500 for an $85 unit, I manufactured a dongle to thwart their proprietary and allow owners to use the latest off the shelf CTEK with higher maintaining current and maintenance modes. Over 250 dongles and chargers later, batteries are lasting twice as long because owners plug them in and leave them connected. Just imagine what Ferrari charges to change your battery!

wareaglescott

You are using the mode for AGM batteries correct? The setting that looks like the snow flake

Antigravity

I feel that you're over-analyzing what I stated.... when I used the general designation of charger / maintainer. There was no intent to say they're exactly the same but the fact is many people use what is called a charger/maintainer because the unit is capable of doing both. If you choose to make that a sticking point to argue I will let that rest with you.

To say you don't understand what I mean by cycling then I suggest you call the engineers at the battery charger manufacturer named Tecmate /Optimate.... my statements about Chargers / maintainer do not come from thin air I have spent hours talking to these guys and both companies have come and visited our offices.

My intent was to tell the people in this thread that they should not necessarily leave a battery charger / maintainer attached to their vehicle full-time if they are driving enough to keep the battery charged. There is absolutely no need.

I will not choose to argue this point futher, but the fact of the matter is lead acid has what it's called natural discharge and if that battery discharges a little bit ,which is perfectly fine, many of the Chargers/maintainers will kick in and recharge it up to top of state of charge... when it wasnt needed.... therefore "cycling" the battery unnecessarily over time.

I have a vested interest in providing my customers with a product that works and also educating them on what is the best way to get the longest life out of their battery product, if you choose to have a different perspective or knowledge that leads to a different perspective that is ok by me. I will continue to relay the information about charger / maintainers that I have been educated on from the manufacturers themselves such as Optimate and to a lesser degree Tecmate.

alpine-al

paradocs98 - I just checked the lights on my CTEK 3300. The amber light next to the snowflake symbol is on steady and the green full-charged light is on too. I'm sure that those lights have looked like that for the past 3 months. My car spends the winter stored on my 4-post lift from December until whenever the roads are clear of snow, ice, sand, and salt.

Antigravity - Do you recommend an alternate approach for charging a battery / vehicle that's stored for the winter?

.

Antigravity

Actually you've got to do what you've got to do for things like Winter and long term storage... You won't be driving the Car for sure, so that is the best way, just leave it on the Maintainer.... My suggestion is to make sure you use a higher quality charger... Optimate is great and they have an algorithm that lets the battery discharge a little more before it kicks on again and also at times doesn't go into the higher voltages which is also not necessary on maintaining....this is different from the cheaper ones like Battery Tender that tend to keep charging the battery at the slightest dip in voltage with creates that cycling I was speaking about also they may tend to keep the charge in like the 14.6v area which you really don't need to do for maintaining. I alway recommend Optimate and CTEK. No I have NOT tested all the models out there, and there are many out in the market. We just found these are two quality companies who's chargers don't excessively cycle the battery, and who we use in our Warranty Department EVERY DAY as we recharge our Lithium Batteries for warranty claims or if we are doing longer term testing on some new products where we leave them on a charger a long time..

In regards to my earlier comments, I just want to make sure people understand if you are driving enough to keep the battery charged, and you are not storing the car, and you have a battery in good condition there is really no reason to put it on the Charger/Maintainer. We actively tell people buying our lithium to stay away from the Charger unless necessary. Most the Porsche Sport Car Models have the 70Ah batteries and on the newer models they have really developed the Battery Management System within the vehicles to go into a deep sleep during non-active times to conserve energy and create a much lower draw than previous model years. Apparently Porsche started working on this in 2005 and has been making the cars have less parasitic draw now than before. That is information directly from one of the Gold Certified Technicians at Rusnak Porsche in Westlake, CA who I asked to speak to before I bought our GT3 RS last week. I told my Sales person I had to talk to a tech that could relay info about why the PIWIS update is needed for a lithium battery when installed and why others had complained about Porsches having a large parasitic draw. So during that conversation he educated me on many things about the Porsche charging system also. For example he was saying the modern Porsches charge on Deceleration... that counter intuitive but makes sense... more performance on acceleration. All interesting stuff I learned... Funny thing is I was trying to get in contact with some Techs for a month before buying the car and they never called, or emailed back... but when actually buying a car they will pull the Techs in by the ear if need be...

paradocs98

Perimeter

+1,
I got the cigarette lighter adapter and the WG38 controller upgrade to keep that port active after shutdown
I have five MUS 4.3 for my cars, never had any problem .
Modern cars have parasitic battery drain and when they sit unused for a duration, depletion can occur

paradocs98

Update: I connected the CTEK directly to the car battery with the pigtail adapter, plugged in the unit and let it sit for a day. Voila! It charged correctly, and now it's happy with a steady green "maintenance charge" LED and nothing else. My error code was due to the cigarette lighter outlet and footwell accessory outlet both disconnecting themselves from power after a certain amount of time, just as Perimeter suggested. Thanks! Now I just have to figure out if I should be using the standard "car" setting on the CTEK or the AGM/cold setting. Old threads on rennlist and 6speedonline show that some GT4s have a more modern AGM-type battery, while others have a standard lead acid battery. Banner-branded batteries appear to be AGM, but mine is an Exide. I can't determine if the Exide is standard lead-acid or AGM. Any ideas?