Zanzibar Red 996

Has anyone compared all the
Ctek chargers/ Maintainers ?
Too many to choose from
I have a one car garage situation
Thanks in advance for your
Reviews/comparison

alpine003

You can drink the kool aid and get a "premium" brand, or get any one of the less hyped brands as most have smart charging circuitry these days(as far as battery maintainers / trickle chargers).

I've had this for the past few years without any issues.


It's more than adequate as a battery maintainer.

Of course since this a Porsche forum, I'm expecting others to chime in with their over engineered, multi-billion dollar gold plated recommendations as well.

kromdom

another vote for DELTRAN here, been a happy/satisfied customer for decades now

alpine003

The one that kromdom posted would be better suited if you actually have to lightly "charge" vs "maintain" your battery as it has 1.25a vs .75a of the Junior model. But you should be using a dedicated charger for actual medium to heavy charging anyways. FWIW, Autozone offers free battery charging service if your battery ever dies.

alpine003

I agree and certainly didn't mean to put down any of the other maintainers out there. You will def be good with any of the ctek(or Porsche equivalent), but there are also quite a few lower cost alternatives that do a good job that weren't always available in the past. Just pick your favorite one that suits you. I don't think you can go wrong for the most part since most of them these days has "smart" charging circuitry.

alpine003

"It's time to do the time warp again..."

Zanzibar Red 996

Thanks for intelligent reply

Marc Gelefsky

I have the Porsche branded CTEK for my 996 and it works fine, I use the CTEK 7002 for my 86 911.

pfbz

Another vote for a Deltran Battery Tender...

I like the "international" version. Same output as the plus, but in a nicer/more compact case. 220V compatible as well!

Ahsai

For battery maintenance, anything around 1A is good enough. However, for any reason if you battery is half drained and you want to charge it up within half a day or so, you will wish you have something 3A~7A. Another use case is if you need to jump from the kicker fuse panel to open the frunk and engine lid, the 1A models won't cut it.

I have the Ctek 7002 (7A max) and am happy with it. The new Ctek US3300 (3.3A $54) sounds like a good compromise.

james6speed

...just bought a Deltran Battery Tender Jr. How do you guys wire this up for maintenance?

The directions say something about positive and negative hookups. I assume we have the negative hookup style?

pfbz

Deltran Cig lighter adapter, $6 on Amazon...



You can wire the pigtails to your battery as well, but honestly with our battery placement the cigarette lighter is easier (and always hot in our cars, perfect for garage top-offs)

james6speed

Good deal, thanks I'll go with that then.

alpine003

I use the supplied hard wire that comes with it. It has the corresponding plug so you can just run the wire through the frunk by the windshield/cowl area.

I quit doing the cig adapter method awhile ago when I found the adapter not make contact 100% of the time as it wears or if you're not careful in plugging it in all the way. YMMV...

james6speed

I just bought one of the cig adapters, and yes, I too have problems with the "loose" connection as well with my cig mp3 adapter I run. It doesn't connect as positively as I'd like, and tends to pop out while I drive. I figure for 6 bucks I can try this first, and if that doesn't work, may go to the hard wire plug-in method to the battery.

Thanks.