IXLR8

On sale again this week at Canadian Tire at 40% off...or $53.99.

CT sales go to Thursday.

hopeforcash

Just a heads up for those looking for the CTEK 3300 charger/maintainer for the winter. They are on sale at Part Source for $53.99.
http://www.partsource.ca/_pdf/flyer.pdf

Speedyellow993

Did you know Part Source and Crappy Tire = same company!

PPo

"Hey, I could **** in a box and put a gurantee on it, but wouldn't you rather take a butchures word on it?"

I still think Tommy Boy deserves multiple oscars....

Granger968

Thanks for the tip, perfect timing! I was just about to pay full pop at CanTire....

IXLR8

Yes, but how do you know without verifying them?

Many charger manufacturers make many claims. I'd put many of them in the same boat as snake oil.

Maybe, but to whatever the manufacturer specs and then after testing another couple of chargers recently, I wonder if the manufacturer (or the plant in China) even does any QA.

Radcap

I put a playboy sticker on mine and now it only charges "D" batteries!!!

Rod,

Tanner2305

I just bought one today at Crappy Tire. I'd like to get the cigarette lighter adapter. Any idea's of where I can get it quickly?

Thanks

pongobaz

Performance Improvements (Queensway, W of Islington Ave) in Toronto has all the CTEK accessories. Got my lighter adapter there last year.

Tanner2305

Thanks!

IXLR8

On sale again till March 10th and for less...$49.99...crap, I paid $53.99 for a second one last fall.

Turbodan

I picked up a 1/2inch driver 17 inch ratchet for $17 today on sale...been waiting for this

IXLR8

And there you have it Jaak. It seems one has to verify just about any claim or spec.

I finally took one of my CTEK MULTI US 3300 chargers (I own two of them) to my lab at work to see if it does meet the specs in the CTEK manual.

It was hooked up to a new battery that I discharged to about half charge. Battery voltage and charge current was measured and recorded by a data logger.

I expected to see what CTEK published in their manual, the typical charge algorithm: BULK - Absorption - Float (they call it Pulse)...


Now I might have a defective unit, but I doubt it since it hasn't been abused, but what I saw was nothing of the above.

My CTEK shuts down after the current tappers down to 0.4 amps and turns on when the battery voltage decreases to 12.8V and then starts charging all over again.

Turbodan

Alex,
could you please explain your results? does this mean the ctek could be dangerous for a battery? I apologize for my ignorance I slept through electrical engineering 101 (kidding, never took it).

IXLR8

I'm not done testing yet and don't worry, the CTEK will not damage your battery or electrical system.

I'm just not getting what I expected to see which is what CTEK published in that graph above.

But before I dump on it, I'll bring my other CTEK in and see if I get the same results.

What I found very disappointing was the lack of response from CTEK USA and then CTEK Sweden when I had some questions. So I joined the Community Support Forum on the CTEK site to ask questions and to provide some advice.

The community forum guru who answers forum questions is also the Sales Manager for CTEK; he started deleting most of my posts. He called today and we had a chat. He said he wasn't expecting anyone asking the questions I posed...yeah, I guess I'm just supposed to believe all the crap statements on charger packaging and that is just about any charger manufacturer (Save-A-Battery rings a bell). His responses to my posts was for me to call at the number he left in a forum reply. How useful is that for anyone else wanting an answer to my question.

He will have an engineer in Sweden give me a call at work. OK, so if he knows so much about the technical aspects of his chargers and batteries in general, why can't he answer some basic technical questions, but the guy has the nerve to delete my posts. He was advising an owner to use the Snowflake mode 14.7V) on his AGM battery in temperatures of 100F in CA.