CTEK 56-865 Battery Charger

• Water-resistant so that the solution could be taken to the problem even if it rains or snows
• Patented maintenance charge for a unique combination of maximized life and performance
• Patented desulphation that extends the battery life
• Designed for safety! No sparks, short-circuit proof and reverse-polarity protected for untroubled usage

Best charger out there and pricey, works great

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I have purchased several different chargers for multiple vehicles and this is one of the better chargers out on the market. Nice quality, cool design, and vary simple to use. The LEDS take some time to get use to and the manual lacks content, but overall, this charger performs well.

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This is CTEK's smaller charger for charging 12V batteries from 1.2Ah to 32 Ah and maintaining batteries up to 100Ah. This is a true smart charger with "six" stages. Truth be known, it's really three but I'll say that the others are nice to have. It's a sealed unit about 8" end to end including the strain releif on the permantly affixed leads. If features mounting holes on the main body which are nice (fitting #8 screws, 10's might fit.) The unit gets warm, not overly hot but noticably warm. If this unit is perminantly mounted as in my case, use nylon spacers behind to give it a little air between the unit and the wall. Despite being sealed (and assumed by many to be weather proof) the instructions clearly say this unit is not be used in the elements. It has a sturdy two prong cord that might be a bit short for many applications but a 16ga extension cord should be safe to use as long as all other safe considerations are made. It ships with two types of leads (both fused with ATC style fuses). An aligator style clip with large jaws suitable for full sized car batteries. It also ships with 1/4" ring terminals that can be quick detached from the charger without disconnecting from the battery terminals.

The stages are...

1) Desulfation removes build-up on lead plates inside the battery.

2) Bulk Charge Brings the battery voltage up to 14.4V and about 80% of maximum capacity.

3) Absorption Allows the battery voltage and current to declline to complete the charge.

4) Analyse Stops charging and sees if battery voltage free-falls (happens if battery has reached the end of its life cycle.)

5) Float Applies roughly 13.6V at a small current to maintain the battery voltage.

6) Pulse Not entirely sure but sounds a lot like float, it switches off and on to maintain maximum charge.

According to the literature batteries may take as much as 1 hour per Ah to reach 80%. After 80% times are hard to find but it sounds like this is also where you can maintain larger capacity batteries (32-100Ah.) For my use, I'm charging a 22Ah sealed lead acid battery as part of a power supply for a DC powered radio / alarm clock. So far it's doing well. Just make sure to follow the safety practices listed and always inspect your batteries regularly. Also, this may boil water off a NON-maintenance free battery so be aware of that if thats what your application uses.

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I use this charger in my Hi-Fi set up. I have a Dodd preamp that runs on 12V battery power, nothing like getting off of the grid, and I use this charger to maintain the battery in this system. The charger does it's job with out any noise and very little heat and adds nothing to the sound of the preamp which speaks volumes about the quality of this charger.

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Easy to use and charges/conditions my car batteries (3 cars) in about 8-10 hours. After one week of use, my mother accidentally drove off in my car while its battery was still charging. When she came back and I told her what happened, we were horrified and so afraid of permanent damage to the brand-new charger, but we were pleasantly surprised. The CTEK's charging wires simply disconnected at the point where the two wires were designed to plug together with a latch that gave way when pulled too hard, so there was no damage at all. CTEK had the potential problem of driving off while still charging in mind, and designed a safe disconnect into their chargers.