Any recommendations for car battery chargers/conditioners - also portable jump starters?

ik9000

ik9000

ik9000

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Any recommendations for car battery chargers/conditioners - also portable jump starters? Looks like I need both, assuming my 4yo battery isn't also beyond the point of no return.

I had a decent jump starter but it seems to have gone dead, I can't get it to charge anymore. Still that is my bad I guess. I only found this out when the car battery wouldn't start. It has dropped too low to start the car after a 2 month break in usage (which itself seems odd given the battery is only 3 years old, but I guess it doesn't get regular use so maybe it's to be expected).

Off I went to get the jump pack and despite saying 84% that too is dead. Warning beeps once I plugged in the jump leads. Went to charge it, it says 84% then after hitting 87% dropped down to 1%, got to 54% then I went to unplug it to move it to a different room and off the kitchen worktop whereupon the display went to "Lo" and nothing will budge it from that now whatever I try. You'd think it would have had a warning beep to charge it and prevent the lithium pack degrading into permanent 0%. Not best pleased. I guess the line in the manual about "jump unit life estimate 4-5 years" wasn't being pessimistic after all!
 
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Battery charger/conditioner, NOCO for good VFM and well reviewed, their Genius range seem good from people I know with them.
CTEK are very much the brand for reliability but they cost a bit more.

Jump starter, again NOCO are often recommended, however, having too many things in the car can be a pain, so I have a "Ring 5 in 1 jump starter/inflator" to leave in the car as a single device.. The inflator is very quick (and loud!), the jump starter I tried on a BMW 440i with a very dodgy battery and it started with no issues, and have already done about 12 tyre top ups before it needed recharging, so not too bad really, it's ring, so will be fairly dependable and certainly doesn't seem to have over exaggerated their claims..
 
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As said already, if you want to stick with the popular brands it's CTEK for charging, NOCO for jumping.

I have a couple of CTEK MXS5s, one I leave constantly hooked up to the car in my garage, the other I move around depending on which car needs a boost. A nice way to set and forget battery charging, the quick disconnects and extension cables make it very convenient.

What makes you think you need a jump pack? Is this a car that is infrequently used thus the battery goes flat, or a daily driver that has trouble starting?
 
agw_01 said:
As said already, if you want to stick with the popular brands it's CTEK for charging, NOCO for jumping.
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I think this is my setup too. When I had a Mustang that had infrequent use and short journeys, this combo kept things in good shape.
 
I'll echo above CTEK is the go to for chargers.

However if you've left your battery to go flat for over 2 months it's probably done for and will never hold a charge properly again so you're best getting a new one.

Once a lead acid car battery goes below about 12.4 volts its cells get physically damaged internally and there's no coming back from it, all modernish cars will have some parasitic drain keeping the various ECU's alive so you can't leave a car for too long without knackering the battery unfortunately.

So i'd get a new battery and then get something like a small CTEK to keep it topped up if you're going to be leaving it for long periods or lots of very short journeys.
 
i too have the ctek mxs5 , plus various heavy duty wheel around chargers. also only had it a couple of weeks but have the ryobi jump pack, great if you use there one plus system already.
reason being as you found, various jump packs over the years fail, nine times out of ten its the internal battery, so using the ryobi i can keep a battery charged and swap them over as and when needed.
 
~20yr old battery didn't have enough energy the other month 2 days after last use, dragged out a draper 5A analogue battery charger, left it hooked up for half a day and off to halfords to get a shiny new battery.

So that battery charger has been used a total of two times ever now.
 
Jump packs are great if you work on a farm or a car dealer or a bus museum or whatever as you'll be using it pretty frequently, i'm not sure i see the value in a normal person having one if they've just got the 1 car as by the time you need it chances are it won't work. Better having a set of jumper cables as just asking someone else to open their bonnet for 2 minutes while you jump the car back to life is a whole lot more reliable.
 
sovietspybob said:
Jump packs are great if you work on a farm or a car dealer or a bus museum or whatever as you'll be using it pretty frequently, i'm not sure i see the value in a normal person having one if they've just got the 1 car as by the time you need it chances are it won't work. Better having a set of jumper cables as just asking someone else to open their bonnet for 2 minutes while you jump the car back to life is a whole lot more reliable.
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true but running a auto and taking the chance that on the occasion someone will open there bonnet , i would rather have the pack, plus as said the advantage of being able to swap out batteries as and when and use them on other tools.
we now have the jump pack and a air compressor in the boot of our c max taking very little room up .
 
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