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What's the best Battery Conditioner these days ?


David Lynch

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As my enthusiasm for rebuild / recommissioning finally gathers pace wondering whether to replace my dead Optimate III SP with the confusingly similar named but different Optimate 3, Optimate Accumate 3, or something totally different? Must be capable of long term connection for conditioning.

Will be sticking with Gel type battery. Hoping my Odyssey PC680 can be recovered rather than replaced.

Cheers, David

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The PC 680 is an AGM type battery, not a gel type.

What's the biggest capacity battery on which you might ever use it?

If you're buying a new charger I suggest considering one with a lithium mode if you think that you might ever have a lithium battery.

CTEK gets most praise in this forum, but I'm not aware that any make is any better than any other.

Jonathan

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I've had an Optimate 3 for about 5 years now, seems fine. 

I had a CTEK before which lasted about 5 years before the selector button failed, so I changed to the Optimate. (Actually the CTEK button was dodgy after about 3 years, very hit and miss). 

The Optimate's cheaper too. 
 

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Thanks all. I live and learn Jonathan. More fibreglass on my car than I thought then *smile* ....Borderline Westy !

Don't think I will change from a PC680 (or Red Top 20 as previous). Just seems right and even the smallest battery chargers seem to be rated for batteries twice the Ah capacity of either. 

I'll pick one with AGM and Li-Ion modes. Not that I think Li-Ion is a solution for me yet. I'd have to research and buy known quality battery in that sense regards the integral BMS for cell balancing/preservation and safety. 

Good call on the Noco - Their newer Genius 2 is probably the one I will compare others against. Can get that for all of £35 with a present Halfords offer.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

All the cars seldom used (the Seven, two Minis, a Frogeye and an MX5) are on battery charger-conditioners. So I went for cheap (20 EUR) ones from Lidl. And for over 3 years now, they are all still perfect.

Another bigger from Lidl too is used for the VW Iltis (former military, so in 24v).

Furthermore, the only conditioner that didn't seemed to be on par to the task was the one coming with my wife's Vanquish... *banghead*Having since learned it wasn't protected against any power surge (an interesting point when living in a remote countryside), and  Aston-Martin Paris*redcard* quoted a tad above 600 EUR for a new one, I went for a "generic" protected one with the same kind of plug. And for now over a year, everything is perfect. 

=> So unless you have Li-Ion batteries or other specific ones, why spend high money for a so-called "advanced" or "high end" conditioner?

I'm paying far more attention to the battery quality.

But buying a conditioner with with AGM and Li-Ion mode looks wise.

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