CTEK MXS 5.0 12V 5A Battery Charger

I'm new to deep-cycle batteries, having recently acquired an electric outboard motor for a little punt to ply a nearby river with. I bought an AGM battery for the outboard after discovering these batteries are specifically designed to be repeatedly drained and recharged but I assumed my old cheapie car battery charger would be adequate for recharging duties So it was just as well I listened to my gut and did more research after seeing the battery was a fully sealed unit, and found out it actually required precision charging within very fine tolerances. It seems the service life of AGM batteries is dependent upon correct recharge amperage and voltage. They also shouldn't be overcharged, which meant my usual 'set and forget' (overnight) battery charging approach would ... MoreI'm new to deep-cycle batteries, having recently acquired an electric outboard motor for a little punt to ply a nearby river with. I bought an AGM battery for the outboard after discovering these batteries are specifically designed to be repeatedly drained and recharged but I assumed my old cheapie car battery charger would be adequate for recharging duties So it was just as well I listened to my gut and did more research after seeing the battery was a fully sealed unit, and found out it actually required precision charging within very fine tolerances. It seems the service life of AGM batteries is dependent upon correct recharge amperage and voltage. They also shouldn't be overcharged, which meant my usual 'set and forget' (overnight) battery charging approach would be problematic with my old cheapie. Who knew that battery charging had become so demanding a task that microprocessor control was required?! Though I sheepishly parted with far more moolah than I'd ever paid for a battery charger before, this charger has indeed proven to be an excellent product. Lightweight and compact, the (red button) CTEK has an AGM function specifically designed for such batteries. Once fully charged, the CTEK keeps the battery full with a 'trickle power' mode that automatically kicks in: Ican 'set and forget' it, leaving it to charge overnight or longer without any worries: yay! I was so impressed with how well it did on the AGM battery that I applied CTEK's 'reconditioning' function to a regular 'wet' car battery I had lying around. Apparently the reconditioning function corrects the chemical innards of an old battery and maximises whatever remaining life there might be in the thing. To sum up, this is a really impressive piece of kit: it's easy to use and is very effective at what it does. I like that it has built-in protection from incorrect polarity connection too: a clue that the product is well-engineered, well thought out and accommodating of human error. A 5-year warranty is also reassuring. A 'fancy-pants' charger was a considerable additional expense I wasn't counting on when selecting an AGM battery for my humble punt but its an essential one. You can pay a lot more or even a lot less for these types of chargers but the compact CTEKs appear to be among the lower-costing high-performance chargers on the market. They're very popular and have a reputation for quality of build and design, which is surely worth paying a little more for.

Have had a Golf R Mk 7.5 for over 5 years but regularly passenger door would not unlock with key nearby. Service garage and VW Australia unable to resolve until I independently did OBD scan. Finally deduced that UNLESS DRIVING REGULARLY, battery progressively depletes to disable automatic functions. Hence keeping CTek connected during non-drive periods resolved this problem and also provided correct functioning of Stop/Start engine control!

The CTEC MX5 is the best 12v car battery charger Ive ever owned. No need to continually check the battery charge you simply connect and forget it. Once the battery has reached full charge the MX5 stops charging & monitors the battery charged state. If the battery capacity drops to about 95% the MX5 cuts back in at a lower amperage, similar to a trickle charger, and bring the battery back up to full capacity before again entering the monitoring stage. Its a small light compact unit supplied with everything you need although there are some useful accessories available to make it even easier & more convenient to use.