CTEK Reconditioning Cycle

PAG ZERO1 · Dec 28, 2016

Hi Guy's,

I have been using a CTEK for a number of years now on my Porsche cars and find its a great piece of kit, but having never had to use the reconditioning cycle I was wondering what the guidelines are as there is nothing in the manual. When you do a search on google some say you need use it on a flat battery, then fully charge and run the cycle, others say carry out once a year ? So if anyone has used this cycle I am sure there are other members that would be interested, several questions come to mind would you only use this on a flat battery uninstalled, on a fully charged battery installed or if its really required on a good battery under normal CTEK use ?

riball · Dec 28, 2016

Hi Pete
I've used the recon cycle on a number of batteries in or out of the cars. I just stick with the recommended use of 'once a year' so tend to use the recon across all the cars in sequence in the spring but you can do it anytime really.
I've not used it on a totally flat battery.
Hope this helps.

BrianJ · Dec 28, 2016

I used it once on a battery which had lost enough charge that it wouldn't turn over the engine. The battery was several years old but the car (Audi Coupe) hadn't been used much and the normal mode of trickle charging didn't seem to have much effect. As a last gasp I removed the battery from the car for safety, mainly because I wasn't sure about how the recon cycle and full recharge would affect the old electrics and gave it the recon treatment - it seemed to completely rejuvenate the battery and it worked fine for several more years before we sold the car. Might have been lucky. My CTEK is an MXS 5.0.

PAG ZERO1 · Dec 28, 2016

Hi riball,
thanks for the info can you tell me after selecting the cycle approx. time it takes to complete the cycle and how do you know when complete, does the CTEK revert to normal fully charged in the mode or what happens ie does it automatically switch to 7 or 8 programs ?
Thanks again I am sure other team members will find this helpful.

riball · Dec 29, 2016

Couldn't really tell you how long it takes as tend to leave over night in the past. The unit just reverts to the trickle charge once complete - you get a green light confirm that's all. I think mines a 5.0 model too.