flat battery

[Eldavo]

Not really looking to get drawn into anything here. The yellow light should be extinguished when the green maintenance mode light is on. The OP stated that his yellow light is flashing.

 

[Hilux]

Ive been thinking about one of these battery conditioners. Who can tell me which is best?

[link=http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010001.htm]None better than an Accumate in my view and experience.[/link] I (and others) have been using these reliably for years without issue. Lots of accessories as required and they genuinely do recover deep discharged batteries you thought were dead and cycle and condition the battery on the car by direct or remote connection. A mates ride on mower had a small Varta or Yuasu battery that had been dead for a year (he used the pull start) so I connected it to the Accumate and it took nearly 4 days but it brought it back to life admittedly a bit tired but still it worked - amazing. I bought the wall bracket, extension lead and remote connectors so whatever car is in the garage the Accumate is always in position with a lead that will reach the car or a battery on the bench.

 

[Eldavo]

Glad it's sorted! I use the eyelet terminals with the connector poking out the side of the boot carpet. I really need to stick an I line fuse on there though for just in case.

 

[Hilux]

I really need to stick an I line fuse on there though for just in case.

Do it now please and as close to the positive terminal as you can. A slight bit of chafing and your car is toast!

 

[Eldavo]

Battery short circuits on the wires = Fire.

 

[Hilux]

Why? my ctek doesn't have an inline fuse so what's the problem?

If you are simply connecting a conditioner/charger to a battery post and then removing it you are protected by the charger circuitry protection and also note the wires from the charger are immobile and not subject to movement and vibration ( I would assume the C-Tek has such circuitry protection - the Accumate does and it also protects against reverse polarity and sparks). If on the other hand you have a permanent wire running through the car to a point where the battery charger occasionally connects onto it then if the wire (which is direct from the live terminal) shorts onto the car somewhere it tries to become a fuse but wont burn out. Instead it`ll immediately burn off all the insulation and get red hot and pretend its like a wire in a toaster or electric fire element (in seconds) and set your car on fire!!! Hence ensure the in line fuse is, as I suggested earlier, "as close to the positive terminal as you can"

 

[appletonn]

ORIGINAL: sc0tty The ctek manual is useless, as it did not cover my fault scenario, which was caused by a bad ground connection on the car body. The ground crocodile clip had shifted and was no longer correctly earthed.

Scotty, I've had my Ctek 3600 for 2 years now and I always leave it in maintenance mode and let it do its thing. Tends to flick between fully charged icon and partly charged one - I have attached the cable to the battery terminal posts and leave the end peeping out from under the boot carpet, as I did with the 944 rather than use the crocodile clips. Not had any issues in the 2 years of use. Not actually sure what the winter mode is for tbh.

 

[Eldavo]

Winter mode is for when the temperature is below 5 degs C. Probs does something to prevent calcification, no idea really.

 

[appletonn]

ORIGINAL: sc0tty Many thanks chaps. Good explanation there Paul. I just have the charger temporarily connected at the moment. Paul, the ctek permanent wiring has a propriatary connector at the end of the + and ground wires that are on the battery, so at least it is not just bare wires !

Scotty, according to the CTEK uk website, you can buy a different cable to that one in the picture (same as the one on mine) which includes an inline fuse - might investigate that myself as Paul's comment made me sit up and think!