Trickle charger

[Cei1973]

Hi all, little bit of advice on trickle chargers please.

I’ve got many of these on my bikes and used for over 20 years and have a few spare optimate 3 and 4 and Oxford oximisers has anyone used these on a 991 please or are they too weak?

From experience over winter months with bikes with standard and lithium batteries I find that simply starting them once a week and leaving run for a few minutes keeps the battery alive.

Any advice would be welcomed as I’ve not used these on cars, it’s unlikely I’ll use the car much in winter but it will get used on a dry day. Could you also recommend a charger if the above aren’t any use as I can see that ctec seem to be the ones and same as Porsche?


thanks in advance

Cei

 

[Lancerlot]

There's a bit of info on chargers in the Tricks & Tips section of the 991 forum here . (You need to be a member and logged in to access it.)

Regards,

Clive

 

[AndrewCS]

No experience myself but a quick look at the specs ... says that they `may` be OK, albeit not able to deal with the full capacity of your car`s battery Ah rating

Why not give them a call ?

OptiMate 3 — OptiMate UK

Recommended for: AGM / MF, STD, GEL and spiral cell batteries from 2.5Ah to 38Ah

OptiMate 4 — OptiMate UK

Recommended for: AGM/MF, STD, GEL and spiral cell batteries from 2Ah to 50Ah

Tel: 01604 660777
E-Mail: Sales@OptiMate.co.uk

 

[jonathanw]

No experience myself but a quick look at the specs ... says that they `may` be OK, albeit not able to deal with the full capacity of your car`s battery Ah rating

Why not give them a call ?

OptiMate 3 — OptiMate UK

Recommended for: AGM / MF, STD, GEL and spiral cell batteries from 2.5Ah to 38Ah

OptiMate 4 — OptiMate UK

Recommended for: AGM/MF, STD, GEL and spiral cell batteries from 2Ah to 50Ah

Tel: 01604 660777
E-Mail:&nbsp Sales@OptiMate.co.uk

 

[jonathanw]

Hi Cei

I have been using for at least 8 years an Optimate 6 for my 991.1 which does very little mileage. It is 11 years old and has done less than 30,000 in total. In the last 7 years averaging less than 1500 per annum.

I have been very happy with the Optimate 6 but cannot vouch for the 3 or 4 devices.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards

Jonathan

 

[Cei1973]

Hi all,

thanks for the replies I’ve contacted optimate but their tech team are in a show in Italy this week, I feel they’ll simply advise to get another one as above, 5 or 6. I’ll post the reply just in case others are in the same position.

thanks again
Cei

 

[Cei1973]

Hi all,
another query, just saw a video on youtube and it says you need the ignition on before you connect the cable or it disconnects after 10 mins, only seen this on one video and watched many and others didn’t say this, any advice please?

thanks again
Cei

 

[Maser2]

On my 991 C4 GTS I use a CTEK MX 5.0 (Halfords (£79.99). I use this with a CTEK Comfort Indicator Cigarette Plug (Halfords £17.99). Plugging into the cigarette lighter socket is so much easier. You need to have the ignition on (not the engine running) when you connect it, once connected you can turn off the ignition and lock the car, it works great.

 

[Cei1973]

Thanks mate, that’s exactly one video I viewed, I’ll be able to sort now. Hopefully I’ll have a reply from optimate tomorrow, if it’s not going to work I’ll order the exact ones you said, I had looked at these too.

I can see I need one for sure as the car struggled to start today as I’ve not run in a month only started it.

 

[Maser2]

There may be an issue with your battery. It shouldn't go flat after even 3 months even in winter.

 

[Maser2]

[style="background-color: #ffffff;"]Porsche charge £151 for the CTEK charger![/style]

 

[Cei1973]

Hi mate, if the batteries would last for 3 months why does everyone use a trickle charger?

 

[Greenman986S]

...as I’ve not run in a month only started it.

That might be your problem as the battery wont have been (re) charged if you didn't give the car a good run.


Not running the car and getting it up to temp will also leave condensation / moisture where it shouldn't be..

 

[Cei1973]

Hi mate, I wouldn’t argue with that as my experience is keeping several bikes on trickle charge for months, but my experience is starting once a week and simply running has worked for me, far better than not starting at all.


I am hoping to use weather pending.


thanks

 

[JMR]

I had the Optimate III SP charger and I used to keep my Renaultsport Clio 2.0 and Civic Type R topped up with it for several years, however only a small Ah battery on those.

Since having the Boxster in 2017 I upgraded to the CTEK MXS 5.0 with the cigarette lighter adaptor.
Kept the car utterly reliable for 6 years.
One particular time in winter I forgot to put it on trickle and the battery died after 3-4 weeks.
Wouldn't bring it back to life, took the battery tester home from work and it gave me a report and said to replace.
Battery was >7 years old though.

Now have a Macan, but haven't hooked it up to that yet as I've only just bought it.
I like the CTEK though, and they are the official Porsche charger which you'll pay double for at the dealer with a Stuttgart logo on []

 

[Cei1973]

Thanks James, pretty much same chain of thought as me.

 

[Cei1973]

If anyone’s in the same position an optimate 4 works as a trickle charge, had a reply from their tech team.

thanks for the advice all.

 

[PhilW_999]

I highly recommend anyone wanting to know what's the best charger and most suitable for your car to phone C-Tek UK support line. Truly excellent service and advice.

 

[JMR]

Good to hear the tech support is alright

I have the CTEK MXS5.0 hooked up to the Macan now using the +ve and -ve posts at the back of the engine bay .
Comfort connector popping out the back of the bonnet to connect the 2.5m CTEK extension cable to in the garage.

Using the cig lighter has been unreliable.
Charges for a few days no problem at all, then all of a sudden turns off completely.

Terminal posts seem much more reliable.