Which battery charger

[Roger Goode]

Hi, I‘ve had a C-Tek 5.0 for several years and in my opinion it is excellent. It does charge the battery of my wife’s car which has stop/start technology. She does numerous short journeys with everything switched on, giving the battery little change to recharge.

If it’s primarily to maintain the battery on your Boxster I would go for the stop/start version but if like me you will use it on older cars I might get the 5.0. A major advantage of the C-Tek 5.0 is that it is capable of recovering a totally flat battery but if you only need a trickle charger to keep your perfectly good battery topped up, the cheap but reliable Aldi or Lidl chargers do a good job. I use one of those too.

 

[tjb]

We have the CTEK MXS 5.0 on our 2015 Boxster and have used this over the winter for the first time, it works perfectly and is manufactured for use on stop start batteries AGM programme.

i would suggest this the model you require.

 

[jara21]

Thanks very much for this - as you can probably tell from my question I'm not very technically minded! I do have an older Volvo which probably won't be getting much use either so the 5.0 still sounds like the best overall for me.

 

[jara21]

Hi, thanks for this. That's the second recommendation for the 5.0 (which is what I had originally planned to go for) so I think that's the one for me!

 

[jara21]

With non essential journeys out of the question for some time I'm going to get a battery charger for my 2015 981 Boxster. I've read up as much as I can and was all set to buy a CTEK charger. Of course nothing is ever that simple! The CTEK website shows the model I was going to buy MXS 5.0 which seems to be widely recommended here but top of their page is the CT5 START/STOP which, as the name suggest, is apparently designed for cars with a start/stop function which the Boxster has.

So now what do I do? Any thought or experience would be most welcome. Thanks

Just a quick update.
Thanks to everyone for the very quick responses, all very helpful and very much appreciated.
Unanimous votes for the MXS 5.0 so that's what I'll do.

Best wishes to all members - I hope you all get through these difficult times safely.
Thanks again
John

 

[Motorhead]

John,

I guess that in the current lockdown many owners are looking at battery conditioners ... certainly there have been a number of posts on the subject on these forums over the last couple of weeks!

FYI I've been using the same (now rather ancient) CTEK unit continuously for the past 9-years or so without problems, and I'm sure that you won't be disappointed with the MSX 5.0. I don't know whether or not you plan to connect it via an internal power-point or directly to the battery. If direct then make sure that you refer to your Driver's Manual for the correct way to connect to the battery and earthing post; if you're using a power-point be aware that the cigarette lighter may not remain live continuously when the ignition is turned off.

Jeff

 

[jara21]

Hello Jeff, thanks for this, that makes it unanimous for the 5.0 so that's what I'm going for.

I take your point about connecting via the internal power point, I've seen many posts about this. I intend to try this first (and I will indeed read the manual - a first for me!) but if I have a problem I'll go to the battery - if I can find where it is, lol!

Thanks again for your reply.

Cheers

John

 

[Richard Wyndham]

Just been through this exercise - batteries and chargers used to be so simple!

Both my Audi Q3 and my UP!GTI have stop/start facility. The Audi has a "AGM" battery, and this requires the CTEK Stop/Start model. This model will also charge any form of car battery. My UP! doesn't have an AGM battery, so other chargers would be OK. But one day you may have a car with AGM so might as well get the Stop/Start model anyway so you have some future proofing.

But to complete the story ... Some of the other CTEK chargers include a recon mode, where it can charge at a higher voltage - which apparently can restore a fading battery back to life. So I was considering that for my Boxster whose battery is quite old. HOWEVER applying this higher voltage to an AGM battery is bad. My Audi handbook warns it must not be done. And I came across a Mercedes forum where contributors were getting very heated about this issue. I was not totally sure which CTEK models had this as a chosen mode, or whether it could happen in a normal cycle. But to be on the safe side I decided it was not worth risking it.

And, when I checked up the date when I bought my Boxster's current battery, it was nearly 10 years ago! So decided now was the time to buy a new battery anyway, and not faff around trying to further extend its life. Which I did yesterday, and changed over this morning.

Having 4 cars in our family (a Toyota iQ as well) - and being discouraged to use any of them - having a good charger looks a wise move. Didn't realise I had to do an PhD thesis on batteries in order to make a decision on which charger to buy!

 

[jara21]

Hi Richard, I completely understand where you are coming from. For someone like me, with the technical abilities of a plank, it's a complete nightmare!

I don't have quite the fleet of vehicles that you have but I do have an old Volvo XC70 which won't be getting any use either so I think I'll risk the MXS 5.0, which others advise should be OK with the Boxster and will do the Volvo as well.

I take your point about the recon mode. As far as I can see it has to be selected (rather than starting automatically) so I stay away from that!

If it turns out to be a disaster and everything goes bang, I'll update the post and let everyone know!

Thanks for the info and take care.

John

 

[tjb]

I found it dead easy to connect direct, there is an earth point right next to the battery for one of the connections all you need is an appropriate size bolt to screw into the pre drilled and threaded hole, the second connection is direct to the battery terminal using the already fitted bolt and nut on the battery terminal block. The cable then runs out from under the bonnet in the gap near one of the wipers which allows you to close and secure the bonnet. The only thing to make sure is that you clean the paint from around the Earth point to ensure a good connection.

 

[jara21]

Thanks very much for this. I have all the mechanical knowledge and experience of a brick, so I'm hoping I can connect via the internal power point - jury seems to be out on that but I will read the manual first! If that doesn't work I will be relying on your advice so thank you very much!

Take care

John

 

[tjb]

Unfortunately everything I read indicated that it does not work properly connected to the internal power socket/cigarette lighter so I gave that a miss, also the kit does not come with a connector to this power point only battery crocodile clips and ring connectors to connect to battery and ground Earth, I think you have to order the cigarette lighter connector separately.

 

[kitchens]

I am a great believer in the Lidl /Aldi ones at £14 do the same job as the Ctek have both running at present ,the issue with the cheaper one is availability, only on sale at special times . The croc clips work fine on the 986 and 987 model as the battery tray comes off in seconds ,the 981 is a bit more fiddley all right if you are leaving it for months over the winter period but not on a regular basic .as said connect directly to the battery as opposed to cig lighter ,if you use the connector O ring , cut a bit of the ring out to form a C that way you do not need to take the bolts off just slacken them off and slip the C piece in ,hope this makes sense I think you need to buy the extension adapter separately .

 

[AndrewT]

If you have a CTEK device and need a cigarette lighter adapter Halfords have them for £7.99 whereas eBay sellers are asking upwards of £10.50.

 

[kitchens]

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/ctek-mxs-5-0-battery-charger-ctek56-975/ posted on the cayman forum in case you didn't see it

 

[JMR]

My CTEK MXS5.0 works fine with either the crocodile clips or the cigarette lighter adaptor.

After fiddling a few times with croc clips, I bought the cig lighter adaptor and have used it ever since.

The CTEK charges immediately, and you can still see the LEDs being filled up, ie 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

For around £10, worth it.

Its far more convenient for me to plug into the centre console than lift the bonnet every time.

 

[jara21]

Thanks for this. The more I hear the less I think the cigarette option will work! I'll give it a try but if it clearly isn't working I'll connect to battery and that's great advice about cutting a bit out of the o ring, thanks.

 

[jara21]

Thanks James, I'm definitely going to try the cigarette lighter first.

 

[JMR]

Thanks James, I'm definitely going to try the cigarette lighter first.

Nice one - I hope it works for you just as good as it does for me.

You just need to make sure you fit it in the permanent live cig lighter, which in the 987 Boxster is the one under the little flap just to the right of the handbrake in the centre console - not the one in the armrest.

I just had a quick look and I've had my CTEK charger since March 2016.

Had the Porsche since March 2017, so have had the car just over 3 years.

I bought the cig lighter adaptor in 2018 and its only ever been used with that since.

And I don't use the car much, I've only done 1200 miles since this time last year.

If it wasn't working I reckon the battery would have died by now.

During the winter it gets locked away for a month or two at a time without coming out.

 

[911hillclimber]

My trusty charger is about 35 years old, but bought a C Tec type from ALDI before Xmas for £12 and works perfectly well, faster than the Oldie.

I need to charge the 897.2 about every 10 days to avoid the central locking not working and the engine only just starting. I only get to this condition if I don't use the car for longer periods.