C-tek Battery Chargers.

[George7941]

I just bought a C-tek US3300 charger for $50 Canadian. Seems like a well-made unit.

More info here.
http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/Default.aspx
They have a video of a car running over a charger without damaging the charger. I haven't come across any other charger tht can take that kind of abuse.

According to C-tek, many high-end car manufacturers (Porsche, Ferrari etc) have selected C-tek chargers as recommended chargers for their cars. Impressive.

 

[benjamming]

Have you run over many car chargers? Was the unit you bought new or used? Did it have tire marks on it?

Why did you choose the 3300 over the 7002? It looks like the 7002 is about double the price.

They say that the 3300 is recommended for Optima Red Top while the 7002 is for Optima Yellow Top batteries.

They say on their website: "In the 1990s, batteries underwent a robust period of development, which introduced a new type of maintenance and care. CTEK developed an entirely new and unique system – 8-stage charging – for today's battery which is used throughout their product range."

I wasn't aware that batteries changed so much in the 1990s. What were the changes to lead-acid batteries?

 

[qship1996]

I have the Ctek 3300 and am impressed with it so far- seems much better constructed than the Battery tender or Battery Minder brands.

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: George7941
I just bought a C-tek US3300 charger for $50 Canadian. Seems like a well-made unit.

More info here.
http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/Default.aspx
They have a video of a car running over a charger without damaging the charger. I haven't come across any other charger tht can take that kind of abuse.

According to C-tek, many high-end car manufacturers (Porsche, Ferrari etc) have selected C-tek chargers as recommended chargers for their cars. Impressive.


Bought one from carappy tires about 1/2 yr ago, bought the 3300 I believe (at work, not with me at this moment) and I can see that it's PWM-based charger, decently built (comes with lots of Samxon caps within) and staged charger. While the current part may not be on-par with many old/traditional charger (I have some Schumaker chargers with me, from 4amps slow to 150Amps in dolly), but it seems to be able to handle most automotive batteries nicely.

I wasn't able to revive a slightly sulphated Lead Acid battery though...but as trickle charger, I can't see what's wrong with it.

Ohh and bTW: it seems to be much, much better quality wise to that of those Vector made ones (commonly sold under "BDekker" in NA counters).

Q.

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: benjamming

Why did you choose the 3300 over the 7002? It looks like the 7002 is about double the price.


I bought the 3300 for maintenance charging. For bulk charging I have a few transformer-based 10amp chargers. Occasionally when I need greater than 10 amps I just parallel the 10amp chargers. For maintenance charging the 3.3amp capacity is adequate.

Here is a high current charger
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Iota-DLS-55-amp-RV-Po...=item23037196a0
Maybe, some day, I will get me one. This is one of the items in my version of 'automotive heaven', another one is buying oil in 205 litre drums.


"I wasn't aware that batteries changed so much in the 1990s. What were the changes to lead-acid batteries?"
Obviously they are exaggerating. Maybe they are referring to AGM batteries and the transition from calcium-antimony to calciun-calcium.

 

[Quest]

to OP:

It's not the battery technology that's been changed dramatically (esp. lead-acid rechargeable variety), it's the electronics technology (PWM-Switching) and also the elevated understanding of pulse-charging in the relevant field that technology wasn't able to offer to engineers/designers some 40+ years ago.