Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

can anyone recomend a good quality trickle charger for keeping the battery in good nick.

yep, I have used for the last 6 years a ctek multi xs 3600 charger/conditioner, which is an auto switch mode charger, have found it brilliant, several people do a deal on it, but not much usually. Its a bit pricey, but well worth the extra.

me, using a small solar panel in the boot already has 12v charger with protection circuits so 2 wires to a switch and 2 wires to the battery. superb.

car at garage having bits done will photograph when it returns.

will look out make etc when it comes back. but it is working a treat.

+1 for the CTEK items. Got mine for about £38 from Ebay and not looked back ever since.

Sometimes Lidl/Aldi have CTEK chargers, badged as something else for about £15.99. Really worth findong these by checking their website.

+2 for the CTEK conditioners. The chargers are cheaper but can reduce the battery life, the conditioners cycle the battery to keep it in good shape.

Got mine from the local accessory shop £9.99,its done the job for about 5 years now.Just clamp on the crocodiles and leave it till I need the car.Once the car is in more regular use i.e after Easter till Christmas I dont need it at all.

Just checked out the CTEK ones and you can get a cigarette lighter adapter. Why???
Can you connect the cigarette lighter from a dud battery back on itself to the battery? I thought you plugged them in to the mains.............help??

You do plug them in to the mains then you can either connect with croc clips to the battery or via the cigarette lighter...unless of course C-Tek have discovered some way of creating energy out of fresh air

Doh!!! How stupid do I feel right now?
Thanks for your help, I think I'll get one now, with a cigarette lighter adapter (anyway), my current one is well over 15 years old.
Thanks again

whilst they do supply the charger with a cigarette lighter adaptor, not all cars can be connected via the adaptor, I know that many 993 owners cannot,mine does, I guess if you wish to use this method all you need to check is if the fag lighter works with the ignition off ?

Thanks for that too, but obviously if I have the adapter I can connect to any of my cars, as long as it works. Future proof

I use an Oxford Optimate which I bought for my motorcycle battery but works on the car as well, you can wire the optimate into the battery terminals then you just have to plug the unit in rather than hoping the croc clips hold, I got mine free when I bought a new battery for the bike a few years ago. Not had much use for it on the car though as even after standing outside for 4 weeks at -15 at one point and covered in ice and snow it still started.

Sometimes, my car stands in the garage for weeks, or months at a time, I put it on charge , and leave it on all the time, battery always perfect plus this kind of charger conditions the battery, so that it will also take more charge than a standard type charger. I have used the same type of charger on my boat for more than ten years, also switched on all the time with great results, and really extends battery life as a bonus

If you need any info on either the CTEK or Air flow battery conditioners - I can advise

I can also do TIPEC club members a nice discount as always

an update , i got the ctek multi xs 3600 charger/conditioner and can recomend it ,
once charged the batteries seem to start the engine better than they did when the batteries were new.