Connecting a Ctek mxs 5 charger

[bangorlad]

Been doing lots of searches and forum reading in order to avoid our Cali suffering winter ailments and am a little confused when it comes to maintaining the leisure (mainly) batteries.

From all the posts I'm pretty much convinced spending £70 or so on a Ctek is a good investment but of all the threads I've only seen one that mentions connecting this via an 'open' 12v socket is not recommended in the manual. I've confirmed this and it's pretty adamant you shouldn't feed electric current *into* the sockets, but everyone seems to do this and Ctek even supply adaptors for the purpose. Am I to understand this is just VW covering their backsides but if something goes wrong with the electrics they won't want to know?

Is an alternative to connect directly to one of the LBs? Are they both simply in parallel and will both be charged? Up to now the van is driven fairly regularly but often shortish trips but the batteries seem good with monthly c12 hour hook-ups in addition. Presumably a MXS 5 will be pumping up to 5A into the 12v socket circuitry and I don't to want to stress or damage anything.

Thanks,
Stew

 

[Bellcrew]

Been doing lots of searches and forum reading in order to avoid our Cali suffering winter ailments and am a little confused when it comes to maintaining the leisure (mainly) batteries.

From all the posts I'm pretty much convinced spending £70 or so on a Ctek is a good investment but of all the threads I've only seen one that mentions connecting this via an 'open' 12v socket is not recommended in the manual. I've confirmed this and it's pretty adamant you shouldn't feed electric current *into* the sockets, but everyone seems to do this and Ctek even supply adaptors for the purpose. Am I to understand this is just VW covering their backsides but if something goes wrong with the electrics they won't want to know?

Is an alternative to connect directly to one of the LBs? Are they both simply in parallel and will both be charged? Up to now the van is driven fairly regularly but often shortish trips but the batteries seem good with monthly c12 hour hook-ups in addition. Presumably a MXS 5 will be pumping up to 5A into the 12v socket circuitry and I don't to want to stress or damage anything.

Thanks,
Stew

Why not just use the hook up lead, 24 hours every two weeks if you are concerned, both leisure batteries will be fully charged on this regime.

 

[alter]

nothing happens if you are charging through the cigarette lighter but you do not know if you bring two wires directly to the poles of a service battery .... the second battery will be loaded in parallel .... the ctrek has the flying connectors made x this....

 

[Kmann]

Like @james bell says. Use the hookup cable once I a while thru the winter. Start the engine and let it run (or take a small run).

At VW they attach the CTEK directly to the battery when the cars are in the showroom for a long period. If you go with that solution I would do the same. But still, use the hookup cable to maintain the leisure batteries.

 

[alter]

did you see you attach the ctrek to the service batteries? maybe it was that of the engine ....... just in VW they do not use the service cable !!?

 

[Kmann]

did you see you attach the ctrek to the service batteries? maybe it was that of the engine ....... just in VW they do not use the service cable !!?

Where I bought my Cali they both had the Ctek on the engine battery (on all the cars in the showroom) and the hookup cable (I guess that is what you mean by service cable) on the California.

 

[alter]

exactly, the ctrek puts it on the engine battery .....

 

[Rich20]

I use a Ctek straight onto the LB via a comfort connector. This tops up the battery direct without connecting to any existing wiring. The starter battery has never needed a top up as I use our Cali as a daily drive. If needed I would just connect straight to that battery using the croc clips supplied.

 

[sapto]

My Cali is staying in a garage where I connect it with the hook up from time to time and from time to time I connect the "Starter Battery" with a Ctek. However I rather take the van out of course...

 

[campandfly]

Does everyone connect their CTEK directly to the poles on the Starter Battery? I saw a CTEK video and they recommended connecting the positive clamp to the positive on the battery and the negative clamp to somewhere on the body. Does it make a difference?

 

[WelshGas]

Does everyone connect their CTEK directly to the poles on the Starter Battery? I saw a CTEK video and they recommended connecting the positive clamp to the positive on the battery and the negative clamp to somewhere on the body. Does it make a difference?

Apparently Yes. Due to the fact that connecting to the - tve pole bypasses the Battery Monitor sensor attached to the - tve pole.

 

[campandfly]

Apparently Yes. Due to the fact that connecting to the - tve pole bypasses the Battery Monitor sensor attached to the - tve pole.

Ahh thanks. So by attaching to the body the charge will be monitored by the Cali BMS and also by the CTEK.

I often see CTEK chargers in dealership showrooms I wonder where they attach their negative clamps I have never took the time to look. CTEK does say check your owner manual to see where the recommended attachment point is.

 

[WelshGas]

Ahh thanks. So by attaching to the body the charge will be monitored by the Cali BMS and also by the CTEK.

I often see CTEK chargers in dealership showrooms I wonder where they attach their negative clamps I have never took the time to look. CTEK does say check your owner manual to see where the recommended attachment point is.

I have the Ctek 12v plug attachment and just plug into an always On Dashboard socket powered from engine battery.

 

[TripleBee]

I don't know why I would bother buying an external charger when I already have a decent triple battery charger on board?
It's like buying an Ocean with onboard gas stove, and buying an external gas stove to cook your meals?

 

[AlisonF]

I bought a CTEK battery charger / reconditioning unit last autumn and used it to recondition the battery on my old trailer.
I currently have the Eriba at home for testing everything as not camped yet.
It had been in storage since I collected it last July with only a couple of infrequent visits and hook up to van to try and keep the battery topped up.
It has not been on the drive on mains hook up for a few days and the battery status (indicated by a series of lights in the Eriba) shows fully charged.
I hooked up the CTEK reconditioner and it shows a status of 4 from 7. Which, to me, shows that my batteries, whilst fully charged would not hold charge as long as they could or should. Hopefully I can now recondition them to ‘as new’ condition.

 

[blondebier]

If anyone is after a CTEK charger Amazon have the MXS 5.0 on a lightning deal today at £54.49

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FC42HAA/?tag=eliteelect-21

I can't see these hanging around for long.