Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Battery Conditioner - again!

A few days ago exbiker raised the question of confidence in leaving a battery conditioner on all the time (see here ) and I gave a positive report on my CTEK XS3600. I wrote that with the knowledge that, after 5 years usage, the touch-sensitive MODE switch was becoming less precise and two days later it stopped responding altogether. Power on, but the modes wouldn’t change.

So I looked for a replacement. It appears that the XS3600 has been superseded by the MXS 3.8 – so I bought that. It seems that CTEK have replaced a unit that worked with beautiful simplicity with one that is more complicated and which has knocked my confidence in leaving it on and forgetting about it.

Instead of two-stage Charging and Maintenance lamps, the new unit has no less 7 lamps showing charging progress. The old unit indicated that the 18-month old battery was fully charged and was in Maintenance Mode, as it should be. But disconnecting that and plugging in the new unit revealed no more than Lamp no.4 (of 7); that is, Absorption Mode and that I should be prepared to wait for a maximum of 8 hours before progress passes on to the 3-minute Analysis Mode. Thereafter progress achieves the Float (or Fully-Charged) Mode with a stated limit of 10 days! Does this mean that it may take 10 days to reach fully-charged, or that after 10 days I have to do something like disconnecting?

More worryingly in the Safety notes it says this – “Always check the charger has reached Step 6 [Float Mode] before leaving the charger unattended and connected for long periods. If the charger has not switched to Step 6 within 40 hours, this is an indication of an error. Manually disconnect the charger.”

So, I have connected the new unit to a new-ish battery known to be fully-charged, it is at Step 4 and now I am advised to keep an eye on it for up to 40 hours to ensure it reaches Step 6. Looks like I shall sleep well tomorrow night…

Does anyone use a CTEK MXS 3.8 an can put my mind at rest about leaving it to do the job that I thought it was designed for?

I connect via the 12v under-dash socket.

I used one of these on my 3.7 Roadster. Performed faultlessly and during the winter was left for many weeks at a time without a problem.

One thing I would advise though - I've never been a fan of charging through the 12v socket.

With the kit comes several leads. On mine I made a permanent connection to the battery with the lead that terminates with a female connector. The trailing lead fitted down the side of the passenger seat. Worth taking the time to do this in my view - pumping 12 volts though the socket in the car has never appealed.

Thanks for the fast response. My battery is almost inaccessible beneath OSR seat - hence the use of the socket.

It's a job for a rainy afternoon - and one I'd recommend doing.

That's today, then - or tomorrow, or the day after that...

I think the main issue regarding the warning of not leaving the charger 'unattended' until a particular charging stage is due to the heat generated within the charger unit when operating in the earlier charging stages.
With this in mind I recommend to folks using these devices that they make sure that the charger is placed in a position where the unit has good air flow around it and underneath it.
Better still position it as far away from the vehicle as possible on, say, the concrete floor of the garage (away from any water!!).

Some of the larger Ctek chargers have a cooling fan built into them to help dissipate the heat during the main charging period.

Steve,
I have been using a wall mounted CTEK for the past 6 years on a number of different cars, always through the 12v socket and have found it to be fine. I hope I now haven't put a curse on it !!

Reg

Just to second Neilda's comment on the 12v socket - the socket is on the same fuse circuit as some of the lights and pumping the charger through it frequently(not always)blows the fuse -- MUCH safer to wire directly to the battery BUT make sure you have a fuse in the circuit!!!!!!

Cheers!

I have the unit on a shelf mounted on the garage wall to ensure air-flow and poke the wires in through the window. I also plug it in via the 12v socket.

I think the warning in the instructions is no more than covering their backs if something goes wrong. Any electrical appliance can catch fire but we all take the risk that they won't and in the end it's the insurance who take the risk. It does raise the question though, which an insurance company would be entitled to ask in the event of a loss as to why the charger was left unattended when the manufacturer advises against it.
I've used the 12v socket method for years on various cars without a problem, but both Morgans have a direct battery umbilical.