Topic

Our F doesn't get the use she craves so she regularly rewards us with a flat battery.

Now she has a new home just feet from the front door so I'm wondering if a trickle charger would be worth considering.

Thoughts?

I bought an Optimate charger about three years ago and its magic, you can leave the battery charging for ever without any problems or cooking it. You can get a plug/socket connector with eyelet connectors for a permanent fixing to the battery. It was £40 well spent.

Sorry to mis inform you but i have an AccuMate 6/12 charger. can be seen at www.accumate.co.uk and they are now about £45.00 and the fixed lead is a fiver. :whistle:

Hi, I bought a CTEK XS-3600 charger last winter, after my battery went flat a couple of times due to lack of use of the car. It's been on the car for the last three weeks due to the weather just on constant trickle charge. Well worth the £45 spent.

shaunTF

Our other car, the Nissan, hardly moves at this time of year, in fact it barely does 2000 miles a year.
I bought a solar panel charger from Maplins, and it connects via an extra 'cigarette lighter type' socket I fitted that is live, only when the ignition is off. This means I don't have to disconnect the panel before starting the car.

This keeps the battery topped up, as long as I remember to clear the snow off the back window.

ShaunTF wrote: wrote:

Hi, I bought a CTEK XS-3600 charger last winter, after my battery went flat a couple of times due to lack of use of the car. It's been on the car for the last three weeks due to the weather just on constant trickle charge. Well worth the £45 spent.

shaunTF

I have a CTEK top of the range, it came with a pair of leads one of which you can attach permantly to the battery and just plug it to the charger. I used it first on my Midget which was only used a few times a year, and left it to trickle for months on end. When I sold the Midget I transfered the conections to the F a few months ago.

I also have the CTEK XS-3200 charger, excellent piece of kit, If you subscribe to Practical Classics at the minute £49.15p for 13x issues, you get a CTEK XS-800 (nearly as good spec) for free.
Steve

Good information, mate. Thanks - goes to look at Practical classics website.

Thanks peeps (and hi and welcome Stephen 1473)

All the links on the interweb for the CTEK X800 go to Pratical Classics.

The XC800 is only £30.98 delevered from CTEK's own website.

The XC3600 seems a bit over the top for the MGF (although it has a winter mode).

THe CTEK chargers look smarter than the accumate ones (who said looks aren't everything).

Think I'm going to try eBay for a XC800.

James

Don't bother with the XC800 - it's 6V only, I have two XS800's that I received as freebies from magazine subscriptions - it's not man enough for the task of recharging car batteries, I tried for a week. It's designed for re-charging/recycling motorcycle or snowmobile batteries.

I bit the bullet and bought a CTEK XS4003, marvellous piece of kit.

dfv8 wrote: wrote:

Don't bother with the XC800 - it's 6V only, I have two XS800's that I received as freebies from magazine subscriptions - it's not man enough for the task of recharging car batteries, I tried for a week. It's designed for re-charging/recycling motorcycle or snowmobile batteries.

I bit the bullet and bought a CTEK XS4003, marvellous piece of kit.

Yes the CTEK XS4003 is very highly rated, with its 8 stage charging process, currently selling for £75.00 plus p&p direct from www.ctek.com

Handy thread I was just digging around to find a charger with not using the red F that much these days, the silver one is bog standard and in use every day so no problems there a part from the girlfriend coming home tonight an saying the alternator belt snapped on the way, good job I carry spares although it was the coldest an quickest belt I've changed

Anyway to my charger, its a 12v 4A and says on the box only for cars up to 1.2L whats that all about I would have thought it will still do the job but take longer

or am I wrong???