CTEK 93-56-865 US 0.8 Black 12V Battery Charger

I have purchased several different chargers for multiple vehicles and this is one of the better chargers out on the market. Nice quality, cool design, and vary simple to use. The LEDS take some time to get use to and the manual lacks content, but overall, this charger performs well.

I have had many other Battery Tender chargers, all of them have been over priced, failed, poor quality or design, caused battery failure (cooked three batteries), or just had general problems... I had a 90% failure rate. I decided it was time for a vendor change (sorry, but I am not a happy Deltran customer).

I have purchased other larger CTEK charges had have been happy with their operation. I got this little unit to keep my small generator battery charged. I wanted an intelligent small charger that was not too expensive. This is the newer version of the small CTEK charger that adds additional charging steps. My unit has survived several lightening storms and a year of continuous use (it's always connected). I have not tested how "splash proof" it is... In general I have been happy with CTEK chargers.

It should be noted that this charger might not charge a completely dead or bad battery because it's too smart... If your battery is that bad you should replace it anyway.

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This is CTEK's smaller charger for charging 12V batteries from 1.2Ah to 32 Ah and maintaining batteries up to 100Ah. This is a true smart charger with "six" stages. Truth be known, it's really three but I'll say that the others are nice to have. It's a sealed unit about 8" end to end including the strain releif on the permantly affixed leads. If features mounting holes on the main body which are nice (fitting #8 screws, 10's might fit.) The unit gets warm, not overly, hot but noticably warm. If this unit is perminantly mounted as in my case, use nylon spacers behind to give it a little air between the unit and the wall. I think the back is the warmest part of the unit. Despite being sealed (and assumed by many to be weather proof) the instructions clearly say this unit is not be used in the elements. It has a sturdy two prong cord that might be a bit short for many applications but a 16ga extension cord should be safe to use as long as all other safe considerations are made. It ships with two types of leads (both fused with ATC style fuses). An aligator style clip with large jaws suitable for full sized car batteries. It also ships with 1/4" ring terminals that can be quick detached from the charger without disconnecting from the battery terminals. What is a "smart charger"? Simply put its a chager that regulates the voltage going to a battery to prevent over charging it. 20 years ago most chargers needed to be monitored. Nowadays most small electronics have over charge circutry built in (i.e cell phones, laptops, ect.) But for some reason, some 12V chargers are still using a steady voltage source to charge batteries. Over an extended period it will literally "Cook" the battery. Not all smart chargers are made equal either. Some have a bulk charge that brings the voltage to 14.4V for a time then "floats" the battery at a lesser voltage for extended periods of storage. CTEK has included programing that periodically analyzes the battery and mades a decision on whether it needs to continue floating or actually transition back to a heavier charge stage.

The stages are...

1) Desulfation removes build-up on lead plates inside the battery.

2) Bulk Charge Brings the battery voltage up to 14.4V and about 80% of maximum capacity.

3) Absorption Continues the charge with steadily declining current while still holding the voltage at close to 14.4.

4) Analyse Stops charging and sees if battery voltage free-falls (happens if battery has reached the end of its life cycle.)

5) Float Applies roughly 13.6V at a small current to maintain the battery voltage.

6) Pulse Not entirely sure but sounds a lot like float, it switches off and on to maintain maximum charge.

According to the literature batteries may take as much as 1 hour per Ah to reach 80%. After 80% times are hard to find but it sounds like this is also where you can maintain larger capacity batteries (32-100Ah.) For my use, I'm charging a 22Ah sealed lead acid battery as part of a power supply for a DC powered electronics project. So far it's doing well. But this charger would certainly be suitable for motorcycles, lawn tractors, and generators with electric start. As a maintainer, for larger batteries I'm less entusiastic about it. I would spend a little more money and move up to the CTEK 4.3 or the 7002. The 32Ah limit on bulk charging makes this somewhat less attractive for owners of boats, RVs, and garage kept cars. As long as the battery is fully charge when stored it works but especailly with boats that may not always be the case. Still the "0.8" is leaps and bounds ahead of its competition and only about $10 more expensive. Just make sure to follow the safety practices listed and always inspect your batteries regularly. Also, this may boil water off a NON-maintenance free battery so be aware of that if thats what your application uses.

This paragraph is specific to my application but I went ahead an included it as it might give others some insight. So that I might get more detailed information I allowed the 22Ah SLA battery to discharge (disconnected the charger) under normal usage. It averaged about 60mA of current draw from the battery for about 36 hours. The starting voltage at the beginning on the discharge was 13.3V and the ending was just under 12.9V. Once the charger was reconnected quickly moved to stage 2 and started the charge around 13.2V @ 900mA. This trailed off within a few minutes to 13.6V @ 850mA. After a half hour, still on stage 2 it was pushing 13.8V @ 800mA. Through all of this the load was still connected drawing roughly 36mA. At an hour it was still stage 2 with 13.9V @ 790mA. In fact the amp charge held 790 until it passed a charge voltage of 14.2. Up until that point the battery had been taking the steady 790mA and adding 1mV about every ten seconds. Passing 14.2V however the amperage began to trail off the voltage increase slowed as well. At that point it was nearing the end of the stage 2 cycle. Still it took another hour to complete dropping to about 560mA of current and peaking at 14.27V. Total time spent on the bulk cahrge was 2hrs 45mins. As stage 3 began the voltage inceased slightly to about 14.28V but the amperage steadily but slowly deceased. 15 mins after beginning stage 3 the amerage was down another 50mA to 510. After an hour the amperage had dropped to 430mA and the voltage had climbed just shy of 14.29V. After 3 hours into stage 3 the power moving into the battery was 14.30V @ just below 360mA. By 4.5hrs the voltage was holding steady at 14.30V and amperage was down maginally to 345mA. The CTEK transitioned to stage 5 (float mode) after about 4hrs 45mins on stage 3 and about 7.5hrs total. That battery began discharging due to the DC load I had connected. The voltage began steadily dropping for about 25 mins then when reaching the target float voltage and while still on stage 5 the readings began fluctuating about every two seconds. The battery would discharge for a half second then recieve a charge of about 60mA for 1 sec. This has continued to repeat. While in the stage 5 float mode the battery charger is much cooler. Only lightly warm to the touch. When I changed the load from "standy" to in use the float applied a steady current of 40 to 50mA to offset the 100mA to 120mA of draw. The battery voltage dropped about 1mV every two mins. However with the load returned to the standby mode the float current once again stablized and retuned to its pulsing fluctuation. So in summery this will float a battery with less and 45mA of draw on it (clocks, ect) and can always revert back to a full charge if that proves to be insufficent.

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I use this charger in my Hi-Fi set up. I have a Dodd preamp that runs on 12V battery power, nothing like getting off of the grid, and I use this charger to maintain the battery in this system. The charger does it's job with out any noise and very little heat and adds nothing to the sound of the preamp which speaks volumes about the quality of this charger.

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Easy to use and charges/conditions my car batteries (3 cars) in about 8-10 hours. After one week of use, my mother accidentally drove off in my car while its battery was still charging. When she came back and I told her what happened, we were horrified and so afraid of permanent damage to the brand-new charger, but we were pleasantly surprised. The CTEK's charging wires simply disconnected at the point where the two wires were designed to plug together with a latch that gave way when pulled too hard, so there was no damage at all. CTEK had the potential problem of driving off while still charging in mind, and designed a safe disconnect into their chargers.

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