CTEK BATTERY CHARGERS
UC 800
Charges and maintains 6V batteries
The US 800 is a the battery charger that gives your old car a new life. It is a complete 6V battery charger in a diminutive format that charges everything from small batteries of 1Ah up to the larger tractor batteries. Perfect for maintaining the often less used 6V vehicles.
US 800
Your ideal maintenance battery charger for 12-volt batteries
The US 800 is a great 12-volt battery charger in small format and extremely good as a maintenance battery charger for seasonal or hobby vehicles with batteries up to 100Ah. It easily charges batteries common to motorbikes, jet skis, snowmobiles or lawnmowers.
CTEK's Battery charger - the smartest you have ever seen
10 reasons why you should choose a CTEK battery charger
- The battery charger are quite simply Best in Test – 3 years in a row, 2004, 2005, 2006 (Sweden, England and Finland).
- Thanks to unique design, a CTEK battery charger is designed for safety for users, sensitive electronic equipment and the battery.
- They have a unique in-house developed patented system.
- A CTEK battery charger is small and convenient and extremely simple to use – fully automatic too!
- A CTEK battery charger is durable and can be used in all types of weather (IP44-65 classed) and temperatures (-20°C – +50°C).
- The simple and handy design makes a CTEK battery charger easy to understand and lets you know what is going on.
- Their flexibility means that they have many different features, that a CTEK battery charger can be used on many different vehicles and lead-acid batteries.
- A lot of product, quality and service at a good price is one of CTEK's slogans.
- Many of the world's most prestigious car and motorbike makers extend their patronage by offering their customers a CTEK battery charger.
- Quality, service and responsibility – five-year warranty for consumers and two-year warranty for professional use.
And why should you own a CTEK battery charger?
Increased battery dependence
Your expectations for your vehicle/machine
It should be easy and safe
A CTEK battery charger is not a “booster” or just any old battery charger
Increased battery dependence
By looking after and maintaining your battery, while charging them, you prolong their service life and retain their performance.
Without really noticing it, we are living more and more in the midst of different types of battery. The type we probably think about least of all is the lead-acid battery present in vehicles and different types of machines that we use both privately and professionally. Some of these batteries will remain idle for long periods, while others are put under a lot of strain by the equipment installed in the vehicle and are used very frequently without the engine being turned on. This is naturally very taxing for any battery.
In the 1990s, batteries underwent a robust period of development, which introduced a new type of maintenance and care. CTEK developed an entirely new and unique system – 8-stage charging – for today's battery which is used throughout their product range.
This is particularly relevant for people owning seasonal vehicles, practising recreational activities, running professional vehicles, working in a workshop, working as vehicle/machine sellers, racing, working with service vehicles ...
Your expectations for your vehicle/machine
We have also come to rely on everything working properly to ensure we have the time to do everything we have planned. Therefore, our expectations and requirements on all the vehicles around us have increased. Correct battery care can avert many disappointments and problems, particularly when you least want to faced them. The right battery charger not only prolongs the service life of your battery, it ensures that the battery can provide the maximum performance for all of this time.
The motorbike you dust off in the spring, a successful and self-reliant caravan holiday, the truck driver who started early in the morning following a long and lonely TV evening and morning music, the car salesman who needs to start a car for a test run, the boat owner who plans to sail home after a long, wonderful afternoon with prepared food and music, the fridge to keep your drinks chilled... expectations.
It should be easy and safe
Now, it is not the case that we are all particularly interested or knowledgeable when it comes to charging batteries, even though we know it is important. It is then we really appreciate convenience, simplicity and safety. A CTEK battery charger is small, fully automatic and have smart accessories, making them convenient and simple. They are reverse-polarity and short-circuit proof as well as nonsparking, aiming for safety for any user, irrespective of the vehicle to be connected or the person doing it. The fact that they do not damage sensitive electronic equipment is yet another positive characteristic that makes them simple and practical. Being approved for outdoor use and being extremely durable makes them flexible, practical and correctly designed for safety. That they can then be left unattended for long periods makes them really simple and convenient, in addition to extremely practical.
Finally, a CTEK vbattery charger is suitable for all types of lead-acid batteries: Wet, MF, AGM and GEL.
A CTEK battery charger is not a “booster” or just any old battery charger
People often ask, why does it take so long to charge using CTEK compared to other makes? CTEK is not a “booster”. CTEK is a battery charger that looks after and maintains batteries with an entirely unique system that is friendly to batteries and electronics. You can even charge drained batteries. The reason it takes a little more time is just because it handles the battery in the right way.
People sometimes ask, why should you buy a CTEK battery charger instead of one that costs half as much and looks virtually the same (even the product description is the same)? But this is not the whole truth. CTEK products have a unique system (patented functions) not available in other legal battery chargers that can therefore not offer the same performance. As for “copy cats” or forgeries, it is guaranteed that they will not maintain standards. It is impossible to use the quality materials, hire qualified engineers that produce the right product composition, maintain an even and fine level of quality control while at the same time keeping the price down. a "copy cat" battery charger do not meet the standards and cannot guarantee to be nonsparking, reverse-polarity proof and electronics safe.
There is probably not a single battery charger that can match the price for the same performance and generous warranties while at the same time offering such professional customer service. This means that you save money and time as you always have a charged battery, your vehicle will always start and you will not need to buy a new battery for many years to come. You are sure to get the maximum service life from your battery.
Different kinds of lead/acid batteries
There are many standard abbreviations of lead-acid batteries, and an explanation of what these mean follows:
- Wet/Flooded
- MF
- Calcium-Calcium
- VRLA
- GEL
- AGM (Vlies)
- Hybrid
The wet or flooded battery still dominates. It consists of all but freely suspended plates that are insulated from each other usually with the negative plate being sealed in a small polythene separator bag. The price factor is the main reason why this design is so prominent. Even though a normal car battery contains around 130 components, the production method has been refined and the material can be relatively basic. The result is a low price battery that offers something that is adequate to meet the needs of many people. A Maintenance Free battery, MF, is normally a wet battery where the design keeps gassing to a minimum and includes a battery box that is sealed to keep the gases in place. An ample amount of acid means the fluid can last for the entire service life of the battery without being topped up. Development has been made in three stages. Twenty years ago, the high antimony battery dominated the market where the basic element antimony was added to the grid, primarily to rationalise manufacture. The refined production method saw the introduction of hybrid batteries with the antimony on the negative plate being replaced by a calcium alloy which substantially reduced gassing and thereby water consumption.
The next stage has dominated on a wide front in recent years and is called Calcium-Calcium. This involves the antimony on both the negative and positive plates being replaced by calcium alloy. The benefits are obvious. The fluid loss of the battery is about 80 % lower than that of antimony batteries and the self-discharge is lower, i.e. they can remain unused for longer periods without losing a lot of their charge. The disadvantage is that they are more demanding when charging if they have been over-discharged. Efforts made in avoiding the gassing had a positive affect, namely that the bubbles moved about in the acid causing it to be thoroughly mixed when charging. Without these bubbles the acid can stratify at different densities, acid weights, and is quite a common phenomenon. An acid weight of 1.35 or more at the bottom and maybe 1.17 at the top when you are looking for an even weight of 1.28 may cause the battery to be affected by sulphating and increased grid corrosion despite the battery being apparently fully charged.
An entirely different way of controlling fluid loss goes under the generic name of VRLA, Valve Regulated Lead Acid. In this case the battery box is designed as a small pressure vessel with safety valves. If you confine the oxygen and hydrogen gases, they can react with each other and be reformed into water. This is called recombination and is a brilliant way of all but eliminating fluid loss. It is not possible to confine and recombine all the gas but the loss is reduced dramatically.
VRLA is available in two main designs, GEL or AGM (Vlies) which are constructed in totally different ways. A Gel battery has some elements, usually silicon compounds, added to the acid to ensure it gelatinises and thereby guarantee that no flooded acid can leak out. The oxygen gas "drills" channels in the gel from the positive to the negative plate where it meets the hydrogen gas and recombines into water. They have excellent capacity but the somewhat higher resistance in the acid means that they have limitations as starter batteries. They can withstand over-discharging very well, i.e. when the battery is drained down to 20% State Of Charge. Gel batteries are very robust and are often used in applications such as floor-cleaning machines and golf carts. When gel batteries are mentioned in a motorcycle context, this is often a misconception. It is more likely to be an AGM battery.
AGM, Absorbed Glass Mat, (Vlies) keeps the acid in place by the separator paper that consists of a fibreglass mat operating like a sponge. The capillary forces in the separator do the trick. The batteries can be constructed with extremely thin separators which keep the internal resistance low. This means that you can leverage high power from a small volume which makes it ideal as a starter battery. AGM has one drawback which is that the amount of acid is limited. All acid must be absorbed by the separator paper and when the small amount of acid has been converted into lead sulphate, this signals that the "petrol tank" is empty. To deal with this problem, AGM batteries often have a somewhat higher acid weight. This means that an AGM battery can, and often should, be charged using a voltage that is a little higher.
VRLA batteries are very sensitive to "unclean current", i.e. high current ripple, see link. For this reason, traditional transformer battery chargers should not be used.
Average is best. As always in life, too much or too little of anything is disconcerting. Even here there are two different trends that are pulling in different directions. A wet battery can withstand a lot of punishment as you can always top up the water. On the other hand, a pure lead AGM battery can withstand extremely high loading current. Old logic is becoming open to question, but only in part. Modern battery chargers with more control and cleaner direct current also widen the permitted field of application.
An old rule of thumb says that the recommended size of the battery charger can be worked out by multiplying the capacity of the battery by 0.1 to give the recommended current in Ampere. However, with a modern CTEK battery charger you can charge with a much more powerful model as the current is so clean and the voltage is really well controlled. Charging with a current that is four times greater than the old recommendation is normally no problem with a CTEK battery charger.
A battery charger that is too small will take far too long to charge of course, so much so that it sometimes becomes impractical. A floor cleaning machine or wheelchair has perhaps eight hours before you can use the equipment again, at which time the user wants a battery at its full capacity. On the other hand, the time when the battery is at full voltage is shorter for a small battery than for a large one. This may seem like a paradox, and you need to look at the charge graph to be able to fully understand.
The small battery charger has 13.5 hours to reach full voltage and will have achieved almost ninety percent charge. From here to full charge, however, takes only five hours. The large battery is up at full voltage after six hours but is only at 80 % of its capacity and requires a further six hours to reach full charge. You could also look upon this as if you simply discharged 10 % from the battery, the small battery charger is then just as quick as the battery charger that is twice the size, as it is the battery that dictates the current flow.
A battery charger that is too large is unnecessary for two reasons. Firstly, heating the battery is greater which is unfortunate. The ripple in the battery charger also has an affect here, i.e. how unclean the current is. A battery charger with high ripple, which is common in most linear battery chargers, heats the battery more, which means the current must be kept down. A modern switch mode battery charger has a ripple that is so low that the battery charger can be used for batteries that are smaller than you might expect. The CTEK MULTI XS 3600 with 0.8A charge current has been used for a 1.2Ah battery with only 2 degree temperature rise. A normal maximum temperature rise is considered to be three degrees, which means that CTEK battery chargers cover an extremely wide range. It is possible, of course, to estimate the amount of high current ripple that contributes to heating the battery. A simple rule of thumb is that a traditional linear battery charger with 400% current ripple gives around four times as much heat to the battery compared to a modern battery charger with the technique that CTEK applies.
Practical all-round battery charger that every household should have
The powerful universal battery charger 
Automotive Electrical (Mirfield) Ltd