OV9

With the cars getting such little use it's probably wise to pick up a battery charger in case either of them have a flat battery. I know CTEK is a good brand but by christ there's a lot of choice from them! What to buy? I don't want something that I can leave permanently plugged in (trickle charger?), just something that I can use to charge for a few hours if I notice things are getting really low.

The CTEK ones with reconditioning function are excellent - plus that generally comes as standard with a charger intended for larger capacity batteries. Don't need to go too mad though; the MXS 5.0 is what I have and it's been fine for the batteries in old larger-engined BMWs. I thought that model had been replaced, or at least renamed, but you can still get it new it seems.

We had this thread recently !

I've got a couple of Lidl ones I've had for years and an ebay jobbie I got last year. All have been fine.

Don't buy a motorcycle one because you're being a cheap skate, and fail to release your car's starting problems are caused by this

Thanks gents. I was looking at the MXS 5.0. Seems that's a good choice and not too pricey.

Jobbo wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:39 am The CTEK ones with reconditioning function are excellent - plus that generally comes as standard with a charger intended for larger capacity batteries. Don't need to go too mad though; the MXS 5.0 is what I have and it's been fine for the batteries in old larger-engined BMWs. I thought that model had been replaced, or at least renamed, but you can still get it new it seems.

What's the difference with the CT5 Start/Stop? I see it does one more battery type (EFB) but how do I know if I need that one over the MXS? Merc has stop/start, Yeti doesn't.

I bought the Aldi one....not tested it yet though!

Simon wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:53 am

Jobbo wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:39 am The CTEK ones with reconditioning function are excellent - plus that generally comes as standard with a charger intended for larger capacity batteries. Don't need to go too mad though; the MXS 5.0 is what I have and it's been fine for the batteries in old larger-engined BMWs. I thought that model had been replaced, or at least renamed, but you can still get it new it seems.

What's the difference with the CT5 Start/Stop? I see it does one more battery type (EFB) but how do I know if I need that one over the MXS? Merc has stop/start, Yeti doesn't.

No idea, bought mine ages ago, probably before stop/start was a thing.

Simon wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:53 am

Jobbo wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:39 am The CTEK ones with reconditioning function are excellent - plus that generally comes as standard with a charger intended for larger capacity batteries. Don't need to go too mad though; the MXS 5.0 is what I have and it's been fine for the batteries in old larger-engined BMWs. I thought that model had been replaced, or at least renamed, but you can still get it new it seems.

What's the difference with the CT5 Start/Stop? I see it does one more battery type (EFB) but how do I know if I need that one over the MXS? Merc has stop/start, Yeti doesn't.

See what battery your cars use, standard, agm or efb. Efb is the standard stop/ start type, less expensive than agm, so a merc might be more likely to be agm ( the mito is efb )

Thanks. Yup, looked under the cover and the Merc is indeed an AGM (VRLA) type, so oddly that means it'll take the older MXS charger rather than the newer more expensive CT5 model.

Just to wrap this up - I went for the CTEK CT5 in the end.

Couple of reasons - It includes the charging of EFB batteries (and my brother's CMAX has that type and I want to be able to help out the whole family over the next few weeks if neccessary). Also despite the MXS claiming it does AGM batteries (like in the Merc) there's a few threads on the Merc forums where it claims that the 15.8v de-sulphurisation process that it does is bad for AGM batteries, but the CT5 specifically doesn't do that >15v cycle so it's kinder to it.

£79. Not cheap but probably wise to have something universal.