in the Leigh store WN7

4amp is very low.

This one may not be a wild goose chase, they have stock in Coulby Newham store. Hot from me.

Will have a look for this later, cannot go wrong for £4.25....HOT

more than 10 in great Yarmouth store

Will check out the Birmingham Spring Hill branch and update on availability

The web site still reports a price of £17, so this is a good deal.
This type of charger will not last very long if used often, but would be a very sensible thing to have at this price. Heat added.

Confirmed in Bedworth store too

Had these in Prescot Extra yesterday

5 left Camden Street B18

Yes it is, will take ages for a decent sized car battery (not sure about motorcycles etc), it's cheap but then that's for a reason. Buy something bigger than this.

Motorbike batteries are obviously smaller so this should be more than adequate, providing it's 12v not 6v of course.
In my mind the main point of a car battery charger is to top it up in winter, so yes a larger capacity would be quicker, but an overnight charge with this (10-12hours) should be enough to fully top up your average sized 50-60 ah car battery, which should help to extend battery life.

SFconvert is entirely tight, and Graham1979 is entirely wrong here. It is best to charge lead/acid batteries slowly and so avoid the heating effect of the current, so 4A is plenty big enough for a car battery. It is unlikely that a battery will be completely discharged, most likely it will get down to about 12.3V (about half charged) if used for short trips in the winter, and so be unable to start the engine (particularly on a cold morning when the oil's viscosity is greatest). Half a charge for a normal car battery of say 50 AH will take perhaps 6-8 hours (the impedance will increase is the charge builds up of course, so it will only charge at 4A early on), which can easily be achieved by an occassional overnight charge (as SFconvert says, this will extend the life of the battery, and also make sure it can start the car's engine on cold morns by keeping the voltage at 12.6V).

I bought one of these today, for use in emergencies at our holiday house. I'd be most happy using it to top up the battery on either of my cars (46AH and 60AH batteries), but I would not use it on my motorbike unless absolutely necessary. For my bike I use a 1-2A trickle charger (to avoid heat).

I'm very happy with my purchase for £4.25, it is plenty powerful enough (that is not the issue with it), but it is rather basic.

Your advice was misleading Graham1979, people do not need to buy a battery charger with a higher output. If they want to buy something better it would be sensible to invest in a one with better control systems, not more output.

Really as I have used a few of these cheap 4amp chargers over the years and they have all not given decent results. I had a battery run low on my current fiesta a while back, 36hours of a 4amp and still wouldn't fire up. I bought a Black and Decker one from B+Q which is 20amp and that sorted it no problem. Most decent battery chargers will charge to around 90% then the last 10% is done slowly as to not damaged the battery. The one I got does first 80% using direct current then 15% at a lower rate the the last 5 slowly and turns off when the battery reaches 100%. It also does a 90 second charge for a jump start and tests the alternator. But that was way more than this small thing. They've reduced it for a reason lets not forget.

I'm not sure advocating that people must buy a 20A charger costing £103.79 (like this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Decker-BDSBC20A-Battery-Charger/dp/B001TUYTM0 ) will gain much traction on this website, which is all about finding bargains.

If you find a Black and Decker BDSBC20A battery charger for £4.25 then by all means post it for the masses to see, but in the meantime the very basic 4A charger from Tesco will do the job 99% of the time in domestic situations, and remains a good bargain. I don't think Tesco is discounting this because it is rubbish, I think it has probably just changed to a different supplier or model.

Wild goose chase for me in the midlands.
Tried Cradley, Dudley and West brom. Saw a sticker in Cradley but no stock.
I ended up with this: Halfords Charger

WOW I only paid £45 for mine from B+Q. Tis a lovely looking thing. As far as price goes I am not sure what you consider a "hot deal" to be? I see lots of Audi's posted at much higher prices than Micra's, should people only post the cheapest model of everything?

My experience was a low 4amp charger was no use to me. I use my car on call outs and short notice work etc so I don't have 12 hours to sit round and wait for a trickle charger. I left one attached for a day and a half and still no joy. I also bought the separate jump starter, which is pretty awesome after a Ring one I had stopped working (a known battery issue). As I say each to their own, but a price is a price for a reason.

It's possible a smart charger has kicked it back to life, but I bought a smart charger a few years ago and it seems to have developed a fault and won't charge the battery much part 12volts, so I've reverted to an old style basic charger to keep an old car charged by just charging it every few weeks. If you can get one of these for just £4 it's certainly a useful thing just to have in your garage. I also use mine as a 12v power supply when I need to use the camping bed inflator thing indoors, or the paddling pool etc!

I'd tend to agree. I have a smart charger also, and generally it works fine but there is much more to go wrong. Occasionally I find a battery it does not like much and it changes (automatically) to a charging mode I had not intended. I usually revert to an old fashioned 4A charger at that point, which often solves the problem.

Hadn't thought actually that it could be the battery not liking the smart charger, I won't chuck the charger away yet!

It might be worth testing your smart charger on a battery you know to be good, and see if it reaches 12.6V.

I could do, though i think the battery I am charging is fine, it's only a couple of years old, it charges with my old non smart charger, measuring the voltage a day later it is showing 12.65v (which indicated it is ok). About 2 weeks later it is showing around 12.45V (battery isn't connected in the car) so not sure if that loss may be a little on the high side, but is 10-15% natural loss that significant over 2 weeks?

worth keeping in mind the 4amp charger isn't that good...

One left at St Neots as of now.