Every time car chargers come up we get the same set of questions

As the poster above hints have a look at the CTEK site for the Dogs danglies when it comes to chargers, .
These(lidl/aldi) are clones that do enough for most people at sensible prices.
connect and forget till you need the car.

this is a 3.8A your closest CTEK is the MXS 3.8(£40-£50),
a good mid ranges is the 5A version MXS 5.0(£40-£60)

For more rapid charging you need a different product with higher currents, not all are connect and forget.

if you want to start you car now you don't need a charger you need another battery(car or battery pack starter).

they come with a​ 3 year guarantee, I've had the aldi and lidl version of this for about 5 years with no problems, use them both regularly for motorhome.

I've had 2 of these over the past 5 or 6 years both failed after 2 years after a handful of uses. Would never buy again.....

Thx

is this suitable for charging quad bike batteries ?

thanks for the car stuff reminder ,
I'll get some wiper blades and bulbs

..Aldi do reduce these, if your near an Aldi, may be worth popping in, my local had them yesterday at £10.99...but have seen as low as £6.99...
Not sure on quality, but usual 3 years of warranty, can't really go wrong

Would these be OK for a Battery on a 1.9 Diesel Car does anyone know ?

This will be a white-good rebranding, does anybody know which one it is? The most important part is how fast it charges and it doesn't say.

Approximately how long does it take to charge a flat battery?

Quite a slow output voltage. Think it read max 3.8a so will take a good 24hrs plus to fully charge a decent sized car battery. Personally would spend a bit more for one with a higher rated output. Plenty circa 20/25 quid on amazon. Maypole to a 12v output with fast charge which is pretty good. Not sure if amazon was also still doing 15% off first car product orders.

Doesn't the alternator charge the battery whilst the car is running anyway?

I've had 2 of these over the past 5 or 6 years both failed after 2 years after a handful of uses. Would never buy again.....

Nice find op,slow charge is best for battery life, heat added :smiley:

Will this jump start a car then?

No. It's a charger.
I have one and it works well. It will not recover a really dead battery, some of the chargers claim that they will. Then again this is cheap.

The product needs to be reliable. If my car has an unexpected battery problem, I need the charger to get the car going.
The guarantee is of very low importance at that point, since Lidl/Aldi are not going to send a drone out with a replacement charger on 1 hour delivery.

My basic 30 year old 4A charger still works, however the mains supply voltage has been cut from 240 to 230v, which means the output voltage is down.
So I purchased the most basic Ring branded 6A charger I could find, on the basis there is less to go wrong.

​i was replying to someone who said theirs had failed after 2 years and pointing out I had used a lidl and a aldi one for roughly 5 years with no problem. neither of these would be suitable if you have a flat battery and your in a rush, the one you mention wouldn't either in that situation.
if your wanting to start a completely dead battery in a hurry you need something like the lidl one I posted a while back at £35 which does the job, the equivalent at amazon costs way more. it charges at 12amp and boosts 75amp.
these chargers are designed to slow charge and maintain batteries not get you going with a dead battery quickly.

I have one they will not charge a dead battery.I had an alternator short out inside and totally flattened the battery,Left it on charge overnight and nothing still dead.Jumped the car off and drove around for 20 minutes and the battery was fine.I wouldn't buy another one better with the old type.

I have a very big jump starter, it works every time, it's called, my other car.
I have had 2 of these battery chargers 3 to 4 years now, they have been used loads of times, they are well built and good quality. If you use them as per the instructions they will do what they were made for. If mine broke I would buy another one. Great for the price. Lidl often have an equivalent. Thanks for posting, heat.

I use 2 of these 24/7 for 3 years with no issues at all. The one they are selling now has an actual voltage display so I will go and grab the new variant.

​I bought one from lidl recently for around this price and looks like the same one.

That most certainly does charge a flat battery. It has a pulse setting and it saved me having to buy a new battery. Absolutely brilliant.

Is slow, took over 24 hours to sort it out and then charge but was brilliant

I was aware about the warranty. The first died after 3 years, the second after about two but a warranty doesn't charge a battery and on the odd occasion I needed to use it, I needed it to work. Mucking about with refunds didn't solve my battery problem - it was more the inconvenience factor rather than loss of money I was bothered about.

They offer a lot for the money which is why I bought a second. But with two failing I would have been a fool to buy a third.

£17.99 in Northern Ireland :/

It's £13.99 with 3 year warranty, what other car charger can you get for for under £14 with a 3 year warranty

I have one of these. It errors on a completely flat battery which makes it a bit useless.

My journey to work is 2.5 miles. The battery maintains it's charge and lasts for years.

Of course, some people make silly 0.5mile journeys, even when the weather is nice & they might benefit from walking. I guess the really short journeys might cause problems for the health of the battery & the health of the driver.

Picked up the battery / alternator tester today for £2.99, what a steal. Oh how I could have done with this in my toolbox years ago. Lidl specials are great for showing me things to buy that I never knew I needed in the first place!

18 quid at the lidl local to me in belfast!!

yes, its as if there are additional costs to get things over there or something, how unexpected.

This all good information apart from your timings. Where are you getting 7 hours from :o

Change that to about an hour max. And any trip longer than say 10minutes will enough to replace the charge you used to start it. Unless you literally go a mile or less everytime you drive you are fine not worrying about flat batteries if it's relatively new. Cheap ones generally start dying every 3-4 years.

These products are for when you've left stuff on, or you don't drive your car for weeks/months at a time. Anything else and your car or battery has something wrong with it. If you're driving so little it does not get enough charge you should be walking!

Would not leave this powered for longer than needed, unless the house value dropped to much recently.

gutted....my local lidl in haverfordwest is being knocked down today to rebuild it double the size. it's gonna be ages!!

I very much doubt you could fully charge a flat battery (say of 50amp hour capacity) in an hour of driving. Even if the alternator could push out 50amps to the battery (ie no lights, fans, heaters on), the battery just won't take the charge that quickly. Maybe 7 hours of driving was a bit of an overstatement, but it would need a lot of driving, at a decent engine speed.
My point about the battery running down more over the winter though is dependent on how you use your car obviously. It's not just short journeys, batteries lose a shocking amount of charge just sat on the driveway. With no usage, a car battery can flatten in as little as 2 weeks of none use (some Mercedes were notorious for this).
The car's alarm and locking system drawing just one watt for example, will equate to 50 amp hours in 600 hours (25 days)
Leave the boot open slightly (as i've done on numerous occasions!) and a 5w courtest light in the boot will flatten a half full 50amp hour battery in about 2 and a half days.
So yes if you use your car every day in the winter and not for short journeys, you should be fine, but not everyone does, we are lucky we can walk most places / use the train so many weeks the car will literally just get used on a Saturday for a trip to the shops, which in the winter isn't enough to keep the battery in a decent state, which does shorten its life considerably, even though it may seem fine in everyday use. By keeping it topped up I've managed 7 or 8 years out of a cheapish battery, so these chargers can easily pay for themselves.

Which one is that then ?

I have 3 of the led lights version (as well as a CTEK 50) which I've modified with cigarette adapters for conditioning purposes. They are awesome for the price but 2 of these LCD versions I bought failed within a couple of Months. BTW these will only attempt to charge a battery that has at least 7 volts (unlike my £60 CTEK 50) but you can start it off with an old type charger - and if you manage to get it above 7v - you can let the LIDL one take over.

Does anyone have the link to the one that can start a car with a dead battery in addition to a general car battery charger?

I only use the car 2-3 times per month as I live in London.

Every time car chargers come up we get the same set of questions

As the poster above hints have a look at the CTEK site for the Dogs danglies when it comes to chargers, .
These(lidl/aldi) are clones that do enough for most people at sensible prices.
connect and forget till you need the car.

this is a 3.8A your closest CTEK is the MXS 3.8(£40-£50),
a good mid ranges is the 5A version MXS 5.0(£40-£60)

For more rapid charging you need a different product with higher currents, not all are connect and forget.

if you want to start you car now you don't need a charger you need another battery(car or battery pack starter).

Sorry but totally disagree. And I have fairly good knowledge of fixing parasitic drain on cars .My main car pulls close to 1A for the first 30 seconds after you lock it. It then drops to around 0.08A for the next four hours before it goes to deep sleep which is 0.023A. Using your example that should run for a couple months. If you're pulling more than 0.1A on any reasonably normal car you've got parasitic drain and you need to fix that rather charging batteries. Its usually quite easy.
As an example of a newer car my dad's Mercedes A class 2013 (63) draws 0.4amps when in sleep.

And yes i'm sure you could keep charging an old (dead) battery enough for a few starts (before charging again). The main sympton of a dyign battery is not holding charge when the car is off for longer than a few days. If you're charging it regulary it wouldn't get to this.

Seriously, if your using your car like normal, then just use it as designed. Car manufacturers would design them for home charging otherwise. For reference I buy the standard halfords/eurocarparts battery for my cars and they usually last around 5-6 years average (the ones that are 3 year warranty)

is this still on guys? i don't want to travel to lidl and find out the offer has expired.

Loads left in Preston west strand store

Plenty in Edmonton Green too. Thanks OP :smiley: