aldi charger

Lidl certainly do a quite superb charger which will attempt to recover a sulphated battery, charge it, then go to a maintence charge. For about 13 quid. Output is a genuine 4 amps which will charge most overnight. Others sell the same thing for 40 quid.

Lidl give it a 3 year warranty. Which means in practice they will refund if it fails, rather than replace. Think Aldi are the same. But you will need the receipt.

I got one, about 13 quid, seems to work fine, multi stage and can be left on indefinitely, nice voltage display and level of charge. I assume it would help with a sulphated battery, but the only real cure is replacement. It does not restart charging if power is interrupted . Good value for money.

In message , Mrcheerful writes

I've got one too, been fine for me, think it's waterproof or at the very least splashproof too.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Stephen saying something like:

The Aldidl charger is very good for the price - quite reliable and can be left on unattended (barring power cuts, when it resets to zero state) and will tend the battery indefinitely. There is a very slight attempt to de-sulphate, but it's not much. For proper de-sulphation, you need to look here

where you can buy a kitor ready-built unit for not much dosh.Alternatively, shell out more and get a Megapulse...

To try and recover a sulphated battery just needs enough volts to push some current through it. So any old low curent DC supply that can manage

30 volts or so will do - provided it is protected against overload, since as the sulphation goes the impedance of the battery will drop dramatically. Pulsing is just a way of doing this cheaply - but charging you extra money for 'technology'.

A dose of magnesium sulphate is also helpful. Make sure it's 100% BP and not a commercial laxative preparation which tend to have additional stuff in them.

Thanks. I had heard of the accumate and optimate chargers on this newsgroup before. I thought the accumate was for bikes and the optimate for cars? These are supposed to be great for sulphated batteries. Perhaps this is a gimmick not worth having because as others have said, a sulphated battery is probably living on borrowed time.

When you say the aldi charger only makes a slight attempt, is that a criticism of just the aldi charger or does the same apply to the accumate/optimate and all other chargers in that group? I'm just thinking this in light of Dave's reply that they charge more for fancy chargers with fancy technology?

Thanks, Stephen.

Thanks. So there's really no need to spend lots of money on the optimate and the like then?

Is pulsing a faster way to recover the battery perhaps or is there no advantage?

Sorry to keep going on about the optimate, I don't have any link to the company. I did wonder about buying one to keep the battery topped-up on an infrequently used car. It sounds as though I could save some money by just using any old trickle charger for this purpose.

One of the things that attracted me to the *mate brand was they seemed to supply kits to make it easy to charge the battery in situ. OTOH I guess this would just be a small lead with crocodile clips at the battery end running to a discrete socket in the bumper.

I wonder if it is a good idea to have a charging lead always connected? I hope it would be fused near the battery to avoid short circuiting problems! I wonder whether it does use croc clips or whether it is fixed to the battery terminal because wouldn't croc clips require you to lift the cover over the positive terminal, which again introduces another slight risk of short circuiting when you drop your spanner on the battery!

Thanks, Stephen.

IMHO, the Aldi/Lidl one is exactly the same electronics wise as those similar ones costing 4 times as much. And as such incredible value. Cheap enough to build in to the vehicle.

IMHO, nothing will fix a knackered battery.

All my cars have solar chargers hard wired through a plug and socket to the battery, and the panel facing South at around 30-40 degrees elevation.

Just have to remember to disconnect before starting the car, as per instructions. Don't know why though, as they all seem to be diode protected, and shorting the output to measure max. current doesn't seem to do any harm.

HTH

David

IMHO, no. You're paying for a brand name and the advertising costs.

It's only of any possible use on a battery that may well be already knackered. Not needed on one which is simply low in charge.

Not quite. There is a difference between a 'trickle' charge and one which maintains the battery.

That's what I have on the SD1. A Lidl charger mounted in the spare wheel well, and fed through the rear fusebox, which is permantly live. A 'Buccaneer' waterproof mains connector under the rear bumper. Only snag with the Lidl charger is you have to press a button to switch it on. It will then charge the battery and change to maintenance mode which can be left on indefinitely.

My guess is any charger which doesn't need switching on but will start charging as soon as mains is applied might also drain some current from the battery when not charging. The Lidl one doesn't. It is totally isolated from the battery by some form of relay when not powered up.

Basically, many of these 'battery conditioners' are essentially just a low current SMPS with some extra electronics. So should sell for little more than the average wall wart of the same output. But are several times that price.

I just tried the aldi one on a very flat battery, it read that it had 2 volts and said error. So I took the battery back and got a new one, the new one was ten pounds cheaper than the refund!! Bosch with a four year guarantee from Costco. When I get the time I will measure the current that a C-tek absorbs when connected but with no mains supply. Anyone know how much power a Tracker device absorbs all the time? because the battery I just replaced should not have gone to absolutely dead like that in the two months it has been out of use.

I've a feeling few modern cars with toys have a battery size that will last two months unused.

I read elsewhere that BMW won't entertain a battery warranty claim if the car is unused for more than three weeks. The computer logs such things.

I don't think I've ever bought a bad product from Aldi. My favourite supermarket. I have a set of their ratchet spanners, which, while not exactly snap-on, work well enough and haven't broken in the 18 months I've owned them. At £14 for 5 that's good value.

[...]

Lots will struggle after two weeks...

Chris

Using the solar chargers, many times the cars have gone 6 weeks no problem. Even with the alarm, immobiliser, radio, c/l controller and tilt sensor being maintained. Even enough to turn the engine over for 15 seconds without the fuel pump energised, to allow oil pressure to build, before firing the engine.

David

Quantity does influence that though.

You can get the odd highish voltage pulse back from the starter when you stop cranking. BUt as with most things I've never worried about it & never had a problem.

Maybe. But it doesn't follow the higher priced item is also the best quality.