Looking for advice re battery/trickle chargers

[fendervg 32]

With the car being used less frequently over lock down and working from home, I'm getting tired of pulling a flat battery every six weeks or so and having to charge it in the house and then put it back in - so I'm looking for something that will let me attach two ring terminals and a socket lead to the battery in the car and then be able to run a lead through the window out to the car where I can hook it up to maintain and charge the battery? I already have a small charger I use indoors, and a larger unit that can be used to jump start the car from the mains.

After some quick research,  I'm leaning towards one of the Optimate 2/3/4 units, as they seem to come with these kind of leads and have good reviews, but would welcome anyone sharing their experiences and suggestions. Solar is not a runner, but tempting.

Many thanks.

[Dox 23]

Most who’ve used them recommend the Aldi ones. Have you thought about a solar charger?

[1xshaunx1 27]

CTEC do a good range, I think I’ve got the 10amp one but you wouldn’t need that for trickle charging only. They also have a reconditioning battery setting, well mine does. Clever stuff when you read up on them. 

[Kempy 0]

I have a ctek mxs. I recommend that. My battery was pretty flat so I boosted it on my other car recently then chucked this on and worked a treat to get the right voltage and keeps it at the right level now. 

[fendervg 32]

Thanks for the feedback guys - I checked out the CTEK, but they were hard to get locally at a decent price, but look good - in the end I ordered an Optimate 5 (4 amp charging and conditioning/maintenance) with the battery terminal fly leads and extension, so I will let you know how I get on with that. - hopefully I might be able to run the charging socket from the battery down to the passenger tow eye cover...

[Keyo 47]

Aldi one never had any issues - it has reverse polarity protection thats the only essential thing I was looking for to protect the car from me !. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Keyo

[Cressa 44]

I was going to buy a  Ctek but saw the£15 aldi one, so thought it was worth a try. Never had a flat battery since. Great little charger. Wish I could get another

[fendervg 32]

Yeah, checked Aldi web site, but nothing at the moment. I'll pick one up as a spare the next time it comes around based on the goof feedback.

[fendervg 32]

Just to update this - in the end I went for an Optimate 3 unit with the fly-lead connector with ring terminals directly attached to the battery (about 50cm  long) and an extension lead to pass it out the front window of my house - works a treat, and does a gentle charge-up and maintenance cycle after that. I have much more powerful chargers for when a battery is out of the car that I can use indoors, but this is just to make sure it doesn't go flat over the course of several weeks (I know of course that it's a heinous crime not to sue your Corrado at least once a week! I believe the warrant is in the post.)

They also do more powerful units, but this one suited me as I don't need dual setting CAN bus stuff etc. I've ordered a longer fly-lead (100cm) and the plan is to route that from the battery to the tow-eye cover on the passenger side.

In the end, after lots of looking on-line and dealing with orders returned by customs, I found them at a motor bike shop around the corner from where one of my kids does gymnastics - most other places were out of stock. A great stroke of luck, and maybe worth remembering as these things were originally designed for bikes, so hence a bike shop being a good place to find them. I wasn't impressed with anything I saw in Halfrauds, and the bonus was that the above setup was much cheaper than on-line, even without the postage.