Orbital batteries and ctek chargers

[BigDon]

Ive got an orbital AGM battery in my E9. Now i dont drive it much and it lives on a charger currently a projecta 2700 charge and maintain.

The battery has been progressively losing the ability to take/hold a charge and is about 5-7 years old now.

I think that the projecta may not have been up to charging it properly and has shortened its life.

Does anyone have any experience with the ctek chargers they have ones that will charge AGM batteries and the reviews are very good.

Also does anyone know of a place pref in WGN that can do a new orbital at a decent price.

[sergei]

I have been told by Exide that maintaining charge on one of those batteries in long term will kill it. I have killed a perfectly good Exide Orbital battery just by maintaining charge on it. What you meant to do is leave it disconnected or use it (ie start engines occasionally with it).

You can try to discharge it (not completely) via moderate to heavy load, then charge with good charger to see if it improves.

[Akane]

The thing with Absorbed Glass Mat is that they ain't really designed for short heavy loads like starting a car. They're more for house alarms, backups for cell stations, flood lights, and motorbikes............

[sergei]

The thing with Absorbed Glass Mat is that they ain't really designed for short heavy loads like starting a car. They're more for house alarms, backups for cell stations, flood lights, and motorbikes............

Not entirely true. Automotive AGM are specifically designed for short high current load.

[Akane]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRLA_battery

They don't like to be overcharged too.

[sergei]

My point was that AGM batteries are perfectly fine for starting purposes if they have been designed as such.

[hsmidy]

ctek chargers are great...but be warned our workshop brought one as we have a heap of gel cell bats etc......we killed the charger in a month.

great when they work and probly better suited to home use.

[BigDon]

Thanks guys.

So the idea is to cycle them up and down rather than keep topped up? that does make sense given they are designed for cycles but the automotive ones must be designed to keep full charge as that would be the case in a daily driver.

The ctek chargers I believe have a cycle where they let the battery discharge and then top it up, maybe this is to combat the above.

I heard ctek has very low return rate. Ill get it from a shop like ripco so if it fails they will have to replace it.

[B1NZ]

usually if you get 5-7 years out of a battery you are doing pretty well, Prob just at the end of it's uselfull life IMO