Charging Optima D27F with 5 AMP CTEK

[puck Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close puck]

Hi Guys

Just wondering if someone can confirm if a 5AMP CTECK will be sufficient to charge an Optima D27F battery? The battery is fine, however i have noticed my fridge is only lasting 4-8 hours.

I would like to use a CTEK MXS 5.0 to charge the battery and see if this helps.

Cheers

[drivesafe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drivesafe]

Hi Puck, that charger will charge your Optima, but if your battery is flat, your charger will need at least 14 hours to fully recharge your battery.

[120D4D Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 120D4D]

Agreed but that is a long time spent on bulk charging. Can you run it in your prado for a bit first to pump some real amps into it and then finish-off with the CTEK?

[RBJET Member Find all posts View Profile Close RBJET]

Why not just leave it on charge over night. Should be enough to op it up.

[drivesafe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drivesafe]

Hi Michael, it is actually quite a good practice to give a battery a long low current charge. The obvious draw back is the time it will take to fully charge a low battery.

The lower the charge current, the better the battery absorbs the charge, and you actually need less energy to fully charge a battery.

This last point is not that important when charging with a battery charger, but can be significant when using solar to charge a battery.

High current charging of any lead acid battery will waste a lot of energy, but this is a trade off when charging time is limited, like when driving.

[ejukated Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ejukated]

Only concern is the ctek may timeout and report the battery as faulty. In the past I've had to use a dumb old charger to put charge in then let the ctek finish off

[puck Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close puck]

Great thanks everyone, i got the CTECK and now charging the battery.

Cheers