C5ALIVE Forum
C5 Help => Tried & Tested : Share your good,or bad, experiences => Topic started by: Karl on 19, October, 2010 - 10:27:49
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Lidl are selling battery chargers that are similar to Optimate chargers, but at a fraction of the cost - about £13 :). It has various modes; 6v,12v ,car and motorcycle as well as maintenance and dead battery recovery functions. I tested it out on a dead battery, but it didn't manage to raise it back to life. No great surprise there really,since if it did work I guess the battery manufacturing indusrty would close down ;D.
I've so far tried it out on some small scooter batteries, a type 063 car battery and a Halfords Leisure battery. Seems to do the job ok, with the voltmeter showing all the test batteries were charged up nicely.
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i257/1stbooboo/c5aliveinfo004.jpg)
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I zoomed out and bought one yesterday.Tried it on the 40Ah 12V car battery removed from a Fiat for not starting it, over a year ago; but charged a few times since(last time in June) to use whilst re-building my C5 and then left to
rot since buying a new 049 battery in July.Anyway all that happenned after switch-on and setting for mode 4 was a clicking noise, green led flashing and red led on.After half an hour or so clicking stopped, and even after 3 hours green led was still flashing:an ideas, as instructions don't mention this? Will put a volt meter(left at work last night) on it tonight. This may be the pulsing mode whilst bring battery from >7.5V to >10.5V or it may of course mean <7.5V and goodnight Vienna for the battery.
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Last Sun Aldi had one with a digital bar graph on it iirc.
i already have maintenance trickle chargers for the motorbikes, so did not pick one up.
would think great for keeping a C5 battery topped up and healthy during the 'closed' season, but i would be surprised any good with a stone flat battery and recharging it, unless you have a month or 2 to spare ;D
i keep being tempted by a solar charger though for the leisure batt's, use it then with LV lamps for the odd power cut we get :-\
Alan
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I am going to try charging my dead Sinclair battery with the Lidl charger by starting at 6V as it is showing 5.83V on the meter then once it it at 7.2V switching to 12V charging.
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Hi! All,
I am using a 15 amp straight charger, and leaving it on as much as possible. Not sure if iam overharging, and if this will damamge the battery?
I read that 15 amps is highest rate that can be left on for continuos charging/
I am using an 85 amp leasure battery and a normal car battery.
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Hi joggaeco,
You don't recharge a car lead acid battery with more than 6 Amps as they are only constructed to charge with a small charge over a longer period.
Depending on the leisure battery this may be able to be charged to 8 Amps.
Golf buggy batteries can be charged at a higher rate and also like to be done at a slightly higher voltage (15 - 16 volts).
You need to check the manufacturers literature on recharging their own brand of battery as you will be reducing the battery life dramatically.
Lance
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Think it's a trip out to Lidl next week for me.
Cheers for the loan of the charger to get me started Karl.
Neil
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Don't think they do them anymore , that was over a year ago ... 8)
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DOH!
That's me not checking on the date of the postings & attempting to catch up with all the NEWS on here after a month's absence!
Neil
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...popped into my local Lidl last week and they were still selling them ;)
The only snag with Lidl is that they sell stuff in batches, so once sold out you have to wait until the next batch arrives which can take several weeks. You can seldom guarantee a particular product will always be on the shelf so might be worth checking every now and then :)
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I'll have to pop down there soon then :)
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These battery chargers came back in stock on Thursday at 12.99.
I've got one ;D
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...this little charger from Lidl is still going strong !
Not bad for such a cheapie 8)
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I could do with them coming back in stock :p
I have my 75ah battery, I have the C5 coming on Sunday - I just lack a charger O_o
In a moment of logical thinking, I thought my powered chair's charger would do, after all it's 6amp, then I remembered it's also 24V...
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This charger is still going strong. I've certainly had my monies worth out of it so far 8)
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Similar charger in Aldi this week £13.99 with a three year guarantee
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Hi,
I don't know if Lidl UK has the same system as here in Germany, here Lidi, and Aldi, have online shops. I've just checked the Lidl page and these chargers are listed.
Hope this may be of some help.
Cheers. KarlG.
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..and this charger is still doing its thing. Working fine 8)
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They have them in at my local lidl again, saw them today but didn't notice the price.