Which car / motorbike battery charger?

Was thinking of getting a charger for the bike battery and now although my car is pretty new the battery has died. So am looking for a one stop solution really that won't cost a fortune as I'm guessing an optimate or similar wont handle a larger car battery (12v 45ah 400cca)?

[fizzwheel]

I lent my optimate to a friend whose battery on his Citereon C3 was completely flat. I said that it might not work, but he left it connected for a few days and it got charge back into the battery enough so he could start the engine.

Bearing in mind the battery was so flat the central locking didnt work or anything, it was completely dead.

I used it on my old Fiesta as well, again battery flat as a pancake and it put enough charge into it to start the engine.

The central locking is gone in my car now. It's completely flat which is incredible for a 2 year old car that hasn't been used for two weeks.

Borrowing a trickle charger off the in law for the time being but would be interested to hear what I'd be able to use. Is the Optimate too slow to charge car batteries then? it says on the site they can handle up to 50Ah and mine is 45Ah

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by sauluk

The central locking is gone in my car now. It's completely flat which is incredible for a 2 year old car that hasn't been used for two weeks.

Borrowing a trickle charger off the in law for the time being but would be interested to hear what I'd be able to use. Is the Optimate too slow to charge car batteries then? it says on the site they can handle up to 50Ah and mine is 45Ah

I used my optimate on my MX5 battery, in fact Mazda actually recommend charging at a slow rate so you don't damage the battery, so the Optimate is ideal. Shame I don't have power in the garage, so I keep having to take the bloody thing off!

[embee]

I'd recommend the "Accumate" rather than "Optimate", it is a little older in design spec but seems to have a higher current capacity for batteries up to 75Ah or thereabouts, so suitable for most car applications. Same price as the Optimate, give or take.

I've recommended them to a couple of people I do work for and they've both worked fine, one for a Lotus Elise which is off road during winter, and another with a small Iseki diesel tractor/mower which hardly gets used in winter.

I have the latest optimate 4 and it works very very well on the bike. It was a replacement for the Oxford Maximiser which seemed to fail on me and replacement battery was needed. Since then, I have used the Maximiser on a car battery and it works great - the display get a little blurred after a short while, but clear enough to see the progress.

Out of the 2, I'd say the Optimate, no display to mess up, just indicator lights.

Yep I forked out the bucks for an optimate4 after my battery died in Winter.

Bear in mind I have some cheapo battery that was out in 0 to sub-zero temperatures. I came back to uni after xmas, left the optimate charging my battery overnight, and now its starts with such ease every time (touch wood).

Worth the money, although I've only ever tried the optimate, so a bit biased.

I have this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Oxford-Maximis...item56399ce3dd

Which has a mode for bikes, cars and one other that I can't remember right now!

Doing a pretty good job so far!