One item I was lucky enough to purchase just before the lockdown was a CTEK battery charger to use on my cars. I was planning to get one anyway for my Alfa since I was planning to park it during the summer but it turned out to be useful for the lockdown as well. If you’ve ever traveled on a long trip and got back to find your car battery dead, it was most likely because your car managed to drain the battery while you were away or the battery just lost its charge. A battery charger is a great way of keeping your battery healthy when parked for long periods of time and the CTEK is one of the best money can buy.
What makes the CTEK so great is how it takes care of your battery with its 8 stage approach combined with the simplicity of it. All you need to do is connect one end of the CTEK to your car battery and then plug the other end of it into a regular wall power socket and the CTEK will automatically take care of the rest. It will run the battery through some tests, check the condition of it and then charge it. Once the battery is fully charged it then trickle charges your battery to keep it alive and healthy until you need to use the car.
I’m lucky that my building parking lot has power plugs in various spots so right before the lockdown I charged the batteries of my cars just so I know they’d have enough juice to last through the lockdown. The CTEK came with two different plugs to connect to my battery, alligator clamps which just easily clip on to the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and eyelets that screw onto the battery. I installed the eyelets on my Alfa since it would be using the charger the most while I used the alligator clamps for my FJ and Lotus. In the photo on top you’ll notice the CTEK placed outside the car but that was just for the photo. You can actually place it under the hood so that way it’s protected from the weather as well as from getting stolen. If you have your own private garage then you can just leave it outside or on the floor.
If you have a car or motorbike that you plan on parking for a long time it’s worth investing in a battery charger. The CTEK is one of the best you can buy and the MXS 5.0 model which is the one I got sells for KD39.5. If you’re interested in picking one up you can order one from the local dealer, their Instagram account is @ctek.kw and their website is audodepotkw.com
21 replies on “Review: CTEK MXS 5.0 Battery Charger”
Can’t you just disconnect your battery if you plan on travelling or not using the car for a long time?
yup you can, but:
1) most computers in new cars don’t like it when the battery gets disconnected.
2) the batteries in some cars are awkwardly located like under the seat or in the trunk so it would be difficult to disconnect. But those cars would also usually have easy to get to charging points under the front hood making it easier to charge the battery than disconnecting it.
3) even when you completely disconnect the battery, like all rechargeable batteries, the car battery starts losing its charge after awhile.
Just checked its out of stock @autodepot 🙂
oh damn, they were in stock this morning which is why i decided to post about it. i guess they had a limited number. once the lockdown is over you should be able to find it at Al Falah Carwash, they’re one of there retailers amongst other places.
Considering Kuwaits hot weather, is it normal for a carry battery to die once every year (give or take)?
I do drive it often
depends on the car and the battery make. i don’t think a new battery every year is not normal though, maybe try changing the brand or maybe there is an issue with the car causing the battery to die.
Yeah the first one died after a year, the second about a year and half. Both were kind of mediocre battery brands
I’m gonna change it to Motorcraft shortly and see how that goes
I drive a Kia Cadenza, which is quite reliable besides this battery issue and I got it checked out and there no issues draining the battery
My FJ has AC Delco which isn’t that great of a brand and it’s been like 3 years since I changed it. As long as its not some generic Chinese battery called Tiger or something you should be good.
Get them from http://batariyat.com, at least you will get 3 year warranty. In my experience most of them don’t make it past 18 months so that’s what I am planning to do when the time comes.
Thanks a lot Mark and Riba!
I am facing another problem. the long time parking have made my tyres go out of shape.flat spot. that’s what it says on google. has anyone else faced similar problems. they said it can solve by driving or we need to change tyres.
any one face this?
you shouldn’t get flat spots in just 3 weeks. maybe your tires are losing air? if you do have a flat spot it wouldn’t be that visible (as in from the side). There are ways of solving flat spots though:
– Over inflate your tires before parking the car for long (long as in a few months not a few weeks)
– Move car every now and then
– You can get flat-free ramps but that’s really meant for people who own cars they spend months not driving https://www.instagram.com/p/B2dkxdfpXuM/
I currently have 5 working Ctek chargers with outputs ranging from 5 to 25 AMPs. In addition I have two bad Ctek Chargers that are no longer working (5amp and 25amp). After years of using them and thinking they are premium charges since you pay a premium price, I am starting to change my mind. I like the range of accessories they have and their availability in Kuwait & online but they are not as smart as they are advertised. Opening one up would reveal that they are not built as they should be especially given the price point.
I’ll admit one 5 amp charger went bad after serving me for about 4 years. Maybe it was operator error since it was connected to a weak battery and disconnected from the wall. But that shouldn’t affect it in theory. The 25 AMP failed to charge two flat deep cycle batteries and went bad as well during that attempt. I’ve had it at that time probably more than a year. I have a dumb big cheap charger since 2005 that is still working fine. I was expecting Ctek to last longer than this.
I have a NoCo 10AMP charger in the mail now so it would be interesting to compare it to the Ctek ones I have. I hope it is better built and would handle some of the things I put the chargers through. Maybe I’ll start replacing the Ctek ones with NoCo as they fail.
So if anyone is in the market for a charger that would last a life time, maybe do some research before getting a Ctek. At this stage, I am starting to see them as disposable chargers. I will try to repair the bad ones but I don’t know how that would turn out or if it is cost effective.
I don’t think that’s a fair statement to make. You say you have 7 chargers, 2 aren’t working, 1 you take the blame for the other you don’t explain what’s wrong with it but that it stopped working after 4 years. But CTEK have 5 years warranty so if it failed after 4 years you could have just gotten a replacement.
I like NOCO and I have three of their battery boosters which I’ve posted about here before. I also like the local NOCO dealer since their prices are similar to amazon. They’re a good brand so you can’t go wrong with either of these two.
Thanks for your review mark!
You are right that it is not a fair statement if it came out as a conclusion or a scientific fact which it hardly is. That was not my intention and maybe I was not clear on that. I still haven’t completely made my mind yet, that is why I mentioned that one should make some research before buying. People can easily check out the more scientific reviews, repairs and tear-downs online to make up their mind.
+1 for the NOCO dealer, I bought a couple of boosters from them. Their prices are fair and they are very helpful.
By the way, It seems that not all Ctek chargers have 5 years warranty. I went back to check my dusty box of my charger hoping that I can get a replacement but it only has 2 years warranty. I snapped a picture of it in the link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hj7j2hcdaosyta/20200528_125230.jpg
hmmm i wonder if the 5 year warranty is a new thing and not a model thing?
I’m guessing you didnt find the Noco u wanted here right? Cuz i just checked their site and they only have the G750 https://shop.plot-95.com/
I now remember what happened with me actually. So originally I wanted CTEK, but then found out the old CTEK dealer (garage shuwaikh) stopped getting them and were now dealers of Noco. So then decided I’d get the Noco but only found the G750 which I didn’t want since I wanted a model I can hide in the engine bay and not have to plug into the wall. Then I found out Protech were now new dealers of CTEK, so since I like those guys as well I ended up back with CTEK
Ok just checked, ALL the CTEK’s are 5 years warranty except the 25A one is 2 years. Weird.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/2B906D0B-26C2-4B05-816B-0C31A8EA0252?ingress=2&visitId=1ab79710-ad80-474f-b277-ca1004a58262&ref_=ast_bln
You are right, I wanted a 10amp noco so I ordered it. Noco updated their chargers, from the outside at least I’m not sure about the inside. They made them smaller probably to compete with Ctek for customers who wanted a small package like you. Even if the dealer had the old version, I wanted to get the latest one to try out.
I don’t have the boxes anymore for my 5 & 20 amps Ctek chargers so I don’t know if they were also five years or this is a new thing. I guess they knew most users of the 25 amp, many are probably professional garages, are going to put it though its paces. They are marketing it as a charger for professional garages so it would have been nice to built it in a way that can have a 5 year warranty as well.
NOCO currently seems to have a 3 year warranty on their chargers. For some reason I can’t access their site from Kuwait so I can’t check for sure. I informed them about it and they seem to know but don’t know how to fix it.
https://no.co/
Why Ctek and not a Noco for a battery charger?
Is there a reason?
I’m a big Noco fan but decided on Ctek because:
– This is what they specialize in
– Found it locally and reasonably priced