Product Review - Ctek 4003 Battery Charger
With the recent purchase of an electric motor and deep cycle battery for the tinnie, we need to get ourselves a good battery charger. With the budget well and truly stretched we had to find a charger that would be of good quality, but at the right price. Most of the stores in town recommended the Ctek range of chargers. These chargers are incredibly intelligent 8-stage chargers designed specifically for lead-acid batteries. These chargers can also charge gel and AGM batteries. The charger comes with a 5-year warranty and represents the latest in charging technology to give you maximum charge and maximum life out of your battery.
The charger is extremely compact and comes with both battery clamps and a set of leads that can be permanently attached to the battery and simply plugged in and out to allow easy charging.
The 4003 is brand new for 2010 and is a 12v 4A charger. There are more powerful chargers in the Ctek range, but this one represents pretty good value. I made my purchase from an ebay seller by the name of 4wdextreme. It cost me $114 express post deliver to my door. I ordered late on a Thursday and unit was posted on Friday. It arrived to the door on Tuesday. They have the 7A version for $205 and the 15A for $285. The 4A version took about 36hrs to get our 95Ah deep cycle to 100%. But it should get to an 80% charge in about 20hrs. And thats fine for us, we are only using the boat on the weekends.
Technical Specifications
| Electrical Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Voltage | 220-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz. |
| Current | 0.6 A rms (at full charging current) |
| Start Current | < 25 A |
| Charge voltage | 12V, 14.4 V or 14.7V |
| Charging current | 4 A max. |
| Ambient temperature | - 20°C to + 50°C |
| Charger type | 8 - Step fully automatic |
| Type of Batteries | All types of lead-acid batteries |
| Battery capacity | 1.2 till 120 Ah |
| Cooling | Natural convection |
| Back current drain | 1.3 mA |
| Ripple | Max 50 mV rms, max 0.13 A |
| Mechanical Characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 165L x 61W x 38H mm |
| Weight | 0.5 kg |
Bulk Charging Time
| Battery Capacity - Ah | Time to 80% charge - h |
|---|---|
| 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 10 |
| 14 | 3 |
| 20 | 4.5 |
| 50 | 11.5 |
| 80 | 18 |
| 120 | 27 |