🔴 CTEK MXS 5.0 Battery Charger Failed Repair - No.1202

[@fmashockie]

Definitely taking notes! Your videos flow so well. But these types of repair prevention practices really need to stop. They are found across all industries (not sure why only certain ones like agriculture and big tech get the attention). In my main job working as a in-house engineer for a biotech company fixing all their lab equipment, >90% of the 400 pieces of equipment I am responsible for, the manufacturers refuse my access to service manuals/schematics. We've really hit a new low when manufacturers of dinky chargers like this are scratching the part #s off ICs - seriously?! Thats one of the reasons I made my channel - to help others who might be in a position like myself with limited resources. Thanks for all your content!

[@turboslag]

Glad I've avoided buying a Ctek charger, my gut instinct told me they were over priced, this vid has confirmed that! The construction is very disappointing with no or very limited ventilation which means everything is going to run hot. Those dodgy looking caps don't appear to be quality parts either. I have several Optimate chargers which are at least 25 years old, some older, and they still work perfectly. I also have a number of cheapos from Aldi and Lidl, and they work as well as the Optimates at a quarter of the price. One of the Aldi units is on maintainance charge duty for most of the year, and has been doing that for 10 years, no problem. The only thing I don't like about this and most other smart chargers is that they cut off if there is a power cut and don't automatically resume charging when power comes back on, they have to be manually reset. The old Optimates just resume charging. Just to confirm, the Ctek and other smart chargers have to see a minimum battery voltage before they will give an output, some even check the state of the battery before they will charge. I thinks that's by checking the internal battery resistance, if it's not within it's program spec then no charge. So they may not be fooled by an external power supply.

[@tonep3168]

These are not cheap! This brand is premium, at least in price. They perform well when they work, but this fault is very common with the lower end ones. I have an 8amp one, and it’s nearly 10 years old, and works great. I also have a 25amp one that is about 7 years old and powers our caravan.

[@johnshaw359]

I quickly learned to use my CTEK MXS 5.0 upside down, as it cooks itself the right way up at full load, very poor thermals to put caps right next to a barely capable heat sink, they greased the 'O' rings though as mine had the same greasy stuff when I opened it.

[@MartinE63]

You might call it cheap but they are anything but! Truly appalling build quality for a premium priced product.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

Annoyingly I bought one last week

[@colinreid7305]

In my opinion any company that removes the identification from chips should not be supported. The quality vs price of the unit is appalling.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

I just bought one of these last week as the battery on my Porsche goes flat after a couple of weeks. They do have battery protection on them and I think they do need to detect the battery. These are quite expensive units and I am concerned about the quality after watching the video.

[@orion310591RS]

Well you can always get laboratory&research grade equipment, for even more $ and quality. You should check fuses for parasitic drain on your car.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

@@orion310591RS no that’s just how porches are. Lots of electrical and small batteries

[@bblod4896]

Time to ⚰️🪦 that charger. Thanks for the video. 😎

[@davidclarke6658]

I have a MXS 5.0 and its working, but you can here a continuous noise coming from it after 9 months and apparently I'm not the only one with this issue with the MSX 5.0. It's not loud, but you notice it. The older MXS 7.0 I had started playing up with the dreaded continuous relay clicking sound which was a common issue with the MSX 7.0. The couple of pro 25's I have are ok so far. But there seems to be some quality control issues with these, and they are sold as a premium product.

[@NaviPaslaugos]

​@@davidclarke6658 did you repaired mxs 7 that clicking sound? I get clicking sound and it basically do not charge.

[@davidclarke6658]

@NaviPaslaugos It was about 12 years old, I ended up throwing it out.

[@rafflesnh]

How on earth do you open the thing to get inside? One of the cables (mains power) is damaged and needs to be repaired. But I can't see any screws and it seems to be glued shut? 🤔

[@varnasfix]

Nice video! The problem should be with that sot-23 mosfet at one pin of the resistor.. Possibly we had the same problem: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWKwoomVf9GMoK8 If it had good capacitors it wouldn't have failed in the first place. Plus not only they use CrapXon capacitors the have a 16V capacitor on a rail that works at 15.8V in "Desulphation" and "Recond" modes! and even 14.4V is too high for a 16V cap.

[@GeorgeGraves]

I still don't understand why it takes so much circuitry to chagre a lead acid.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

They have a lot of reverse current protect and are suitable for long term trickle charging including gel batteries. Still protection obviously leaves something to be desired

[@tonep3168]

Because it is not all it can charge…. These chargers also have battery reconditioning etc…

[@orion310591RS]

5:24 - When you have exposed resistor like this, you can touch with probe, one leg, and then touch on middle of resistor, then you should be able to see roughly 1/2 of total ohms. Then you get idea what value it was.

[@hiteck007]

The problem with these things is that poor as the design is it outlasts the competition by years but as soon as the warranty is up it dies soon after. They got Failure designed into it to a fine art

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

Caps it's always the bl**dy caps. followed by the rest of the components :-0

[@simontay4851]

Thats stupidly over complicated for a bàttery charger. A schematic? Yeah, good luck with that. Even if you had a schematic, good luck understanding the circuit. Samxon caps are one of the worst. Ive replaced samxon caps before.

[@benbaselet2026]

Any old fool can cram a bunch of parts into a product. It takes a genius to get rid of most of them.

[@jvandervyver]

Good lord this product is badly built. And they charge a fortune for these too.