CTEK MXS 5.0 Lead Acid car Battery Recondition Cycle test- Does it Work?

[@mreverybody1150]

I use one of these to top-up my car battery through the cigar lighter socket. Very handy.

[@razenby]

Good idea.

[@cncgeneral]

Current for the ctek is a maximum. If the battery doesn't want 5a it won't take 5a, you can't force current into something, it's dependant on the internal resistance. A better battery may take the full 5a during the bulk charge but you'd need a huge battery bank for it to need 5a during the float charge

[@razenby]

Who said it should provide 5A during the float charge? I certainly didn't because that would be ridiculous it would just gas and vent.

[@siulian]

Hi there, First of all thanks for the videos (i watch all of them related to CTEK). It is nice to see a battery charger tested and especially one which promise to recondition a battery. Since my car was not moved for a while(thanks to SARS-COV-2) the voltage dropped to 11.5 volts and car didn't started. I've put it on an old Lidl charger(Ultimate Speed ULG3.8) and car was starting again but I've saw the voltage is quickly going down and in few days(without using the car) and the problem returned. Of-course the solution was either to restore it or buy new one. This is how i almost spent the price of a battery to a charger that will most probably provide it hopes not nothing else. Thanks again to your videos and to opening my eyes. My conclusion is: if you want to restore a battery(this means at least to 70-80% of his original capacity) something more than a charger needs to be used.

[@razenby]

Thanks. I think you are correct.

[@reinhardtrippmacher8776]

That was good to watch and understand. Also thanks for the comments of others below. I cant put much more input in. The only thing i know is when my boss says "just charge that old batteries there!" ...it is not "just charging!" Thank you, fully appreciated that test and keep up the good work!

[@razenby]

Cool, thanks

[@twisteross]

Hi. I use the Recond mode on batteries that are already 7 years old and surprisingly the battery has been lying for two years recently (I thought it would be useless after such downtime). Today, with a greater frost -10 ° C, she fired without any problems. It charges another battery with it, ranging from 72 ah to 100 ah, and all of them in Recond mode manage without any problem. It is true that some batteries smaller than 100ah take longer to charge than the 72ah ones and I don't know what is causing it, but probably battery discharge. Only one of the batteries in Recond mode showed a red exclamation mark, thus Recond was unable to repair it and the battery will have to be thrown away.

[@razenby]

Lucky. My issue with CTEK is that they are overpriced for what is essentially Chinese poor quality design and build. The electronics and they fail a lot. keep it dry and don't leave it connected to the mains power to maintain batteries and don't let it cross the dew point else poof!!

[@paulanderson7796]

@@razenby I thought CTEK was Swedish. Or is that just a buy and sell on arrangement? Hard to know these days.

[@rednadz3889]

Hi there, I have 2 200AH (for 24V) 2 year old AGM batteries (really expensive) for powering our boat (sonar, lights, trolling motor). They are deep cycle batteries which should have the ability for 700 cycles when take 75% of capacity. In the last 2 years we have less than 60 cycles and take never more than 50% of the capacity (we have an victron battery monitor). The batteries are always loaded with a high quality charger and was loaded immediately after discharge (charger was checked by the battery manufacturer). Over winter the batteries was always at floating mode at the charger. At the first use of the boat this year, the batteries voltage dropped at a capacity use of about 15% (30AH). The manufacturer has no idea why and will not exchange the battery, because the guarantee was running out in spring. I build a battery capacity test station and uses my CTEK MSX 25 charger for testing the reconditioning (each battery individually) - because i want to know if it helps and i want to manage the energy when I'm on the water. After 3 reconditioning cycles the battery comes up to 55AH and then stuck. So i tried manually by a laboratory power supply to give the battery 15,5V and max. 1,5A for 30min. After i do this once, the last capacity test gives a result of >65 AH at both batteries. So my conclusion is, that the reconditioning of CTEK charger IS WORKING in some situations (i think when the battery is sulfated). I will try to do some more 30 min cycles with the laboratory power supply to see where i can bring the capacity of the battery or if i damage the battery. So we have ordered LIFEPO4 batterys with BMS to exchange the AGMs. I have only to keep the AGMs alive for some weeks.

[@razenby]

That is really interesting. Is that method referenced anywhere for AGM batterries?

[@rednadz3889]

Magic Smoke In the manual of the Ctek charger the recond mode is described (voltage and current). But i think the ctek do not push to the limit to not damage the batteries. So with a laboratory power supply i can adjust the voltage and the current and with a timer i can stop when i want to do it.

[@kerrynsteenson7941]

A

[@paulanderson7796]

I tried the RECOND mode on my five year old battery. It wasn't presenting any problems as the car is driven frequently. It was just out of interest. Nothing changed. I suppose that there was no problem to solve in the first place. I do connect the charger in "normal" periodically just to maintain charge. That's probably done more than the RECOND mode.

[@razenby]

Interesting.

[@jimmywhittington1054]

Worth the investment to recondition my own LP battery...

[@razenby]

Worth a try..

[@405line]

The lead acid battery works on lead sulphate being produced on both plates, when you charge a battery you are in effect desulphating it. You can discharge 12v lead acid to about 10 volts but any more than that and you cannot fully recover it due to too much lead sulphate being out of solution also/or if you let the lead sulphate harden over a week or so on the plates then you will need an industrial process to recover it. The recondition mode is to ensure that good cells are evenly charged much like lithium balancing it cannot bring back a left-discharged-for-3-months battery. The other thing to note is that the CTEK will give out the proper amperage if you remove the connectors on the leads and solder them together, I never saw stage 2 on my charger until I did that as I noticed the connectors got a bit warm while charging. Real enjoyed seeing how these things function. Tip: when you charge a lead acid leave the smart charger on for at least 48 hours after the indicator says it's fully charged as he current keeps on falling until 'saturation' at which point all of the lead sulphate is back in solution as sulphuric acid and distilled water. Keep up the good work.

[@razenby]

Almost. If the battery is left at low states of charge for extended periods of time, large lead sulfate crystals can grow outside the porous structure of the electrodes, which permanently reduces battery capacity. These larger crystals are unlike the typical porous structure of the lead electrode, and are difficult (impossible) to convert back into lead by charging. That is what is called a sulfated battery.

[@405line]

Yep, that's why you should keep lead acid topped up whenever possible. Looking at it from a chemical point of view is easiest for me and realizing that the solution wants to form lead sulfate on both plates if left to it's own devices over time.

[@ryshask]

One of the earliest things I heard about lead-acid batteries is.. If you ever fully discharge them you damage them... In UPSes that have lead acid they are only good for a couple full discharges. That's why these battery tenders are so crucial for preventing a full discharge.

[@razenby]

Yes, go blow 10.4V terminal voltage for even a short time will screw a battery, Battery minders are good providing the cure isn't worse than the disease. Note the tenders don't follow manufacturer's recommendations for maintaining batteries in storage. Show me the rewards and I'll show you the outcome.... None of the parties in this market can be trusted to tell the truth,

[@paulanderson7796]

I have a CTEK MXS-5 which I use periodically just to top off my car battery. I've never been near the RECOND mode and have no intention of doing so. It flies through 1 (desulfation) and 2(soft start) in seconds. 3 (bulk charge) can take anything from five minutes to five hours. Which suggests it is doing some monitoring. Step 4 (absorption - what ever that is) always takes exactly the same amount of time, about 5 hours. This is 105 Ah battery and I've not tried it with smaller batteries but I have an idea that step '4' is purely done on a time basis.

[@razenby]

Sounds about right. Its the analysis and remedial treatment step I don't trust and the high charge termination voltages on the ones I have tested.

[@paulanderson7796]

​@@razenby Once a lead battery has been deep discharged and left in that state it's finished (in my opinion). RECOND might get enough charge back in to start the car and get you down the garage to fit a new battery but beyond that I wouldn't trust it. What do you mean by high charge 'termination' voltage please? (I've no intention of even trying RECOND mode. Deliberately gassing a sealed battery sounds a bit risky to me).

[@razenby]

@@paulanderson7796 Yes absolutely. Good conclusion. no miracle cure as stated on the packaging. Time for some honesty from the charger manufacturers.

[@paulanderson7796]

@@razenby They're decent enough battery maintenance devices. Nothing special, just a couple of rungs up from the old linear bricks from Halfords. Lots of car makers badge them up and sell them as their own products.

[@camerdful]

I'm disappointed that it stopped absorption charge at ~1.8 amp charge current. Preferably it would hold 14.4 amps until that fell further

[@razenby]

Thanks for watching.

[@camerdful]

​@@razenby I wonder if you've thought about testing some other chargers as your testing is very informative. Battery Tender is a popular one. Optimate is supposedly a good one.

[@madcockney]

Whether desulphination works or not is a big debate. CTEK were one of the big promoters of this as well as one of the originators of the concept. However I have noted that many battery charger manufacturers are less excited by it now and at least one has even changed their charging strategy. My experience has been on 12 volt motorbike and car batteries. These have been either AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) or Calcium type. These are all lead acid batteries though not what are called flooded cell that I believe your test battery is. BTW don't confuse AGM with Gel batteries that many do. Most car companies using ICE power supply calcium batteries or AGM with their vehicles and state not to use flooded cell replacements due to the higher charging rates of the previous. That may also have something to do with what you noticed in the CTEK documentation. I have recovered batteries with desulphination but generally have had greater success with charging the sulphinated battery in parallel with a good but partly discarded battery. Note that sometimes this can take a few days on charge. You will often lose just a cell and can only get to 10.5 volts approximately and the best way to kill a lead acid battery is to fully discharge it and at 6 volts that's more or less that. AGMs can generally handle it better than calcium and flooded cell types hence part of the reason of their use in UPS, Golf buggies, etc though I can see that changing to Lithium where the conditions are right

[@razenby]

I have never seen any quantitive proof that desulphination has any beneficial effect. The chemistry doesn't support it. The only effect can be mechanical, expansion by heating or cooling cracking or dislodging the sulphate. This Hankook battery was killed off by a singe short-lived deep discharge. I don't know why but I always imagined the sulphate growing slowly during a prolonged deep discharge. Reconsidering the chemistry I can't see why it cant happen quickly. I am going to take this battery apart... Rather than poo pooing everyone's belief I prefer to present the evidence and let them decide.

[@tomas7158]

@@razenby I hope you come back. I've had doubtful experiences with ctek. The 1st one just quit on me and 2nd and now the third ctek 5.0 has the Button issue. Aw, the two agm (small) seems to work well with the ctec but not a reglar car battery (bosch). The big one in my tractor was as new after a day. (us made L/A open). Annother small open lead/acid loses its state quite fast after a ctec charge but not after a regular charger (old). That confuses me a lot. In my opinion its not worth it to by anything else than a premium battery.

[@rm6857]

Capacity of lead acid batteries is rated at discharge rate in 20hours... C/20

[@razenby]

Doesn't matter which scheme you use. capacity is capacity.

[@rm6857]

No, they are rated to give full capacity during 20hour rate. Just check manual if you dont believe

[@rm6857]

my battery gives 70% in 1hour discharge rate, for older ones it will be much less@@razenby

[@eliotmansfield]

@@razenby look up “peukerts law”. You have to discharge/capacity test at either the c20 or c10 rate if it has one

[@eliotmansfield]

@@rm6857correct

[@warrenlead]

You will only get 70AH if you discharge it at the 20hr rate. Ie 3.5A Check battery spec sheet.

[@razenby]

That would be great to get 70Ah as it is only a 50Ah battery!!

[@warrenlead]

@@razenby sorry I meant 50ah same thing, if you discharge a 50ah battery at 2.5a you should get 50ah, if you go at 10a you will only get 25ah as you did.

[@philalvirez4614]

can you tell the difference between stage 1 (desulphation), 4 (absorption), 6 (recondition) and stage 8 (pulse) ? and why the time on each stage? thanks

[@razenby]

No. The fancy diagram in the user manual is at best marketing gumpff.

[@uros2m]

That charger is good bat not charge yor bad battery. Solution is. Constant current charge 1.5A until reach 15.7.v. batery wil go to 16 volt .. after some timw vil back to 15.7v . Drop is 20-40mv per 1 hour. Sory for my bad language i dont use google translate.

[@razenby]

Thanks for the input. I understood perfectly. My position is that until someone shows me a quantitative scientific test result of a successful battery repair obtained with real test equipment by an electrical engineer PROVING success then I remain very skeptical.

[@dacomaniac]

@@razenby u re right but i tell u this i bay a vw passat in 2011 new car and i desulphate (in recond. mode ) the battery every year before winter .and that battery from 2011 is starting my car today ...in 2021 .im pretty sure the ctek 5,0 help this battery.... on bettery unversity site they talk about pulsetech is a charger from us ,with impule mode ,,,they tell us that work for desulphation..u have to chek maybe

[@razenby]

@@dacomaniac All sounds plausible. Without any measurements it is difficulty to know the benefits of desulfation.

[@SSI1911]

Good information on your videos, I have a question, I just ordered a Gulf livery limited edition Ctek CT5 charger from the UK, I know the current is 220V to the U.S. 110 V but is there a recommended reliable way to use this charger in the U.S? I am prepared to just hang it on the wall with my other Gulf collectables but other than the adapter and if needed what reliable converter would your recommend, was going to buy the U.S. version CT5 and switch the casing but saw your earlier video and decided it will be more than I want to do and not screw up, really appreciate your patience and explanations.

[@razenby]

I think they are universal (120 - 240V input). What does it say on the product?

[@Traumahawk007]

Great Video, all lots of time and effort. I always thought that these were the best. Was about to purchase to keep my BMW AGM topped up as not in top condition In all honesty what would you recommend.

[@razenby]

Thanks. You could compare CTEK to a doctor who prescribes drugs with dangerous side effects to otherwise healthy patients. Especially for Valve Regulated Sealed Batteries (maintenance free). The CTEK electronics has questionable electronic design with reliability issues. To keep healthy batteries healthy the NOCO is a good choice. For ailing or failing batteries, the CTEK Repair mode might make a difference but I wouldn't want to use it on a fair to good battery, I haven't measured or witnessed the reconditioning miracles that are claimed by the manufacturers and devoted CTEK fans.

[@BOTmaster15]

@@razenby Hey, I'm kinda bit late to the party, but if you want I can tell if it will do any miracle for me. I'm starting with 12v motorcycle sized AGM battery (Chrysler start/stop small battery) with 0,45v. At first Ctek didn't even consider doing anything with it. After Pumping it for two days with different charger with high current it went up to 2.3-2.4v Now Ctek is recognizing that it can do something and it's sitting right now with recond mode. I'm guessing it will take more than 8H to sort this bugger (if it works at all). BTW I'm not CTEK fan - it's just what I have at hand right now.

[@razenby]

@@BOTmaster15 Well good luck. Keep us posted - 'Never in history has a battery charger promised so much, was bought by so many and delivered so little to so few'.... This could be a rare occasion... If you hear the blast of celestial trumpets when the charge completes then you could be in luck...... I could say that I would eat my hat but the last three gave me such bad indigestion...

[@RoyerRogers545]

Where’s the results? Is it still on charge?

[@awalk5177]

I have a sealed battery, which really just means it has a label stuck over the cell covers. I had to buy a new one as it would not hold charge more than 3 days in the car. When I opened it there were 2 cells which had low electrolyte , so I topped those up with distilled water and tried to charge it with the CTEC. The charger went to level 5 and then gave an error. I bought a new battery, but thought I would investigate the old one. see this video I watched kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnTbd6N_pLCqr5I Now I have tried that process, to release some of the sulphate from the plates with a very high charge (100 amps for 5 minutes) and the electrolyte is very cloudy now with grey particles , which I assume is the sulphate from the plates. I will try and recharge the battery again and check also the Specific gravity of the cells, it may need to be flushed out and new battery acid put in there. Sulphuric Acid is quite nasty stuff and I don't advise messing with it unless you have some chemistry safety knowledge. Eye protection and overalls and gloves are essential. When I working in a laboratory many years ago, we had a guy who every autumn brought his car battery in, emptied it in a belfast sink, flushed it with water , then distilled water, emptied it again and refilled with new battery acid and he said the battery was 20 years old. The sulphate sediment can settle in the bottom and short out the plates. It needs to come out.

[@razenby]

Usually sealed means that the battery is sealed and has a pressure relief valve to let it gas if overcharged. Providing the battery is in good condition the head of pressure that builds during charge forces the H2 and O2 formed at the plates to recombine into water rather than escaping to the atmosphere thus preserving the electrolyte level from dropping. This is called a Valve Regulated Sealed Lead Acid battery. (VRLA). Once sulfated, modern VRLA staring batteries aren't worth messing with. The plates disintegrate when you try an sulfate them.

[@PedalBikerUK]

I liked the nod to Monty Python :-)

[@razenby]

Thanks. Good to know that there are people out there with a sense of humour.

[@Deuxiit]

It skips the phases if dont see need for it. So it don't do all the manual steps like in the pic.

[@razenby]

I can read the manual but is it true? Smoke and mirrors.

[@Deuxiit]

@@razenby ctek is pretty known brand atleast here in nordic and havent heard bad about them. They do the job of recharcing and maintaining vehicle if its not used for long period of time. There are you tubers who have tested these with bad batteries and it seemed to work for them. Dont know about the curves and all those could be smoke and mirrors like you said. Just pointing out it works even though it's not the best brand.

[@razenby]

@@Deuxiit Thanks. An accurate test is worth a thousand anecdotal stories about how effective these 'seem' to be. Testing in the NOCO Genius 5 series videos include the CTK MXS5.0 at the he request of the viewers. All will be revealed soon.

[@BM-jy6cb]

Hmmm. So the jury's still out on whether these things are just snake oil at worst or merely intelligent trickle chargers at best.

[@razenby]

A bit of both. Very cheap electronics. If I were going for the premium market with gangster profit margins I would think it wise to design the product properly and spend a few extra dollars on quality parts..

[@arifinsidabutar8579]

Anybody who has an experience which one of the best series of CTEK?

[@razenby]

The one that works. If you need to relay on a battery charger that works then buy three CTEKs or one Noco

[@mrlautomotive712]

Isn’t 10.4V 1 dead cell?

[@razenby]

Could be or 6 dangerously discharged cells or any many other combinations of good and bad cells.

[@anima3298]

hi, have you tried Ctek one? I want to buy myself a charger, but I don’t know which one, Ctek or Noco?

[@razenby]

In my experience the NOCO is much more reliable and better made and much less susceptible to damp. CTEK is reviewd and tested on the channel.

[@anima3298]

⁠@@razenby Is there a difference in battery charging? I have a motorcycle battery, what voltage will Noco charge it with? Also 5A or less?

[@stephencresswell4760]

Pretty unfair test if you know very well that the battery has a knackered cell. It needs chucking away, not reconditioning. Also if it’s been down to 10V then it’s pretty dead. I use a Ctek and it’s saved a couple of batteries that I was going to chuck out. Seems to me like you don’t like these chargers and set out to prove it.

[@razenby]

So, I should have tried to repair mode on a good battery? I read the claims, tried the product, saw no improvement. People are easily fooled by smoke and mirrors of snake oil salesmen. I generally don't like products that are under-engineered, unreliable, over-hyped and over priced. Do you?

[@krisztianivanics369]

This is a rubbish battery charger for expensive money. They didn't even put normal cables on it, they saved on that too. In the cold, the cable freezes like shit. The MODE button is definitely broken, it's the worst thing in it. It's in a glued housing, so you can't get it together if there's a problem after the warranty. I had one, but I sold it. There are much better chargers for the money. Not recommended 👎

[@razenby]

I agree with everything you say!! Don't shoot the messenger - I just present the evidence and let everyone choose. .

[@krisztianivanics369]

😏