CTEK Battery charger MXS 5.0

I bought a CTEK Battery charger MXS 5.0 and tested it between yesterday afternoon and today. And I used my Chinese battery Monitoring II spy.
I connected the CTEK to the “under hood” positive pole and earth connector. I have to admit my picture could have been better:


I brought the current extension under the car, so that I could close the hood (bonnet) and lock my car. It rained this night, and my car is in the garden.
I started the CTEK battery charger at 14h45 yesterday, at a moment that my battery was indicating 60% and about 12.4 Volt.

The phases of the battery charger are as follows (RECOND not applicable for normal lead acid batteries).


First graph is yesterday and in fact it jumped almost immediately to phase 3 of the charging process (14:45).

The three “peak down spikes” are moments that I had to open the doors of my car, and are therefore not related tot he charger.

The second graph is this night, morning and afternoon. I disconnected in the “float phase” (13.6 Volt according tot he manual, 13.7 to 13.8 ripple according tot he battery monitor) around 9:00 this morning. Spike down at 9:00 is again opening the doors of the car (had to open the hood).
I guess the spike down at 3:00 in the morning is phase 5, where it checks if the battery can hold 12V: this lasts not more than 3 minutes!

The rest of the graph (after 9:00) is after disconnecting the charger. The voltage drops to 13.1 Volt and stays there.

Nice little device this CTEK MXS 5.0 and easy to use! (Thanks to an advice of @DCPU).

Tomorrow my car goes to the dealer for some “repairs”. Please wish me good luck! I will also ask some questions to my dealer, I need also luck for this: answering my questions isn't their favourite activity.

What would you not like to spend money on next?

i have one Cteck XS 0.8 for my KTM.
can I use my XS 0.8?

did you connect the negative pole to the engine or to the frame?

ORSO said:

i have one Cteck XS 0.8 for my KTM.
can I use my XS 0.8?

did you connect the negative pole to the engine or to the frame?

Click to expand...

To an engine clamp

Jean Mercier said:

I bought a CTEK Battery charger MXS 5.0 and tested it between yesterday afternoon and today. And I used my Chinese battery Monitoring II spy.
I connected the CTEK to the “under hood” positive pole and earth connector. I have to admit my picture could have been better:
View attachment 7824990

I brought the current extension under the car, so that I could close the hood (bonnet) and lock my car. It rained this night, and my car is in the garden.
I started the CTEK battery charger at 14h45 yesterday, at a moment that my battery was indicating 60% and about 12.4 Volt.

The phases of the battery charger are as follows (RECOND not applicable for normal lead acid batteries).
View attachment 7824991

First graph is yesterday and in fact it jumped almost immediately to phase 3 of the charging process (14:45).
View attachment 7824992
The three “peak down spikes” are moments that I had to open the doors of my car, and are therefore not related tot he charger.

The second graph is this night, morning and afternoon. I disconnected in the “float phase” (13.6 Volt according tot he manual, 13.7 to 13.8 ripple according tot he battery monitor) around 9:00 this morning. Spike down at 9:00 is again opening the doors of the car (had to open the hood).
I guess the spike down at 3:00 in the morning is phase 5, where it checks if the battery can hold 12V: this lasts not more than 3 minutes!
View attachment 7824993
The rest of the graph (after 9:00) is after disconnecting the charger. The voltage drops to 13.1 Volt and stays there.

Nice little device this CTEK MXS 5.0 and easy to use! (Thanks to an advice of @DCPU).

Tomorrow my car goes to the dealer for some “repairs”. Please wish me good luck! I will also ask some questions to my dealer, I need also luck for this: answering my questions isn't their favourite activity.

Click to expand...

Hi Jean. Thanks for this. Can I ask if you were having trouble, with normal use, getting the batteries up to or close to 100% charge as per the Ineos display? Did the charger improve things and would you recommend the CTEK unit?

see here

Jean Mercier said:

I bought a CTEK Battery charger MXS 5.0 and tested it between yesterday afternoon and today. And I used my Chinese battery Monitoring II spy.
I connected the CTEK to the “under hood” positive pole and earth connector. I have to admit my picture could have been better:
View attachment 7824990

I brought the current extension under the car, so that I could close the hood (bonnet) and lock my car. It rained this night, and my car is in the garden.
I started the CTEK battery charger at 14h45 yesterday, at a moment that my battery was indicating 60% and about 12.4 Volt.

The phases of the battery charger are as follows (RECOND not applicable for normal lead acid batteries).
View attachment 7824991

First graph is yesterday and in fact it jumped almost immediately to phase 3 of the charging process (14:45).
View attachment 7824992
The three “peak down spikes” are moments that I had to open the doors of my car, and are therefore not related tot he charger.

The second graph is this night, morning and afternoon. I disconnected in the “float phase” (13.6 Volt according tot he manual, 13.7 to 13.8 ripple according tot he battery monitor) around 9:00 this morning. Spike down at 9:00 is again opening the doors of the car (had to open the hood).
I guess the spike down at 3:00 in the morning is phase 5, where it checks if the battery can hold 12V: this lasts not more than 3 minutes!
View attachment 7824993
The rest of the graph (after 9:00) is after disconnecting the charger. The voltage drops to 13.1 Volt and stays there.

Nice little device this CTEK MXS 5.0 and easy to use! (Thanks to an advice of @DCPU).

Tomorrow my car goes to the dealer for some “repairs”. Please wish me good luck! I will also ask some questions to my dealer, I need also luck for this: answering my questions isn't their favourite activity.

Click to expand...

Still happy with the charger @Jean Mercier ?
I am atill struggling with losing power parking and plan to head up north again this winter.
So need to make batteries do not leave me stranded without power in the middle of nowhere….

@das mo If you have to buy one, take one size bigger around 10A , it´s better for the long life of the battery. Moll told me this.
I have the mx 5.0, 2 times used, works. For your travel to „nowhere“ buy a jumpstarter, small, strong with 1000A (like NOCO GB40 …..), it´s an insurance to sleep well.

das mo said:

Still happy with the charger @Jean Mercier ?
I am atill struggling with losing power parking and plan to head up north again this winter.
So need to make batteries do not leave me stranded without power in the middle of nowhere….

Click to expand...

To be honest I used it only once, because my car never stayed parked longer than 2 or 3 days, and my battery doesn't discharge that fast.
I will have a test next week, because it will stay parked without driving during 5 days next week.

But for travelling, I would also suggest a a NOCO jump starter, as @Lollo050968 suggested. I bought a NOCO GB70, but never needed to use it until now.

one more vote for the noco .
Had a GB70 for 5-6 years now , jumped a lot of people never had to use it for me .
Anyone buying now check out the GBX series . If i was buying a new one that is what i would go with now .

Recently installed a CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger/maintainer on my Grenadier as it can sit for a week or more between use and wanted to make sure the main start battery stays up to level. I wired in a CTEK pigtail which includes the LED level indicator directly to the charge point under the hood using the available bus bar (under the plastic cover) and nearby ground.

I protected the pigtail with some additional sheathing/shrink tubing and right next to the hood rubber bumper there is a factory pre-drilled hole you can use to hold the connector in place with a barbed zip-tie. It’s a nice clean install and tucked neatly out of the way. I’ve have a couple other MXS 5.0 hooked up to other vehicles I own and they all perform perfectly.

I live in area where power outages are not uncommon and the CTEK resets the charging cycle automatically after a power bump Other brands I’ve owned you had to turn it back on manually after the power came on and if your forgot I’d get stuck with a low battery. I’ve included some snapshots of the install below for those interested.

C-Mack said:

Recently installed a CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger/maintainer on my Grenadier as it can sit for a week or more between use and wanted to make sure the main start battery stays up to level. I wired in CTEK pigtail which includes the LED level indicator directly to the charge point under the hood using the available bus bar and nearby ground.

I protected the pigtail with some additional sheathing/shrink tubing and right next to the hood rubber bumper there is a factory pre-drilled hole you can use to hold the connector in place with a barbed zip-tie. It’s a nice clean install and tucked neatly out of the way. I’ve used the MXS 5.0 on other vehicles and I’ve had nothing but good luck with it.

I live in area where power outages are not uncommon and the charger resets the charging cycle automatically after a power bump Other charges I’ve had you had to turn it on manually after the power came back on. I’ve included some snapshots of the install below for those interested.

Click to expand...

Neat!

That's one spot I'm considering for an Anderson plug pigtail for plugging in my solar panels.
Cheers
Steve