CTEK 2005 CS FREE Portable Charger 12 V, 4-in-1 Power Bank 12 V, Power Bank Solar, Outdoor Power Bank Car, Phone, Computer, Intelligent Battery Care, Power Bank Jump Starter With Adaptive Booster

I bought the CTEK CS FREE 12V Portable Battery Charger five months ago to maintain my car’s battery charge when it sits unused for a couple of days. Since my car is parked in a garage with no power, I needed a solution that didn’t rely on mains electricity—this CTEK charger delivers exactly what I need.✔ Works well – Keeps the battery topped up as expected.✔ Recharges fairly quickly – No long wait times between uses.✔ Portable and convenient – Ideal for garages or locations without power access.One minor drawback – The how-to-use manual is a collection of line drawings in a cartoon style, which can be confusing at first. A more standard format with text, diagrams, and tables would have been clearer. Still, you get used to it.I haven’t had to use its other features yet (reviving a flat battery, charging a phone, etc.), but for maintaining my battery’s State of Charge to a reasonable level, it works perfectly.

This is a multi-function charger/conditioner with it's own internal battery. It doesn't 'jump start' a vehicle, but instead cleverly charges the vehicle's battery without risking damage to modern electronics & ECUs. It takes around 15 minutes to get a flat battery ready to be able to start the vehicle normally. It can also fully charge or condition a battery without being connected to the mains, ideal for people with no driveway/ street parking, or mains connection if available. It can also charge USB devices and some laptops etc. It's not small, but is portable and is well made - a good bit of kit to have, would recommend.

Works really well and is small enough to close the bonnet whilst it's charging. Depending on how discharged your battery is it may take 2 passes to fill it up but one will get you moving.It's great for me as I hate having the window open in winter. Recommended!

Complete waste of time, and certainly money. It only trickle charges if the battery is 100%. And I only found this out when I had to call the help centre because the instruction manual is also hopeless, with silly drawings instead of actual instructions. So they told me the charger would completely run out of power in 15 or so minutes, and therefore you have to return ever 15 minutes with a fully charged charger. Repeat for however many days until you've got a charged car battery! How stupid is that. Steer well clear. I'm returning mine now.

Took a risk on this charger as it has now dropped to half price on Amazon. Several others have experienced faulty units so keeping the packaging and receipt for a while.Generally CTEK products that I’ve owned in the past have been excellent quality so here’s hoping.My intended use is to lengthen the lifespan of the battery and ensure a constant good state of charge in a rarely driven car which has no access to mains power. The car is a modern one with the usual parasitic loads….Many people misunderstand the capability of this charger and think that its built in battery can achieve this long term. That is completely unrealistic as the charger’s built in battery is simply not big enough for that. Basic understanding of electricity and a few simple calculations tell you that.However, using a second full size car battery as a power source for the charger, it should be able to maintain the car’s (already charged) battery at a good state of charge for a few weeks. I don’t mind retrieving the second (source) battery and recharging it in the house if I only have to do it that infrequently.That’s the plan. Will update this review at a later date to confirm.Related I considered the solar source option but it has security issues and I’m not convinced that it will work effectively year round.Update: I set up the charger in the car using a second battery as a source. It successfully charged the car’s battery from a fairly typical 38% state of charge to a never before seen level of 100%The charger then started maintaining the car’s battery at 100%Looking good!The test continued for a couple of days until I needed to use the car and had to stop the test.Will try using the charger to continuously maintain the battery for a few weeks the next time that the car is unused for that long.Unusually, I’m planning to use the car quite a bit now and in the festive season so this will have to wait but am confident from the results so far that the charger can be used as a maintainer.

I bought the CS Free to charge my battery up or maintain it as a plugged in trickle charger would but, with a 80Ah battery and a CS Free with a relatively small Li-ion battery, it turns out that it won't do much unless you charge the CS Free at home and top up your car battery 3-5 times in a row. Hence, a secondary Led battery is needed to transfer it's power to the CS Free and then to the battery installed in the car and then you effectively double the battery capacity of your car battery but have to carry around a second battery that you need to charge at home with the same CS Free but this time plugged into the mains.It is circumvoluted, kind of annoying, but it works very very well and to make that work, you need this accessory.

We've been having issues with our hybrid car's battery where the voltage has been draining over time. We've got the added challenge that the road we have to park on is not close to the house so we have no mains power access. Was a little nervous because of recent reviews where faulty items are being sent out but rest assured the one that was received yesterday is in perfect condition and fully charged. And this morning got our battery from a lowly to 12.2 volts up to 12.8 volts in a single charge. Very happy so far.

Everything fits neatly