CTEK 40-106 CT5 Start/Stop, Battery Charger 12 V, Trickle Charger, Intelligent Charger, Car Battery, Charger, Battery Care with Desulphation Program and Start/Stop Technology, White/Black

Bought this to firstly sort out my BMW start stop and second as a general charger. I’m writing this in March just as the winter comes to an end. My start stop hasn’t worked since October despite some journies of over 150 Miles. My usual run to work is 10 Miles each way. Not good for start stop technology especially in the winter. I tried a normal charger on my battery and found that it helped but after 24 hours with the Ctek it is sorted! Start stop works as it should. I plan to charge my battery once per month or every two weeks which is really easy with the Ctek. I have added comfort leads to the battery. Not the supplied ones but extra 10mm eyelet ones so they fit easily. Now the charger can live in the boot in the tool tray above the battery compartment permanently connected to the battery. As my car lives outside all I have to do is chuck an extension cable into the boot, connect up and I’m charging! The boot easily closes over the cable without damage. No worries about leaving it on too long either being a fully automatic charger. I also use this charger to top up my ride on mower battery over the winter and used the supplied comfort connector for this (6mm). These chargers are simple to use, have no fancy features or displays you don’t need they just work extremely well and hopefully should last based on the reviews. My understanding is the CT5 version differs from other popular Ctek chargers in that it does not go above 15v on a desulphation cycle as his can damage AGM batteries and at £200 plus for an AGM battery you don’t want to risk it! The Ctek CT5 should be an essential purchase if you have a stop start system and do not regularly do large mileage’s.

Very efficient

I purchased this Stop/Start charger after reading the positive reviews about it for stop/start batteries . My stop/start feature has not worked in months due to only doing short journeys most of the time each week so instead of replacing the EFB battery with a new batery, i bought this well know branded charger to fix my issues and i was not disappointed. Firstly it is so easy to use and connect to your positive and negative terminals before turning the power on but i connected the negative clamp to a bolt on my chassis for negative earth connection instead of the negative terminal which it says could cause a spark to fly and once you turn on the power , the charger will first check to see if you are connected properly and if not , the amber light will light up, telling you to try to connect it again properly. If the clamps are connected correctly to your terminals, the it will start to charge your battery and and finally when it is fully charged, it will light up green saying that it can be dis-connected from the mains power and dis-connect the clamps in the reverse order, negative first then positive. I tried it for the first time and it took about 3.5 hours before the green light appeared ,saying that it is fully charged but when i went to drive my car after it was charged up, the Stop/Start still didn"t work which was disappointing. I went for a long drive to see if that helped the voltage improve on the battery but to no avail so i left if for a week until i tried charging it again and this time it took 6 hours to charge the battery which was surprising but the following day, i drove my car and finally the Stop/Start worked again so this charger is definately the one to get if you have a stop/start car battery. It will save you alot of money replacing the older battery aswel.

I’m a Cautious guy, so when it was time to buy a charger ( due to my daughter leaving the GF’s car lights on ) I wanted a charger that I could trust - * I needed to trust it wasn’t going to burn my house down ether by a internal fault or overcharging a unsafe battery * that it was suitable for my GF’s lead acid battery and my car’s AGM battery should the time arise to charger it * that I didn’t have to remove or disconnect the battery from ether car before charging ( cars can lose codes and all sorts of things if disconnected from a battery ) and if charging the battery in situ that it wasn’t going to damage a ECU ( modern ones are very sensitive to voltage spikes ) After doing my research there was only one brand being recommended and actually used by the Car manufactures themselves - CTEK The charger does everything I want and is suitable for all batteries, I like that it comes with a hardwire kit to permanently connect to a battery in situ as standard. Things to improve - the cable length between the + and - should be lengthened by 0.5m, I found that most car manuals state that the negative should be on a earth point not the negative earth terminal on the battery. On my GF’s car this was stretching the standard crocodile clips to the limit. I also think it’s expensive for what it is, yes I would never trust a unbranded or rebadged AA charger on ether of my cars, but £80 for something that must cost £10 to make is a tad salty.

I'm so pleased I read that you should use a 'Stop Start' charger on Stop Start batteries. Evidently the initial ' charge surge' from a conventional charger can be detrimental to a 'Stop Start' battery. I had been going to use my reliable 12 years old CTEK charger but checked as my car has this Stop/Start feature and this had failed to operate every time it should. I guessed it was due to the short journeys we do and the general lack of overall use as we only do around 1000 miles a year now-a-days. This charger fits the bill perfectly as it's specifically designed for Stop Start batteries and is extremely easy to use. Hopefully it will last as long as my older CTEK charger has. Shame it doesn't come with a storage bag as well though.

Brilliant bit of kit . I use while away for summer & winter hols . Particularly good for maintaining car battery in colder winter months when not using for a while .

This unit restored & charged a very flat stop/start battery on my VW - The built in Technology checks and prepares the battery and then charges & led monitors indicate progress until you disconnect - Very thorough process completed in 4-5hrs - Many Thanks!!

I bought this to replace a working MXS 3.8 which I'd owned for over a decade. I changed cars a few months ago and because we don't use the car that often, it does need to be trickle charged now and again. The modern electronics even when car is parked seemed to be draining the 12v battery quicker than car can top it up when driven to the shops. I just got the impression the MXS 3.8 wasn't topping up the charge in the new EFB Start Stop battery all that well. It transpires MXS series is limited to 14.4v output, but you can use snowflake mode for 14.7v. CT5 Start Stop is specifically for modern Start Stop batteries for cars made after 2016. and from my own observations, the CT5 can output up to 15.0v at 'upto' 3.8 Amps (55 watts measured) on new EFB battery and two 'retired/old' regular 12v car batteries according to both my accurate multimeters, and 240V ac plug-in Watt meter. I've seen 15.0v at the 12v round accessory socket when driving the car. The three batteries seem to be taking more charge from CT5 compared to previous MXS 3.8. ie. taking more than twice as long to change from 'Charge' to 'Care' on CT5, compared to time to first 'green' LED (stage 6) to light up on old MXS 3.8. Google AI suggests MXS 3.8 can be used to charge Start Stop batteries but will take 'much longer' than CT5 Start Stop. ie. wait until the second green LED (stage 6) on MXS 3.8 to light up which could take several days perhaps? The CT5 Start Stop was discontinued by CTEK in mid 2024. It has been replaced by the CT5 Time to Go model. I didn't purchase the newer model because the amazon reviews seemed worse compared to all previous CTEK models. The CT5 also does not come with a nylon storage bag.