I'm looking to pick up a new car battery charger. My old one give up the ghost.

Can any one recommend one?

I want to charge battery out of car to run some tests but I need to make sure battery is fully charged first.

Thanks

Any smart Charger will do the job.

The one I use was bought from Lidl when they had them, it looks exactly the same as the cheap Maypole ones that a few on here use.

The Maypole 7423A, C-Tek MXS 5 and Noco Genius 5 all have their fans on here.

I have used, and been pleased with, both the C-tek and Noco, but they are the most expensive options.

Deals are available from time to time on Amazon, Ebay and even Halfords, so its worth a search around. Or head for the middle aisle at Lidl!

1 hour ago, Tizer said:

Any smart Charger will do the job.

The one I use was bought from Lidl when they had them, it looks exactly the same as the cheap Maypole ones that a few on here use.

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

The Maypole 7423A, C-Tek MXS 5 and Noco Genius 5 all have their fans on here.

i have used, and been pleased with, both the C-tek and Noco, but they are the most expensive options.

Deals are available from time to time on Amazon, Ebay and even Halfords, so its worth a search around. Or head for the middle aisle at Lidl!

Thanks, I will have a look at those and keep an eye out for any deals.

What about ampage? I see some chargers at 2A all the way unto 10A.

7 hours ago, sonic113 said:

Thanks, I will have a look at those and keep an eye out for any deals.

What about ampage? I see some chargers at 2A all the way unto 10A.

If you were running a commercial garage you might want a faster charger to get customers in and out quickly but the Batteries may not last as long if you charged them this way regularly because of overheating, a modern Smart Charger will vary the Current through the Charging Cycle correctly for modern Batteries and they all do it more or less the same as each other.

Spending a lot of money on an expensive Charger for something that you may only use a few times over the lifetime of a car is like feeding your pigs on Strawberries.

7 hours ago, sonic113 said:

What about ampage? I see some chargers at 2A all the way unto 10A

The Maypole is 4A, the others are 5A. I assume the Lidl one is similar? (As we discussed on another thread somewhere, they all seem to be made in China whatever the name on the box!)

i've found them fine, though you have to let them do their stuff and go through their full cycle, which may be up to 8 hours or even overnight depending on the state of the battery.

51 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Spending a lot of money on an expensive Charger for something that you may only use a few times over the lifetime of a car is like feeding your pigs on Strawberries.

It'll make delicious ham?

50 minutes ago, Tizer said:

is like feeding your pigs on Strawberries.

My grandad kept pigs on his allotment. I can confirm they never got strawberries, though they did happily consume any food waste from the surrounding streets. No need for food waste bins from the Council in those days!😀

Thanks everyone.

I will have a look at the maypole charger. Any links would be helpful.

Between the MP7423, mp7426 and the mp7428 Which one would you recommend?

30 minutes ago, sonic113 said:

I will have a look at the maypole charger. does any one have a link?

Most of us have the old 4A Maypole. There is now a 5A version which could be worth trying.

Maypole MP7425 6/12V Electronic Car Van Motorhome 5A Smart Charger | eBay UK

8 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Most of us have the old 4A Maypole. There is now a 5A version which could be worth trying.

Maypole MP7425 6/12V Electronic Car Van Motorhome 5A Smart Charger | eBay UK

Thanks Tom.

Would that one be a better choice than the MP7423, mp7426 and the mp7428 models?

7 minutes ago, sonic113 said:

Thanks Tom.

Would that one be a better choice than the MP7423, mp7426 and the mp7428 models?

Better than 7423, which is what most of us have at 4A.

But technically 'worse' than the other two which are rated at 6A & 8A.

Personally I don't like the way the 7423 charges. It takes ages to reach 4A, starting at 1A and working up over an hour or more. I'm hoping they've changed the process for the later models, but without reading instructions for all of them I can't say.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

But technically 'worse' than the other two which are rated at 6A & 8A.

Personally I don't like the way the 7423 charges. It takes ages to reach 4A, starting at 1A and working up over an hour or more. I'm hoping they've changed the process for the later models, but without reading instructions for all of them I can't say.

Here is the manual to the one you linked to and the other two.

Can you tell from these if they have upgraded the process on these later models.

Mp7425

Mp7426

Mp7428

19 minutes ago, sonic113 said:

Here is the manual to the one you linked to and the other two.

Can you tell from these if they have upgraded the process on these later models.

Mp7425

Mp7426

Mp7428

7425 does seem to have a better process with the option of a fast charge. After initial pulsing it starts proper charging at 5A and then slowly drops down over time. Opposite to 7423 which starts at 1A and slowly rises over time.

The other two don't show charge rates in the instructions as far as I can see.

If you can leave a charger plugged in overnight then it doesn't really matter which one you buy. They should all complete within about 12 hours. But if you're restricted to daylight hours etc then a faster charger would be better. I wish I'd bought a faster charger now, but don't use it enough to justify buying another.

On 5/26/2026 at 8:31 PM, sonic113 said:

I'm looking to pick up a new car battery charger. My old one give up the ghost.

Can any one recommend one?

I want to charge battery out of car to run some tests but I need to make sure battery is fully charged first.

Thanks

Hi there its not an automatic is it?