CTEK Battery Charger

[iRider]

A lot depends upon how/where you store it too. If it's very cold then it will drag the battery down much more and much quicker than if it's stored in warm dry conditions. Older batteries compared to newer ones accept and hold charge at different rates. Some chargers do that, charge. Others condition the battery by charging at different rates and discharging slightly before recharging. All I know is I had one of those type of chargers on my last RT and the battery was still fine at 5 years. But I bet someone can tell completely the opposite story :-)

[guest2360]

You will go some distance  to find two owners who deal with battery charging in the same way and those two won't agree they do. At the end of the day we all have own experiences and methods. If you have gone for years and never had to replace one then your method of maintenance is correct for you.  For me now 20 years into BMW ownership and yet to replace one my method works for me.

[Casbar]

Ok, not trying to be funny, but is there something special or different about BMW batteries. I have only previously owned 2 R80RTs and only for 4 years, but that was in the late 80s and there wasn't really such a thing as an intelligent conditioner, so had a few flat batteries. Since the Optimates came along have used them for the last 15 years on all my bikes and sports cars, and never had a failure either. So as already said go with what works 8)

[David.]

Is there something special or different about BMW batteries.

No, BMW don't make Batteries, they are made by EXIDE.

[Peter Baker]

I have my CTEK connected direct to the battery and it always works fine, I did e-mail CTEK themselves and got this reply in December 2015 on compatibility.

Hi

Our new CT5 Powersport can enter the Canbus system via the cig socket.
It will be released in February 2016.

Other chargers you need to connect directly to the battery.

Med vänlig hälsning,
Best regards,
CTEK SWEDEN

[iRider]

And let's not forget that not only has cell technology moved on in respect of the traditional wet lead acid, we are also awash with newer types of cells so it would be extremely difficult to compare like for like over any reasonable life expectancy period.


The answer is there is no right or wrong answer. Go with what you think woks and the worst that can happen is you may need a new battery sooner than the next bloke.

[k9doc]

The answer is there is no right or wrong answer. Go with what you think woks and the worst that can happen is you may need a new battery sooner than the next bloke.

Sums it up well with a good perspective although not sure that 'woks' have anything to do with it. Do like Chinese take-aways though.

[guest2826]

I must be "lucky" too. My 2015RT LC is always on the CTEK charger when in the garage, connected direct to the battery via a DIN socket I've installed like many other riders. After not using the bike for months, the battery has been kept fully charged as far as I'm aware and according to the lights on the charger. Anyway it turns over and starts the bike easily. As I already had the CTEK when I bought my RT last year and as far as I know it was working perfectly on other bikes, I didn't see the need to spend more money on buying the BMW bus charger, which costs around £100. If I did not have a charger at all when I bought the bike, I may well though have gone with the BMW model.

As mentioned by others the socket has other benefits, for example I can connect heated clothing without the fear of overloading that can occur with the limited amperage existing bus sockets.

I've done this with all my previous bikes, a wide range including Harley, Royal Enfield, Ducati, Honda, earlier BMWs and others and have never had a problem, the batteries always maintained for both long and short periods and as a side benefit, prolonging their life. I just don't believe those stories about smart chargers like Optimate etc frying batteries, which give the impression that it is a common risk. Maybe it happens when there is a fault, either in the charger or the battery, both of which is likely to be a rare event. I recall that the highly reputable main Harley dealer I used back in the day used Optimates for all their battery charging.

I think the benefit of always having a fully charged battery, especially for the occasional user who is more likely to suffer a dead battery, is worth running the almost nil risk of battery damage from a smart charger. And after a very long time biking, I've never had a flat battery when a bike has been on the smart charger. I have though many times when it was not.

I used to use Optimate but for no particular reason switched to CTEK when my Opti finally gave up after many years. There's no observable difference in charging ability between the two that I can see. I'd definitely recommend anyone to use a smart charger and particularly if they are only occasional riders. But I'd stick with a popular well known make like CTEK or Optimate rather than those cheapo ones you can get. They may be just as good, I don't know but if you can afford it, and if you can afford a BMW then you can afford it, personally I'd go for the well known smarts such as Optimate or CTEK which are very widely used by bikers, or perhaps the BMW version if you insist on a model that works through the bus sockets, though Optimate now make a bus version and someone said that CTEK is bringing out one as well.

I guess the problem with charger choosing is that you can't actually see what they are doing. They have a lot of pretty lights but I'm not certain this is as informative as it appears. Anyway, for me as an occasional rider a smart charger that can be left on indefinitely is almost essential to avoid a flat battery and I doubt there is much difference between the leading brands. I expect that any of them will do.