CTEK 4.3 Test & Charge, 12 Volt Fully Automatic Charger with Unique Battery and Alternator Testing, Ideal for Long Term Storage

The MUS 4.3 Test & Charge is my second CTEK Product (the first being the Lithium US for my motorcycle). Please be advised that I may be slightly biased (not affiliated/sponsored by anyone). I purchased this unit specifically for keeping charge on stored vehicles and reconditioning batteries in daily driving cars. Per the user manual, CTEK recommends RECOND once a year or whenever battery is depleted completely. If you’re just buying this unit for the first time, it might be a good idea to RECOND too. It took about 9.5 hours (15:30-01:00 next day) to complete all 7 cycles, including RECOND, on my BMW F13 650i. Even though this car mostly sit in my garage for the past half a year or so, it still kept a lot of juice. Its BMW OEM battery is either 90 or 105 Ah, that would take a longgggggg time to charge if it were completely dead. Yes, CTEK is much more expensive than competitors’ products, but it has automatic sequence to test, charge, and maintain your batteries. Other products out there will certainly get the job done as well, though I’m not sure if they’ll do it as well as this unit. There is a nice feature splitting the charge sequence into a faster bulk cycle (<80%) and absorption (80-100%). Not to mention that it will perform tests on the battery and alternator so you won’t waste electricity to charge if it will just die again soon. Generally speaking, $100 for this product is amongst the best investment for your precious weekend cars. If you can afford to have fun, you should definitely keep a battery trickle charger on hand, especially if you live in a colder climate. You wouldn’t want a dead battery to ruin a nice day out, and you definitely don’t want inferior chargers to damage your batteries.

Small battery charger/booster with multiple features. Will maintain or boost multiple size batteries

This product works great. Especially good if you have a sports car that you do not drive every day it keeps the battery topped off so you can just jump in and drive when you’re ready. It has a quick connect system so you can just plug it into your car battery when you park the car.

This was a second unit in our family... bought by my son for his car. The first unit bought over 2-3 years ago and regularly used is still working fine. The new unit looks like the old except that the output cable now is as robustly constructed as the AC power line. The old output cable was just a 2-wire cord (unprotected). Otherwise same as before.... works great.... simple operation... and very effective in keeping car batteries from being from being flat due to prolonged lack of use.

This charger is very simple, straightforward and effective. However the restoration features are very poorly designed. For one the charger only pulses when the battery voltage is very low however one of the symptoms of a sulfated battery is to quickly reach arbitrarily high voltage quickly. Recond mode uses elevated voltage to boil the battery however it only runs for a certain amount of time and given the relatively low voltage it would take a ridiculous number of cycles to have any measurable effect on sulfation. Not that any of the other charger/ restoration products work any better. Imo the only working options are to use a fully controllable charger to really crank the voltage which is hard on the battery and can he dangerous or one of the little pulse restorers which can take months to do their magic but are much more gentle, effective, and very much set it and forget it. I love that these chargers are mega cheap and run off the batteries own power so they don't need to be plugged in.

Awesome battery charger and refresher. I have owned an early version and smaller model from Ctek, I lowed that one as well, but this one is faster for car batteries. Love the fact that it does not rust. I also got the optional bumper and it made it non slip and it would stay put where I put it while it was charging.

I have a 2009 BMW 335 that I drive infrequently. I was getting the yellow low battery and inspection pictograms regularly. The battery is less than 1 year old. Before using this charger I confirmed that it isn't an AGM battery. I bought the extension cables so I could close the hood while charging. The CTEK does work, but it takes a long time to go beyond step 4 to step 7 (green light, fully charged). Once fully charged the pictograms stopped coming up. The 1st charge attempt with the recondition step included took more than 24 hours to reach full charge., but the battery was low again after 1 week of not driving, the time went blank. Reaching the fully charged state again in the 2nd charging session without reconditioning took about 3 days! I am leaving it connected for an extra day or so in the hope that the battery will remain fully charged longer.

Easy works great !!

Excellent product. Tested on 2015 Acura TLX SH-AWD with standard AGM battery. It worked in normal car mode and significantly faster in the snowflake mode. Positive was connected to the battery and negative to one of the unpainted bolts next to the cross stabilizer bar ( close to the windshield on the drivers side under the hood ) Also tested on 2017 BMW X3 xdrive 28i. Charger was connected to the terminals under the hood. For this vehicle, snowflake mode was working much better. I think it charges with slightly higher voltage that works better with BMW AGM battery. I tried normal car mode, but it was super slow and not sure if it was effective. Charger stayed cold on touch in the normal car mode. In the snowflake mode, it was warm on touch but not hot and it was able to complete the charge overnight. Going forward, I will be using only snowflake mode for BMW AGM battery. That setting is recommended for certain types of AGM batteries. Garage temperature was around 10 c, and it was charged overnight in both cases. It may take longer if your battery is really low. Charger will memorize last setting, so just connect it and then plug in the wall. Easy to use. TIP: Press the button for 2 seconds to switch between test mode and charging mode. Sometimes, it's necessary to do this after you plug in the charger. - Blinking lights - user selection required ( either for test mode or charging mode ) - Steady light - Test mode ( only one light ) - Steady lights - charging mode ( steady lights showing the phase of the charge ). If it doesn't go automatically in this mode, you may have to press the button for 2 seconds and then select the proper charging mode ( car/snowflake/motorcycle )

Ojo, no es un cargador de batería; es un mantenedor de batería (Battery Tender). Mantengo la batería de mis autos clásicos siempre en óptimas condiciones. Sirve para motocicletas igualmente. Hay un auto que no le he cambiado la batería en aprox 8 años. La condición es siempre tener conectada la batería al aparato y proteger el aparato con un regulador de voltaje. Lo recomiendo ampliamente.

The mains plug is an American style flat 2 pin plug so will not work in the UK. Returned.

Purchased originally to keep a winter stored BMW E46's battery charged but also currently also doing duty keeping an aging battery of BMW F91 charged during extended period of cold weather. Product has done an excellent job with both tasks. Easy to use and built in safety features prevent overcharging. Other features also allow checking on battery condition and cranking power plus alternator function. Note: this product is NOT intended to be used for jump starts. It is strictly a battery tester and trickle charger. Not the cheapest trickle charger available but to date performance has been excellent and products features well worth the money.

If you are looking for a FAST charge. This is not from my experience the product you are in need of. This is a fantastic trickle charger. Many options, for car or cycle. 12v and 6 v. You can install this product in a permanent manner. There are the correct wires and such for doing so. I did not. It has done wonders for my batteries. The regen mode is amazing. For the price and what you get. I do not think you can go wrong.