Just noticed this https://www.aldi.co.uk/auto-xs-car-battery...4699368500 Geoff

Ive had one over the last few years and they work well enough, but won't charge anything under a certain voltage (c. 7v I think, may be wrong.)

Ive had one on my ramp for some years now & plug it onto every car i put on the ramp... Works well enough

Hopefully, they have improved. I've got a couple. One problem with the model I have is that if the mains power goes off, they won't restart charging.

I went on holiday to Europe for 6 weeks and put my P38A on charge. If I hadn't, the P38A would have had a flat battery when I got back to Australia.

Unfortunately, the day after we left for the UK, we had a blackout. The charger didn't restart charging when power came back so, when we got home, the P38A battery was, of course, flat.

I replaced the Aldi charger with a CTek MXS 5.0. It recovers after a blackout. Ron B. VK2OTC
2003 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

I've had a couple of similar "cheapies" - they work well enough but as others have said after a power cut won't resume.

They will not "kick off" a completely flat battery either - I have a conventional (non-electronic) one which I tend to use for the car - I only use the "electronic" ones for charging up my RC boat now.

I also have a C-tek but the Aldi one is just fine (and it's cheap) for working on the car with all the doors open etc. A power cut may catch you out as will a totally dead battery but neither of those things have ever happened to me so I don't know. Geoff

Last edited by supershuttle on 31st Jan 2023 3:56pm. Edited 1 time in total

I have a few of these chargers for various reasons and am curious about the fact they won’t start to charge after a power cut.
Given a power cut is no different to initially switching a charger on why wouldn’t they start charging. Mine all do albeit on the 0.8A setting which is generally sufficient to charge a battery.
Granted if you have the charger mode selected to another setting other than the 0.8A the charger will revert to the 0.8 A setting.
Am l missing something?

They (or the Lidl ones, at least) go back to standby after being turned off and on, the CTEKs I have go back to the previously-selected mode.

The Aldi job does both 5.0 and 0.8 amp charging so useful for RR and low power items ( Vespa)
I got one and for £15 can live with the shortcomings

display only visible head on
may not restart after power outage.

My CTEK 5.0 cost £60 I think , some years ago.