Ctek Battery Charger / Maintainer

[JTK24]

probably dumb questions but I just want to make sure i got all this stuff right

have been reading through many posts in this subforum and looks like most folks recommend the CTEK (56-926) LITHIUM US charger for the F80.

There are often periods many consecutive weeks where I drive my car everyday but do not ever get on the highway, or am only on the highway for a very limited amount of time (< 10 miles). With my previous car (an older Lexus GS) this caused the battery to need to be replaced fairly frequently, maybe every 1.5 years or so.

With the more costly lithium battery in the F80 I am guessing I should use this charger to maintain it properly to avoid a costly replacement? How often should I charge it?


Also - I was reading the manual on where to connect a battery charger. Am i right in saying that I connect the Positive of the CTEK charger to the Starting Aid Terminal under the hood, and the Negative of the CTEK to the special nut that is also under the hood?
Or is there a way to charge it via the trunk? (that would actually be easier for me the way my garage is set up and the orientation i usually park in)

thanks

[2000cs]

You are correct on where to connect under the hood. I don’t know about the trunk, someone else will.

It is really a tender, not a charger. Ideally you would plug it in after each drive (end of day), but it really shouldn’t be needed if you’re driving every day enough to keep the battery charged. Short trips with accessories in use, especially seat heaters, may drain the battery. Definitely plug it in if the car will sit a few days or longer, in your case. In longer daily driving it can sit a week or two without being put on the tender.

One way to get a feel for it is to note what lights up on the tender when you plug it in the first time, and how long it takes to top off the battery. Then compare with the same procedure a coup,emof days later. If the second time it is pretty well charged, you can add a day next time, and so forth, until you see its needed frequency.

[Deteria]

I have the CTEK charger and I use it every now and then. The M is my weekend car, so I figured a ~$60 charger to maintain a battery that costs $1200 to replace ain't such a bad idea.

[michaelalex17]

Originally Posted by JTK24

probably dumb questions but I just want to make sure i got all this stuff right

have been reading through many posts in this subforum and looks like most folks recommend the CTEK (56-926) LITHIUM US charger for the F80.

There are often periods many consecutive weeks where I drive my car everyday but do not ever get on the highway, or am only on the highway for a very limited amount of time (< 10 miles). With my previous car (an older Lexus GS) this caused the battery to need to be replaced fairly frequently, maybe every 1.5 years or so.

With the more costly lithium battery in the F80 I am guessing I should use this charger to maintain it properly to avoid a costly replacement? How often should I charge it?


Also - I was reading the manual on where to connect a battery charger. Am i right in saying that I connect the Positive of the CTEK charger to the Starting Aid Terminal under the hood, and the Negative of the CTEK to the special nut that is also under the hood?
Or is there a way to charge it via the trunk? (that would actually be easier for me the way my garage is set up and the orientation i usually park in)

thanks

does the CTEK (56-926) LITHIUM US charger for the F80 work on non-lithium ion batteries as well? Would be good to be able to buy this charger and use it for my other cars as well. thank you

[JTK24]

Originally Posted by michaelalex17

does the CTEK (56-926) LITHIUM US charger for the F80 work on non-lithium ion batteries as well? Would be good to be able to buy this charger and use it for my other cars as well. thank you

No, the Lithium US CTEK charger does not work on non-lithium.

There is a BMW branded CTEK charger though that supposedly works on both Lithium and non-Lithium batteries. Some of the forum members have it. It is strange that there is a BMW branded one but not a regular CTEK version of the dual charger.

For what it's worth, if anyone is curious, I got my 56-926 Lithium US charger and hooked it up yesterday to my car for the first time. I've had my car for 2 months, 2018 F80, ~1600 miles on it, so far rarely driven on the freeway.

Took about ~1 hour of charging to reach step 5 of the charger, which i guess means around ~95% battery capacity. So i'll probably space out my charging less frequent than every 2 months.

[michaelalex17]

Originally Posted by JTK24

No, the Lithium US CTEK charger does not work on non-lithium.

There is a BMW branded CTEK charger though that supposedly works on both Lithium and non-Lithium batteries. Some of the forum members have it. It is strange that there is a BMW branded one but not a regular CTEK version of the dual charger.

For what it's worth, if anyone is curious, I got my 56-926 Lithium US charger and hooked it up yesterday to my car for the first time. I've had my car for 2 months, 2018 F80, ~1600 miles on it, so far rarely driven on the freeway.

Took about ~1 hour of charging to reach step 5 of the charger, which i guess means around ~95% battery capacity. So i'll probably space out my charging less frequent than every 2 months.

Huh that's interesting so I should buy the Bmw branded one to use for all my cars including non-BMW's?

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by michaelalex17

Huh that's interesting so I should buy the Bmw branded one to use for all my cars including non-BMW's?

That is correct. I've seen it on Amazon from $100-130.

[JFB]

Originally Posted by michaelalex17

Huh that's interesting so I should buy the Bmw branded one to use for all my cars including non-BMW's?

NOCO makes a charger for both types of batteries. You can find them on amazon as well.

I bought one and tried it on my F80. Worked fine. I returned it and bought the CTEK one for lithium only since I already had a battery tender for other batteries.

[michaelalex17]

It's really odd that the brand that makes the BMW charger which works for both lithium and acid batteries doesn't make one that they sell for both lithium and acid batteries...

[2000cs]

I have two tenders - one BMW branded that is over 10 years old, and one about two years old C-Tek MUS 4.3 I think.

What bad things happen if I use either of these on the M3?

[Alvinized52]

I decided to go with the BMW branded one made by Ctek.... works for both types of batteries (worked on my daily E46 too but you have to make sure you select the correct battery type).... plugs in under the hood and works great on my M4!

I bought mine for the same reason as OP... but must admit i do not use it as often as I should.... just pure laziness. Im only reminded when I notice that if my charge us low on the M4, there is a slight hesitation/delay when push start the ignition button (which goes away when fully charged). Thanks for the reminder tho... i gotta do this before i leave town this morning.

[Snapp]

Did anyone else's electric bill shoot up after using this? I bought the Ctek and it looks like it works well. I'm away at work for three weeks at a time and my electric bill nearly doubled coincidently after using it for about a month

[Zermatt]

I opted to go with the less expensive Deltran Battery Tender after I recieved confirmation that it was compatible with the F8x.

Deltran Battery Tender has two chargers that will work on the F80/83 Lithium battery. The smaller one is 800mAh (PN: 022-0199-DL-WH) while the larger one is a full 4A (PN: 022-0209-DL-WH).

You can select the battery type (Lead Acid vs LiFePO4) so in my opinion this is a superior charger to the CTEK (56-926) charger.

[hatepotholez]

Originally Posted by 2kaccordocoupe

The noco genius g3500 is also an excellent charger. I use it on my current 2009 335 which has lived in a garage for most of its 7 year time this far. Never had a single battery, electrical or starting issue. Solid!

https://no.co/g3500

I have the older model, still called the g3500. However it does not support lithium. This new updated g3500 supports lithium and also supports can bus charging via the cig port. I'm going to pick it up for my upcoming m4.

I used this had no issues.

[MasterP]

Originally Posted by Snapp

Did anyone else's electric bill shoot up after using this? I bought the Ctek and it looks like it works well. I'm away at work for three weeks at a time and my electric bill nearly doubled coincidently after using it for about a month

I think it's something else. We have 6 cars in our shop on tenders and our electric bill is only $39 a month.

[Snapp]

Originally Posted by MasterP

I think it's something else. We have 6 cars in our shop on tenders and our electric bill is only $39 a month.

Yea I figured it wouldn't be the battery charger. I think it was just a coincidence that it happened to shoot up when I started using it

[FSociety]

Originally Posted by 2kaccordocoupe

The noco genius g3500 is also an excellent charger. I use it on my current 2009 335 which has lived in a garage for most of its 7 year time this far. Never had a single battery, electrical or starting issue. Solid!

https://no.co/g3500

I have the older model, still called the g3500. However it does not support lithium. This new updated g3500 supports lithium and also supports can bus charging via the cig port. I'm going to pick it up for my upcoming m4.

I just ordered the G7200

Originally Posted by aboulfad

During specific stages of charging the charging voltage has to be higher than the nominal voltage. In optimize mode, which is time limited, the voltage varies from 14.1 to 14.4 V in order to equalize voltage across lithium cells. Here's another reference to read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lith...Specifications

Charging LifePO4 batteries is complicated, as the device needs to also monitor temperature and many other parameters, they are normally equipped with a microp to do all this!

For reference, see the above BMW doc, as well any the approved LifePO4 approved trickle chargers (CTEK lithium, Optimate TM291) documentation. These trickle chargers are the most sophisticated on the market, and have 8 steps for charging and maintaining the LifePO4 batteries correctly and safely. They are probably the only two companies that sell consumer 12.8V LifePO4 trickle chargers!!! You first referred to our batteries as Lipo which is a completely different technology as you are well aware now,

Regards!

Bringing this thread back from the dead, do you see the Noco G7200 & G15000 supporting lithium as well?

Originally Posted by Jkkl2001

According to CTEK, the CTEK Lithium US is the only charger that's ideal for the 2015+ M3 & M4 utilize a 69aH Li battery.

true, but such little amp provided I think for unlocking or deep programming of cars might need one lithium charger with some more amp

[Poiseuille]

Originally Posted by mazaa93

I live in Australia and ordered the CTEK battery charger like the one in the link below;
https://www.ecstuning.com/ES3082995/

I've got an adaptor (US to AUS) at home since the CTEK charger has the American power point.

This might be a ridiculously stupid question, but the charger won't damage my battery will it? (Asking due to difference in power output at powerpoints or something lol).

ALSO, I noticed the charger has two options "NORMAL" and "LI-ION" - which one do I use for my F82 M4??

Li-ION

[TrueNorthM5]

Do you guys know if something cheap like this will work? :

https://www.amazon.ca/MOTOPOWER-MP00...attery+charger

In my case not for storage. Just to top up the battery once and a while due to our cold climate and my short commute. Also to one day complete a ECU flash.

edit: this one claims to work for both Li Ion and lead acid batteries, so the benefit of working on my wife's X3 as well...

[Champagnekashi]

First time owning m3 and also storing a car in the winter. Do i connect ctek charger under the hood or to the battery in the truck??

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

hood

[Champagnekashi]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

hood

Can someone upload a pic of how it looks. Thank you