CTEK (56-959) Silver MUS 4.3 TEST & CHARGE 12 Volt Fully Automatic Charger and Tester

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

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.

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.

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.

Ever since the start of pandemic, I have been working from home ever since. Which also means I am driving my car much less than before, especially during winter months. When temperature drops below -15C my car gives off battery drain warning. Although I just replaced the battery a year ago. This device works great when you don’t drive your car a lot in the winter, simply hook it up and leave it plugged in to maintain your battery. It takes about a day to have my battery fully charged (reaches stage 7). After that, by leaving it plugged in, the device will monitor battery voltage and if it detects a drop, it will send pulse to battery and recharge. The device also has battery test function, a must have for your car!