CTEK MXS 5.0 automatic battery charger full review 

Tip: Wash/clean at least the top of the battery at the terminals. Dirt retains moisture between the terminals and can discharge the battery. I have had a CTEK MXS 5 for several years and have recovered battery several times instead of throwing them out. They never reach 100% but are usable. Try leaving the charger connected until step 8 lights up. Can take a week. One of battery was at 20% capacity and ended up at 50-60% after using CTEK recover program. The battery is now used again. Before that, it was just rubbish. However, use the Recond program only if the battery is weak. CTEK recommends using the Recond program once a year. Good luck with the CTEK.

I bought one of these units after watching your excellent review, thank you Andy! It has proved to be an excellent investment and has stopped me paying out for a new battery that seemed "on its last legs"! I have just lent it to a friend who was about to buy a new battery too. This is a brilliant way to use our resources and not be so wasteful. My battery would have contributed to landfill, now thanks to the CTEK it's got lots of life left in it! Thanks Andy, very much appreciated!

Had the same model for years. Also bought the adaptor that connects to the battery direct. Which is left on the battery permanently. You just plug the charger into it.It also has a traffic light system on it to show condition of battery. A highly recommended charger

Great video explaining the Ctek MXS5 . Had one of these for a while they are a must for maintaining leisure batteries when not in use . Just had to use it on a new leisure battery that was delivered a low charge state . Thanks for taking the time for putting this video together showing the Ctek in a real time situation.

Thank You Andy Brown for the review :) While I’m typing this I’m trying to recharge really deep discharged pb battery 60A - recond mode. The battery was brand new with only one use but left discharged... The voltage was 5.20V. The battery was for months or a year in this discharged state. At first the charger went for less than 20 minutes to step “5” then after the voltage dropped to 12.22v the charger went to step “6” for less than 3 minutes and went back to step “3”. After some hours it went on step “6” again 14.39v and still going. The green “eye”( indicator ) on the battery went green from black. So far it’s working I will try later to start a car with this battery and see how it goes. I never try to recharge this battery with other charger before this one so I don’t know if a regular charger will bring it back to life like this one if it make it at all in the end. The unit is brand new and first use. At step “3” the charger became really hot it was measured on top - 64.5 degrees by Celsius And 51.1 degrees by Celsius on top of the fast connection in the “middle” of clamp cable. Update: the battery manage to start 1.9dt Diesel engine 3 times in a row. I didn’t try one more time. It’s good to discharge the battery to 10.5v (no more) and do the reconditioning one more time for better capacity restore. Conclusion: the charger is good

I own three different CTEK charges all for different purposes and use them quite regularly over the past 3 years. I definitely recommend their products!

I have had one of these constantly on charge for 18 months and it has been good.

I don't understand how the CTEK works but its a technoligical quantum leap from old battery chargers. I got mine from Halfords last year whilst on offer. Great charger but I must admit not to really understanding it thoroughly. You're methods of trying it on a few batteries is a great idea and a bit 'thank you' for doing this video. I now won't be so quick to condemn batteries !

Got the same mate and am quite pleased so far. Good choice.

Good video, Andy. Very informative and nicely done. Thanks.

Thank you for this helpfull en informative video. I just received my ctek 5.0, it’s charging my scooter battery right now👍🏻

We hardly drive my wife's car but when she wants to drive she only wants to drive her car and not my truck. Of course weeks can pass and she needs to go somewhere and there we are with a dead battery. So there i go scrambling to jump it with my truck to get her going and then worrying it it will start when she wants to come back home. This will be our solution. Thank you for giving me such a detailed exploration of the product.

Well worth it and I've had a CTEK since buying AGM batteries in 2012. Many people don't go to the trouble of "topping up" their batteries regularly, especially those who do many very short start-stop trips in a day. The battery never gets a proper charge, especially during winter's cold starts. I'm guilty of not being mindful of regular charging. Thanks for making and uploading this video.

Very clear and Scientific. Thank you for posting this

I was looking at getting one of these, this video was really helpful. Thanks for sharing and I hope your Dad wasn't too annoyed about you breaking his CTEK 😉

I have two of these CTek chargers , one I use permanently on a car which we rarely if ever use and another car we use daily and use the charger occasionally to keep the battery in good condition. Both have been easy to use and both have worked brilliantly, never had a battery problem since using the chargers. We have connected the batteries on both cars using the permanent to battery adapter and not used the alligator clips that makes life easier and quicker just plug in fittings, my only small moan was the adapter terminal connector it needed bigger holes to fit to the battery contact terminal, I just carefully made the holes bigger and all was good. Thanks a great video.

Thanks for an excellent, expertly presented, concise tutorial on what this excellent piece of kit does and how. Subscribed for more vids. You're a natural at this :)

To understand the mysterious operation of battery chargers, it is best to analyze the voltage and current with an oscilloscope. I use a Fluke Scopmeter with a current clamp probe. Case in point, the first stage of the CTEK is a desulfation pulse mode, although with a DMM it will not be able to respond a a high frequency voltage or current pulse. So with the DMM you will see an average reading or perhaps on AC volts true RMS if so equiped.

I bought 1 today and then reviewed it after. Pleased I did it. Looks like I'm getting a good 1. Nice work buddy.

So, the ctek charged and reconditioned my scooterbattery. I was having the same problem like you Andy, that with a “normal charger” after a few minutes the charger switched of, and the battery didn’t came above 12.2 volts (battery is one year old, and stood still during winter). With the ctek, after a few hours the charger said it was ready (stage 7), voltage was 13.2 volts now. I put it back into the scooter, and i could start the scooter again😁. Before the charge of the Ctek, i couldn’t start the scooter and had to kickstart it. So thanks again!

Excellent excellent video! I have the CTEK MXS 5.0 in my basket on Amazon. I think I'll proceed to checkout!

This looks like a really popular charger in Switzerland. On the biggest online sites it has 850 reviews/ratings and averages 4.8 stars. Just gotten a piece after watching your review, thanks man ;)

Excellent review, thanks for showing this comparison.

Because of this video, I bought the ctek mxs 5.0. I had to have the car jump-started when I was stranded at the supermarket and a shop around the corner started the car and then put a load test on the battery and told me I needed a new bat. I took the car to the dealer and they said the batter was ok but I was not driving the car enough to keep the batter up. That is when I bought the ctek and a year later the battery has not given me any trouble. I do put it on charge once a week and so far I am satisfied. Much cheaper than $275. battery

Love this product, just got 2 of my old AGM Odyssey battery’s going, best charger ever !! JC

Great job making the video and demo. I know that Jay Leno swears by these CTEK battery chargers, and uses them on all his cars in his shop. I have a Pulsetech Power Pulse battery desulfator that I keep on my BMW battery for the past three years, and is supposed to extend it's life up to three times with their patented frequency they use, I only drive the car about 5 miles per day, 25 miles a week, but have had no problems starting the car.

Looked at a ton of reviews, which were all positive and your video literally tipped the scales for purchase ... I've just ordered the CTEK MXS 5.0 off Amazon, as they have them on sale for £65.39 (15% off) at the moment, they're normally £95 ... I bought it for my BMW 2004 X3 E83 ... it actually looks like the BMW branded version but at a decent price, on or off sale ... I don't use the car as much as I should, hence doesn't get the proper charge it requires ... and today, when we wanted to go out, I had a flat battery ... this will now solve the 'standing still for weeks' issue ... great video fella ... thanks ...

Good video and well explained. I have noticed your digital multimeter has a low battery warning. This can give you wrong voltage readings, example your meter is telling you 13v when really it could be 11 or 12volt. This is just something that i experienced myself in the past. I will buy one of these ctek charges after watching this video. Cheers.

Thank you very much - Great Explination.

For a flooded battery if you can gain access to the cell you can use a hydrometer to estimate state of charge.

Just got one of these and wanted to let you know this is a great video.

I have had mine for 4 and 1/2 years. Use it on a BMW 430D 2016 plate (so coming up to 8 years old). VERY low mileage (still under 38,000). Garaged. I own the car outright, but since retiring 5 years ago it sits in my garage for weeks at a time. Annual mileage a paltry 1000-1200. When I drive it, I'll do 100 mile+ journeys. I get a battery check at the annual service, and never had any problem with it. I charge-up the battery fully every fortnight. Sometimes leave it on for very cold snaps. The battery went pretty low before I bought the CTEK; but it is fine since (though I switch off the auto stop/start) when driving. So, I can recommend the CTEK.

Fantastic step by step guide

Hi, I have the same one. 😏 The only thing I miss about this unit is that the desulphation phase (1) (with Soft Start (2)) is limited to 8 hours max I think. 😕 Best Regards,

Yep I have that exact charger. Same results!!!

Good demonstration, thanks for sharing.

Hooked the CTEK up to my 328i BMW at the underhood poles. It immediately jumped to level 3, within minutes to level 4, and I was pleased until I realized the the CTEK was getting very hot! Almost too hot to touch! I worried it was failing, or becoming a fire hazard, so I stopped the test. I never had a battery charger generate that kind of heat before.

I like this charger: did its job [at the moment due to the corona lockdown, my diesel car makes only short trips & its battery doesn't like that]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge!! Can this be used to recharge EFB car battery

Excelent review. U are unique person which i want to find out. Thanks.

Thanks for the video, very helpful.

Might want to check the battery acid level as well. So its topped off to max level. You can also check each cell with a acid tester.

Compact and capable charger. Could use longer leads. Consider buying the extension.

Great video, But why wouldn't you let it get to 8? The pulse mode. Maybe that was final conditioning.

Owned my Ctek since 2019 when I bought my 2018 LEAF. Never had trouble with leaf as many do and the dc to dc charger doesn’t rattle sulphate of the cells . A card alternator will do this. EV don’t have one

The auto stop/start works only occasionally on my Porsche 911 and I was told that the problem is the battery which is only 2 years old and registers at 14.6 volts. The CTEK was recommended to increase the battery strength and get the auto stop/start working. Very good video and your opinion would be appreciated since 14.6 volts seems like a healthy battery.

By coincidence I wrote a comment in another review where someone had asked if he could leave his attached to his truck. I replied that he could, but not to forget to remove it before driving away! Mine is due for a new battery, and I'll be installing those ring terminals so I don't make the same mistake. I have the same CTEK model, except the US version for 120 VAC. It's a bit more powerful than some other small chargers, delivering 50W of power compared to 25 and 12W for my others. 12W is only 1A, about what a trickle charger delivers, and not enough to recharge a dead battery in a reasonable time. I have others that deliver up to 100A, but they're big and have loud fans. IMO the CTEK _is_ well worth the money, but most of those numbered functions are window dressing. There are really only two charging modes: constant current and constant voltage. Non-engineers like to call these "bulk" and "absorption" for reasons that make no sense to anyone, but when you see those words, that's what _should_ be happening. Constant current charging is the fastest way to charge, with the charger delivering a constant current (and variable voltage) until the battery is nearly at capacity. Then constant voltage (and decreasing current) until it's charged. Lead acid batteries have a lot of self-discharge, so a second constant voltage "float" stage can be used to maintain a battery at a slightly lower voltage than the CV charging voltage. You can float charge a car battery indefinitely without overcharging. Other stages like "desulfation" and "pulse" are more gimmicks than useful. Mild sulfation can be reversed with normal charging, but it's rare to see reversible sulfation; most cases are permanent and no charger can fix it.

Would CTEK remember your settings in a power frailer?

Bought the CTEK 7002, rubber bumper & female Cig plug for power supply mode from Amazon. I have a 2008 & 2010 Honda Elements, I have to say the Honda batteries only last about 3 years, I am going to put the CTEK on the old Honda batteries and see what happens, get back to you with the results... Pennsylvania USA

A great review thanks.

I have 2 of these and found that trying to switch btn car and motorcycle charging soon becomes hit and miss.Seems to be a problem associated with the mode button. Hoping that there would have been a new version out by now cureing the issue. Not yet

Iv'e had one for about 5 years. Trickle charges my sports car. Almost on continually. Never had any problems with it.

Thank you for the information,♥️♥️ brother. I have this charger, but I am upset with it. It did not charge me any direct battery. It moves to step 4 after an hour, step 7 and then the charging is complete. But without any result, does the dsulfator feature work or is it just a fake charger?➡️📌➡️📌➡️

Which magazine reccomend CTEK, bought one, 😎keeps my e92 tip top.

Thanks ❤ I got one two weeks ago…. It’s work great 😊

I have 2 leisure batteries that I want to charge.....do I need 2 chargers....or can I connect them and charge in parallel???

Excellent Video. Cheers

Your old charger was looking at voltage and thats why it turned of and on while the ctek look at amperage and when the battery wont take any more amps it will set a floating voltage to keep the battery at a constant healthy voltage. And that ony supplies a few milliamps. Thats the difference here. If you would put a large resistor between the poles the ctek would never turn of (thats why it has a maximum absorption time) and if you did the same to the old charger it would probably work better and would not burn the battery. As it wouldn't keep charging it once the recuired voltage was met. But if you put a too large resistor the old charger would definitely burn the battery. The ctek is alot better but not perfect improvements can still be made but at its pricepoint its fair to say that its very good at what it does.

I've had mine on charge for about 10 hours now. A car that's been sitting for four months, a dead new battery. CTEK first shows the two car and regenerate lights and the green light to the left. Then it goes to just the green light blinking. No charge yet, it is only drawing 1.1 Watts from the wall. Any ideas sir?

I'm confused, why is there nothing attached to the negative battery terminal, only the red?

Firstly, good video but i would have liked to see you put the battery in a car and see if starts and possibly let it sit for a couple of days and try it again. That would prove just how good a job the ctek did. Cheers

Does it get pretty hot at "bulk" stage? Mine seems to be

I bought a Ctek max 5 used all summer for a car off the road from June to August. All seemed well but when temperatures dropped recently the battery had no power even though all the lights up to 7 were shown and no errors. I jump started the car today and after a short drive the car started instantly and an hour later. Before jumping he car the starter just clicked or turned over super slow. Is there a fault with my Ctek?? I bought it new.

I just bought a CTek for my 911, hooked it up and it’s on the third level or 3. Should I leave it on till it reaches a higher level? The car starts, but if I leave it a week it struggles a bit to start.

The pros of this new model year are AGM batteries chargeable, the cons are charging cables is very thin and hot while bulk charge stage and the Ctek connectors is very hot the result is charging voltage is lower than described for example the charging voltage for AMG battery is only 14.1 Volts lower than 14.7 Volts as described. This is the event that I had monitored to charging voltage graph . I had replaced the connectors with Anderson power pole connectors and charging cables with the thicker cables.

Hi, thanks a lot for the video. I got a new battery but for an unrelated issue the car has been 2 months sitting on the dealer. Now I want to charge the battery to get the start stop to work. I am totally useless with cars, also I am afraid the radio will ask for a code if I am to disconnect the battery, the screen of the radio doesn't work, so I might not be able to introduce the code. Can this be used without disconnecting the battery from the car or causing it to ask me for radio codes? Thanks

Best battery chargers I have ever used (I have the 5.0A and the 0,8A) - Is that LED flicker due to the camera? If it is doing that in "real life" something is not right - The LEDs should be stable, - no flicker. Thanks for an interesting video, sounds like a Tynesider)

I have a Porsche Charge-o-mat Pro that I use for my 2023 Porsche GTS with a Lithium Ion battery. There is a setting choice for LiFe-Po4 batteries on the charger. This is a CTEK battery that is branded for Porsche. Unfortunately the access to the battery is hard to get to in the frunk. Therefore I use the charge port inside the car. However, it appears the charger stops after the battery gets to a full charge. The plug in port on the car only stays live for 25 minutes and the charger must get plugged in within that time. Will this charger work repeatedly with an interior plug in port as I have described above? Thanks for any insights on this issue!

Im hoping to buy this for my Ford Fiesta 2019. Can I attach it to my battery and close the bonnet and leave it on charge?

Andy - thank you very much for the video. Two questions, please: 1. I have CTEK MSX 5.0 and a standard 2008 Porsche Boxster. Will the instructions in your video work on my model? 2. I'm going in for heart surgery in a week and cannot drive for a month. I was told to get the CTEK to make sure the battery doesn't die. How would you suggest using the CTEK for this time period? Many thanks again.

IM getting the CTEK CT5 Start/Stop charger

So apparently this CTEK unit replaced the CTEK 3300. Does anyone know why?

From the manual Security page: "Never place the battery charger on top of the battery while charging."

Just thought I'd add that if you can it might be a good idea to use these chargers upside down if possible as they tend to get really hot under full load and cook the control electronics that are located above the heatsink if used right side up.

Hi Andy Thanks for a very informative video. I own a 2018 Audi A3 TDI with EPB battery that's on the blink. The car has lots of eletronic sensors including one on the negative terminal of the battery. Is it safe to hook up this CTEK device to the battery while still connected to the car? Many thanks

Hi Andy. Great video 👍👍 I'm looking to get this charger as lots of short runs has led to me jump starting my car on numerous occasions & this is by far the best video I've seen 😃😃 Couple of questions though. Can I charge my car outside (Its literally just in front of my front door on the drive, so a power socket in the house via a window is no problem) and also how much did you pay for yours as you said it was on offer ? My battery is only 3 1/2 yrs old. Thanks again... Keep up the good work 👍👍 😃😃

I have the green light on, but nothing else. None of the LEDs above are burning.

I use mine with a 300watt sine wave inverter to give me remote battery recharging as I have no garage, working good outside in the car for a few years now.

Great tutorial

Great video thanks. Two questions, is it safe to use this charger via a12v socket and is it compatible with both conventional and stop start vehicles?

Hey i know that voice... Funny how we seem to have the exact same interests in life :D

After charging you should let it rest for some hours before doing testing

Does it chagre a Gel Battery? I have Yuasa REC80-12I model Gel Battery.

Did you check the levels inside the batteries and top up with distilled water?

You might not get the infringe that you're needing to start.Your vehicle at all, so be very careful on that 1.Most batteries may be able to be recoverable, but try it just to be sure if it doesn't.Then you can use it for other things but minimal things

Do you know how long it takes for a drained car battery to fully charge with the conditioning feature on? Thank you.

Can I place my car battery on the cement of my garage while it is trickle charging?

Did you test if the batteries were able to start a car after the reconditioning?

Recommended product we have 3 in family for 10+ years

Which model would you recommend for charging a SUV / Light truck? Thanks.

Does the ctek have to be always connected to the mains to charge car battery

My golf gti has a Mol EFB battery fitted. I take it that this is not an AGM type of battery and I don’t select “AGM” before charging? I’m expecting delivery of this charger plus extended leads today. Thanks for the very concise and extremely useful video.

Wanted to but one of these chargers ...after reading reviews on Amazon 18 months seems to be Achilles heel for failure

Mine is going back, has totally destroyed two 120 ah deep cycle batteries that were just under the 12-volt threshold. IMO it's a dangerous piece of kit

There is no way any device can recondition battery to it's prime out of the factory state, so people need to manage their expectations - HOWEVER - in vehicle use (specially if battery is under bonnet / hood as opposed to being located in the boot / trunk due to high temp of the engine ... not to mention start stop) can be very punishing for battery, so there is some mileage in performing few well controlled cycles to bring battery closer to it's relative to the age capacity (reformatting ?), which this units seems to be doing ! Thanks for the vid, I was wondering my self what were the voltages per stages - THANKS !

Hi i have a vfm Sportline rv 12v 80 ah 540 cca battery now i have to charge it but I’m not sure if its a agm battery or normal. Which setting should i use to charge it agm or normal? It would be great if any one can help?

Per the manual; You're not supposed to connect the negative connector to the battery. Only connect the positive to the positive. You're supposed to ground the negative elsewhere, on another piece of metal that is grounded. You need to do this when it's in the car as well.

Question: I don't have the tools to take my battery out of the car. Is it possible to just charge the battery while it's still attached to the car? (Just like I would, if I were to jump start it.)

Guessing someone else has already left a comment, but 12V vehicles should have a charging voltage of 14.42V at 20 degrees C. Higher when the temperature is lower.

Will this charger automatically recognize a Sealed Gel Battery? I’m seeing it only has the option for AGM. Secondly what would you recommend for charging a Gel or AGM 12v 200ah battery used in a solar system?