Battery chargers and maintainers come in various guises, but CTEK are the daddies of the industry. Started over 20 years ago in Sweden it was the first battery charger to use electronic pulse technology which led to the first ‘smart’ battery charger.
Their latest product, the CTEK CS One aims to revolutionise things a step further.
What is it?
The CTEK CS One is a battery charger and maintainer, it will keep your car or motorcyle battery fully charged and in the best possible health. It can also recondition and wake-up lead-acid batteries, wake-up dead lithium batteries as well as being a 12v power supply to your vehicle if you remove the battery.
It comes with APTO (Adaptive Charging) technology (this is the revolutionary bit). APTO means you don’t need to worry about positive and negative clamps anymore, just attach them and the charger figures out the rest. It’s also clever enough to work out the type of battery you’ve attached it to, so there’s no getting the settings wrong and irreparably damaging your battery.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s an app which links the CS One via Bluetooth so you can check charge status as well as using the different modes.
How does it work?
Simply plug the CS One into the mains, attach the clamps to the battery (any way round) and that’s it.
There are no buttons on the CS One, just the circular status display that lights up different segments to tell you the charge status.
Being polarity-free means there’s no danger of putting the red clamp on the black post, or the black clamp on the red post – not that this is difficult to do, but you know, some people struggle to comprehend the most basic things in this world.
A worthy note is that the CS One isn’t fully polarity free. If you use the ‘Wake Up’ or ‘Supply’ modes, the shorter lead of the two needs to go onto the negative battery terminal. It does warn you of this in the app settings, but it’s worth remembering amid all the ‘polarity free’ branding.
The clamps are also spark-free if you do happen to touch them together.
In terms of battery size, the CS One is fully adaptive up to 8 Amps and batteries of 180Ah in size. It doesn’t matter what the battery type is either, it will charge all 12v batteries – Lead Acid, Wet, MF CA/CA, AGM, Gel and EFB. It will also charge newer Lithium LiFePO4.
It’s worth noting that the vast majority of ‘dumb’ battery maintainers and chargers can’t charge Lithium batteries. Doing so will likely result in a pretty incredible fire that you can’t put out, so remember that.
The CS One is also clever enough to read the battery’s health, along with adjusting the voltage depending on the ambient temperature. It can also detect bad cells along with restoring battery life and reconditioning flat batteries.
What’s it like?
Well, the unit itself is the same size as any other battery charger/maintainer. It feels pretty light and is IP65 rated, which gives it the highest level of dust protection and is able to withstand low-pressure water jets from all directions – safe to say you could mount it outside and it would be fine.
It’s a smart looker with the gloss black front, how long you’ll keep it looking that fancy when it falls on the garage floor or gets dragged across your engine bay…who knows? It also doesn’t come with any sort of ‘protection’ for the unit, but more on that later.
The main display is super easy to read, six segments light up depending on the charge status. They’re labelled with the hours left until full charge along with a ‘Start’ segment which flashes away while the charger is working out the battery type and health.
Connecting the CS One via Bluetooth is straightforward enough, two segments flash blue after you’ve plugged it in which shows it’s ready to pair. For some unknown reason you need to create an account to use the app (why?!), but once registered and logged in (why?!) you can link your phone to the CS One.
This allows access to the 12v power supply mode and the recondition function. The range is good, I could leave the CS One plugged in the garage and stand in the living room 4 metres or so away and it connected just fine.
We tested the battery on normal lead acid and a gel AGM, both charged absolutely fine, with the app showing how many amps and volts were being put into each. There was a firmware update for the charger (because it’s that clever) but the app on my Samsung phone just kept crashing and wouldn’t update at all. Downloading the CTEK app on an older Huawei and the firmware update downloaded and installed just fine. So I’d say the app is still a little buggy in certain circumstances.
When it comes to ease of use – the fact that you can literally attach it to any type of battery – means you really can’t fault the CTEK One. If you were looking for a battery charger to have for the rest of your life, it’s undoubtedly the best investment you can make. There’s also a five-year warranty.
But the main gripes are that for the price point (£220) it comes with nothing. You literally get what you see here, the charger in a cardboard box.
How do I store it nicely when it’s not in use if I’m an occasional user? In the cardboard box it came in?
How do I mount it to the wall? There’s only the proprietary hole for the mounting plate on the reverse, no hook or screw hole – you have to buy the mounting plate if you want it attached to a wall.
And, to me at least, those who are making this sizeable investment in a battery maintainer likely have a car that’s stored for most of the year, so you want the permanent hook-up cables along with the clamps. Yup, they’re extra too.
I mention this purely because cheaper battery chargers, like the RING Smart Battery Charger and the marA Bluetooth Battery Charger both come with a hook, so you can wall mount them, permanent hook-up cables and the marA even comes with a little drawstring bag to store it in – and you also don’t need to create an account to use their Bluetooth app.
You can buy all these extras that in reality, you’ll likely need:
CTEK CS One Wall Mount – £24.99
CTEK CS One U Terminal – £19.99
CTEK CS Connect Adapter Cable – £11 (needed for the U Terminal permanent connection)
CTEK CS One Storage Bag – £29.99
So for an extra £104.97 you can fully protect, wall mount and permanently hook up your CTEK CS One.
Come on, guys. Charging £24.99 for a wall mount because you haven’t put a hook on the device? It’s just an easy way to make people pony up extra cash on an already premium, expensive device.
Add an extra £30 or £40 to the CS One and include all this stuff with it. Make it a ‘deluxe’ pack.
Apart from the lack of necessary extras, we really can’t fault the CTEK CS One. Lithium batteries are ultimately the future of all car batteries, with many motorcyclists swapping out their heavy lead-acid’s for lithium already. So it makes total sense to future-proof yourself by choosing a charger that can deal with LiFePO4 cells. In addition to its compatibility with lithium batteries, the CTEK CS One offers an intuitive interface that makes charging straightforward for users of all levels. For those looking for a more comprehensive evaluation of charging options, a ctek pro25s battery charger review highlights its robust features and reliability for various battery types. This versatility ensures that whether you’re charging a motorcycle or a car battery, you can trust in the performance and longevity of your investment.
The CS One is also great if (like me) you can find batteries totally dead after a long time in storage. Having the confidence that the CS One will gently recondition a battery could well save the cost of a new one – I’ll let you know how it gets on when the situation arises.
Where can I get one?
You can purchase the CTEK CS One directly from Amazon, it’s also available at Halfords but you’ll likely have to order it to store or for delivery.
