[Xccelerate]

So I have apparently not been driving the x5m enough. Battery maintenance light almost every day. Added the CTEK TODAY and it’s been on for a few hours
Still looks super low charge.

Thiughts team? Should I do this everyday? It’s just clipped to the front terminals atm.

[MADBMWX5MC]

How long does it sit w/o driving? On my 2006 Mustang, which is my show car, I plug in my charger from time to time to keep the battery at peak. Sometimes it sits for up to 4 weeks.

[Alan l.]

I use my ctek daily and even if my battery is at 90+ % it will still take the ctek a few hours to move from 3 to 7/8. Usually within a few hours it would move to that status but if the battery is low where I haven't used the ctek for awhile it would take closer to 15-20 hours to get to stage 7/8. I usually verify the battery level using the bimmerlink app.

[chefwong]

OP. FWIW, hit mode. It should be set on AGM fwiw.
The one you have is set for flooded cell....

Your unit is 5A output. They do make a 7 and 10 .
The larger units will be faster during the bulk charge, which is step 3 that your pic seems it's still on.

IME, on the opposite spectrum, a decent charged battery may take anywhere from 45-90 minutes for it to be on bulk.
The Loooongest times is the absorption phase, which is basically # 4 on your unit.
But every Ctek unit is different in its algorithim. The larger unit on mine, in absorption seems to run a bit *faster* than my smaller unit...which like 2X faster but it shouldn't as it's just declining current trying to fill up every nook and cranny.

Regardless, you're on the right path as *all batteries* as most happiest at full SOC

[Xccelerate]

Thanks everyone duly noted the information. It’s typically driven every day but probably not more than 10 to 15 miles. I typically drive it to work but I’m pretty local. But I did notice today, It was operating a bit better after being charged overnight.

I will look into getting the larger unit though.

[redpill]

get it to 7 and once every week if you are driving very less

[chefwong]

Don't let my bad experience sway you buy I used to keep the entire fleet on chargers. Had pigtails installed for easy access, etc. I once had an expensive deep cycle go bad - and the only thing I could attribute it was possibly the charger....

So I don't keep them on the car consistently but only -charge/maintain/top it off- based on known use cases - where it's been driven 1-2X over the course of 2weeks, and it didn't see much -alternator charging, etc.

Bear in mind, with efficient dynamics, the alt is on clutch, so it mainly charges when you're braking, etc. There is a threshold where the Alternator will turn constant it if the battery is low enough but regardless, any battery is best when it's always at a full SOC