A shed full of toys means one thing — batteries, lots of damn batteries. Keeping all of these pesky little life sources ready for action at the flick of a key can be a part-time job if you don’t have a set-and-forget charger. With Projecta’s new Charge ’n’ Maintain, you can do just that. We got our hands on the four-amp version and have been putting it through its paces in the shed, keeping our battery fleet topped up.
It is an eight-stage charger, which means it automatically goes through eight differing stages of charge, including a repair stage up front. It then finishes with a float charge, which maintains the maximum voltage you have set. An LCD screen shows the current battery voltage, the charging mode, and also allows you to select the charging mode, with slow, fast, and winter modes offered for 12V. There is a 6V option, too, if you prefer those oily boys. The difference between the three 12V modes is the speed of charging on this model (either one or four amps), and the maximum voltage is with the winter mode, the highest setting of 14.7. This is also important because you need to set the mode to suit the size of the battery you’re charging. A handy reference table is included.
One little safety inclusion we like is the spark-free action of the clamps — touch them together without fear of throwing sparks — but also included is a wire-in hard-charge cable with fuse, which we have installed onto our race battery in our complete loss speedway car, something that lives on the charger between meets and even between races.
These are available nationwide from leading automotive retailers.