Spotlight: CTEK

Jan. 1, 2020

Intelligent vehicles need intelligent battery chargers.

As vehicles become smarter with an increasing number of electronic systems aboard, the charging systems and, in particular, the battery-charging systems have also become smarter. The old standby—the flooded lead-acid battery—has been replaced in many cases by the maintenance-free battery, gel batteries, and absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries.

As ECUs took control of vehicle engine function, vehicle electrical needs changed. They may still be called 12-volt battery systems, but the alternators are charging batteries up to 14.4/14.7 volts, and in many cases, the ECUs shut down if the available voltage is lower than 12. Batteries today need to be recharged to 14.4 to 14.7 volts.

Enter the intelligent battery-charging system from CTEK. The firm was founded in Sweden in 1997 and opened a U.S. division in 2005. CTEK now offers a line of three battery chargers in the U.S. through CTEK Power, Inc., the U.S. division of CTEK Sweden AB.

CTEK battery chargers are designed to recover or "wake" a sulfated or undercharged battery, charge a battery with a charge as low as 1.5 volts, apply a peak charge at 14.4/14.7 volts until fully charged, and send out current pulses for charge maintenance.

The most popular CTEK unit, the MULTI US 3300 weighs just over one pound, can be mounted on the vehicle (it's dustproof, splashproof, and weatherproof), and is designed to enable fast recharging in even the coldest weather. (Did we mention, the parent company is located in Sweden?) CTEK battery chargers offer another great feature—they cannot be hooked up incorrectly and fry delicate circuits; CTEK battery chargers are protected against sparks, short circuits, and reversed polarity.

CTEK Sweden AB was founded in 1997 and CTEK Power Inc. was founded in the U.S. in July 2005. The parent company is located in Vikmanshyttan, a small town in central Sweden, and the U.S. division is based in Twinsburg, Ohio. CTEK is a sister company to Creator Teknisk Utveckling AB, founded in 1982 and began working with batteries in 1992. Creator is an international design and development company based in Sweden. Also based in Sweden, CTEK currently sells three battery charger models in the U.S.—the US 800, MULTI US 3300, and top-of-the-line MULTI US 7000. The company also manufactures private-label OEM on-board battery chargers for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. For more information, contact: www.ctek.com.