CTEK CS ONE battery charger tested

When you own multiple vehicles including some that don’t get driven all the time, a quality battery charger becomes an invaluable piece of kit.

If your vehicles range from your family car to your weekend 4x4, your motorcycles and your boat, you can end up needing multiple chargers to suit the different vehicles and their batteries.

Not only that but with 4x4s we will often have different types of batteries in the ONE vehicle, with a lead-acid or AGM starter battery and a lithium auxiliary battery, and these will require specific battery chargers to suit. The latest charger from Swedish manufacturer CTEK is a game changer in that it adapts to whatever battery type it’s connected to.

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I have run a couple of CTEK battery chargers over the years, swapping between bikes and cars that don’t get used enough to keep the batteries charged and maintained. One of the great things about these chargers is how easy they are to use, but you still need to choose the right charger to suit the battery being charged.

The new CTEK CS ONE simplifies charging even more by automatically adapting to whatever battery you connect it to.

The CS ONE is an eight-amp, 12-volt charger with multiple modes automatically chosen depending on the needs of the battery it is hooked up to. It looks like no other battery charger; its sleek black housing has no buttons so there’s no way to manually select what type of battery you are connecting it to, and nor can you manually select a charging mode. But you don’t need to, as the CS ONE does it all for you.

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Also foreign are the alligator clamps that attach to the battery, as they are both black and there is no differentiation between positive and negative. You can fit them to either pole on the battery and the unit automatically senses the polarity and accommodates it. That’s ONE less thing that the user needs to think about, not that it was ever that difficult to match red to red and black to black.

When you plug in the CS ONE and power it up, it ‘talks’ to the battery to find out its type, the polarity you have hooked the clamps to, the state of charge or condition of the battery, and what is needed to charge it. CTEK calls this APTO Technology.

The CS ONE is suitable for charging any 12V lead-acid or lithium (LiFePO4) battery, and APTO automatically selects the charging program to suit according to the information it has gathered. There is a circle of LEDs on the top indicating the state charge and how long it will take to fully charge the battery.

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Once the battery reaches full charge, the LEDs start to pulse, indicating that the CS ONE has switched to a battery management program to keep the battery in peak condition. It really couldn’t be any easier to use.

APTO also recognises if the battery has a dead cell or has de-sulphated, and will indicate such a fault. If your AGM or lithium battery has dropped to a state of charge where it has entered ‘sleep’ mode, you can access ‘Wake Up’ mode via the CTEK app.

Also in the app is a RECON mode to recondition batteries that have sat discharged for excessive periods and a SUPPLY function that provides 12 volts to maintain the vehicle’s clock and settings if and when you need to disconnect the main battery.

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Unfortunately, I was unable to connect the CTEK app to the CS ONE despite trying many times, using a few different methods as per the user manual and the online tutorials, so unlocking those extra features, some of which would be useful for four-wheel drivers using auxiliary batteries, weren’t available to me.

Another thing that might be an issue for some users is the CS ONE is only made to charge 12-volt batteries and not the battery in your old six-volt car or bike. With this experience, I reckon the CS ONE would be better off having buttons and controls on it so that it can be fully functional without the need to use a phone app. What I am left with is a great, simple-to-use battery charger but one that I can’t use to its full potential.

There is a range of accessories available from CTEK for the CS ONE including a rubber ‘bumper’ that fits around the unit’s plastic case to protect it. We reckon this should be standard and it gives the CS ONE a feeling of higher quality.

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A CS Connect adaptor cable allows you to use other CTEK products with the CS ONE; in my case this allows me to fit the CS ONE directly to the CTEK plug I have permanently fitted to my motorcycle’s battery, which saves me from having to remove the seat whenever I need to access the battery for charging. That cable is also available separately, as is a wall mount and storage case that fits the charger and all accessories.

Despite my troubles with the Bluetooth connection to the app, the CTEK CS ONE remains the cleverest and simplest battery charger I have ever used. It takes away any guesswork when hooking the charger up and diagnosing battery faults, and its ability to operate with all the popular battery types makes it priceless. I’ve been using it on my motorbike and my 4x4 (with its dual AGM batteries) and it has worked flawlessly.

That said, the CTEK CS ONE ain’t cheap; it will cost you $399 from your local Repco store and other auto parts outlets, but it is a quality product backed up by a five-year warranty.