Trickle charger?

[eelblac]

Any recommendations for a trickle charger? If I don't drive the X5 for a while (like if I'm away on a long vacation), I'd like to not have the battery drain down on me.

[c3uo]

Ctek or Noco Genius. Both excellent. I recommend them above the Deltran Battery charger as they are more advanced, step charging, desulphation, and show level of charge, etc. The Noco and Ctek are made for our AGM batteries.

That said, the Deltran and Ctek are both OEM I believe (just rebadged for BMW).

I used to have a Deltran, but now use a Noco on my X3 when away for a couple weeks during cold winters (-20 or so).

[eelblac]

@c3uo, I appreciate your response. Helpful to hear from someone with real experience!

[barcelona]

From, Canada I have the BMW branded ( made by Deltran) works perfect, it has twice the amperage as the USA Delran version. About 5 months ago BMW USA sells the Ctek version rebranded as BMW. I agree with C3u0 it has more features than the Deltran, if I had to buy again I would pick Ctek.

[42pilot]

You need a "battery tender" (name of brand unfortunately) that monitors the charge and drain, then maintains the proper level automatically. Unless its a deep cycle, lead-acid batteries do not like cycling and simple trickle charging keeps pushing low amps into the battery, regardless if it's full or not. It's something to consider since our cars need a good strong current not only to start (950 cold cranking amps!!!), but to keep the computer and injectors at the proper amp/volt level to work. My Merc has two batteries - one to start and one to run everything else on the car. It's that important.