Product review of MPL10 battery charger
We recently worked with Professional Motor Mechanic to test our MPL10 Battery Charger units with independent garages, to gain a better understanding of the needs of mechanics when using battery chargers. One of our reviewers was particularly impressed with the unit and we wanted to share his feedback with you.
Here’s the review, by Des Davies of Top Gear Motor Services:
“I have been testing the Traction Direct’s MPL10 battery charger for the PMM magazine. The MPL battery charger is available in 12V, 10A, 20A, 50A and 24V 10A and 20A versions.
On receiving the battery charger you can see that it is of good construction, robust and well built. This MPL10 is suitable for use on AGM, GEL, Calcium and Lead Acid battery types, this means it is suitable for all types of vehicle batteries that are used today.
It has a switch at the front of the charger to change to these modes, it is also OEM approved by some vehicle and battery manufacturers e.g. Jaguar, Volvo, Ford, Landrover and Nissan.
It has its own patented Sulphation Recovery System, which also has, a Short Circuit shutdown without a blown fuse. And a Reverse Polarity Protection, Soft start current control, 3 stage charging (CI,CV and Float).
As well as Proportional timing with minimal gas emission, Constant voltage float/standby plus other features.
Easy, safe and simple to use with safety features that prevent recharging if the connections are accidently reversed, and it needs to see a small voltage for the soft start current control to initiate the start of charging.
It only puts around 50% maximum current into a partially discharged battery to limit excessive current and heat that may cause damage to the plates and battery.
Most battery chargers need to see around 8 Volts to recognise a battery, this charger only needs to see 1 Volt, this meant that this charger was capable of charging a battery that was completely flat. I had a few batteries laying around that were incapable of starting a vehicle and this charger seems to have brought 2 of them back to life again.
I could see the battery charger pulsing on and off by the red LED lights on the front of the charger on all of the batteries that were charged, which turned on a green LED when fully charged. This pulsing was seen at different modes whilst the batteries tested were on charge.
It charges at 20% increments of the 100% current, which on this particular charger was 10Amps max, where 20% would be 2Amps of current.
The programme actively balances the Amp and voltage inputs and regulates them to achieve 100% charge in the shortest time without the danger of gassing or thermal runaway (battery overheating).
It automatically switched to conditioning mode when it’s finished charging, so you get the maximum out of the battery’s ability and therefore it can be left connected indefinitely at the end of charging which helps to compensate for a self-discharge.
It is nice to see a good quality UK manufactured equipment, rather than the European or Chinese products that seem to flood the market these days (carbon foot print).
I especially liked the long battery connection leads approximately 5ft 5ins long and a longer main power leads at approximately 16ft as well, which gives good connection options on most vehicles, especially batteries mounted under the seat and in the boot/luggage areas (this was a generous and excellent addition to this product, well done!). The battery clamps were also rigid and well constructed giving a firm grip of the battery terminals.
I have used this charger on numerous vehicles that came to my workshop and was quite impressed and amazed by how quickly it recharged the batteries to 100% compared to my own smart battery chargers.
I liked this charger very much as it was easy to use, safe and a lot quicker to recharge the batteries than my existing 2 chargers.
A very good quality product well worth the investment to keep your batteries fully charged and in tip top condition.
A brilliant piece of equipment and a must for your workshop.”
A huge thank you to Des, and Professional Motor Mechanic.