Maypole Smart Charger – Product Review

As we have touched on in the past, a flat battery is a rubbish thing to discover. However, batteries are not perfect. If, like us, you hide your classic away during the winter or even through the week, you’ll know exactly what we mean. There’s nothing hideously wrong with your car. It’s just that old cars can suck up the electric juice, slowly, even when sitting still. Then there are fluctuations in temperature, which can see to it that your battery loses charge. What you need, then, is a smart charger. But they’re expensive, right? Well, no actually, as this nifty unit from Maypole goes to show.

Get your Maypole Smart Charger here

The Product

The Maypole 4A Electronic Smart Charger is your basic little trickle charger. The kind of thing you connect to your car and then leave, safe in the knowledge it will keep the volts topped up. Once connected, it can sense when the battery is dropping in power, so it feeds some charge into it. In doing this, it check the condition of the battery, and in turn maintains it. Yes, you can charge a flat battery with a proper charger, but that does them harm in the long run. It’s better to have a device like this keeping it at a healthy level. You have plenty of safety built in, too. The Maypole unit can detect overload, reverse polarity and short circuit issues and will shut down accordingly. It won’t overcharge or overwork the battery. It can be fitted on vehicles form motorbikes up to 2,500cc, it comes with a 1.5m built in cable, and the option of a hard-wired connection or crocodile clips. The former of which is fused again. More safety. Nice. It’s a light, but well-built little unit and at the moment it’s a mere £25. That’s a bargain.

The Test

Other than plug it into the wall and connect it to my car, there isn’t really a lot I can do. However, the car in question – my Rover 800 Vitesse – does have a parasitic drain (because Rover) and the battery does indeed go flat. It’s annoying, as it’s a new battery. However, this Maypole unit seems to keep it at a happy 13.5v and ready to go at the turn of a key. Excellent. And it even comes with a little hook so I can hang it on the wall. What a time to be alive. It only has one button, to scroll through modes such as 12V winter charge and 6/12v slow and fast charge. Naturally, I put it on winter mode. It works just fine and dandy. And all for £25.

The Result 

Does what it says on the tin, and so far does it well. It’s not awash with buttons and features, and is instead built to do one thing. It doesn’t get hot, it doesn’t have a transformer in it, so no worrying noises. We checked our in-home smart meter, and it’s made little to no impact on our energy use. You see, it’s always plugged in, but it’s not always ‘on’. It only does something when the battery voltage drops. But by having it on the car, I know it will always start, and I’m not doing any further harm to my new battery by accidentally letting it go flatter than a flat thing eating flatbread in a block of flats.

The Verdict – 5 out of 5

It’s £25, it’s well made, it does the job. Top marks. And proof that while more expensive options are good, and may pack more features, the reality is you don’t need to break the bank just to keep your battery happy.