Need help with my Celestron Power Tank 17

[randyv]

I've had my tank for over a year - it just kept working and working.

My bad, I didn't charge it up. Went to use it the other night, and it is really quite low.

I'm trying to charge it but when I click the switch to the CHA position, the red charging light and green fully charged lights come on simultaneously for about 1 second, then I hear a 'thunk' and the lights go out.

I have pressed the reset button on the circuit breaker. No luck.

What should I do? Continue to charge it or is it toast?

TiA

randyv

[Psychobilly]

I would say the battery needs replacing probably one or more cells have gone hi resistance (sulphated). It might be brought back to life with a more sophisticated charger like the Ctek ones .. but they ain't cheap...

[randyv]

I was afraid you were going to say that ;-)

But thanks for the information !

[Zakalwe]

Cteks are good (as are Optimate). See if you can get a 2nd hand CTek on eBay? They are sold as motorcycle battery chargers/tenders.

They might recover it...the battery won't be as good as new, but it might keep going for another bit.

[Stu]

I had a Halfords Power Pack 200 that I did the same to ie left it to discharge and it wouldn't hold charge any more. It only cost me £15 for a replacement internal battery which I was pleasantly surprised by. Not sure about the Celestrons but might not be as bad as you think

Stu

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

[MorningMajor]

Have a word with the guys at FLO (link at top of page) when they ran out of power packs they pointed me in the direction of the Maplins route, so they may know what sort of replacement battery you'll need, without having to pay Celestron prices

[brantuk]

Did a similar thing myself with a powertank when I was a newbie. Left it 6mths over winter and it was dead as a dodo when I next came to use it. Easy enough to replace though - got a 20ah one in it now - but it's a hell of a fiddly job. They really couldn't make a simple thing more difficult if they tried lol

[Sparrow]

Yes I did the same trick as well and mine went flat. The supplied charger for it just wouldn't charge it any more so I hooked the jump leads on it up to a car battery charger and it works a treat. I've re-charged it this way many times now and it still works well. BTW the car battery charger is nothing special - just a cheapo one donkeys years old from halfords I think.