I used the Power Box again today to charge up the Odyssey Battery, while having lunch~!
In the photo the powerful inverter (600watts) is giving 120v output to C-Tek AGM charger.
The Charger is placing 3.3 amps at 14.64 volts into the car battery.
The meter initially on the powerbox only displayed a draw of only 20 watts while charging the car battery. One hour later the self sensing charger indicates full.

This is one handy item and it get used a lot.

i dont have a need for the box but i love my ctech, so much handier than the old boxes

YA small footprint and waterproof too.
The C-Tek is definitely a smart charger and has the ability to restore to life older batteries, with a multi step desulphation phase as well.

I may try one of those some day, I have grown fond of my Battery tender though, it may not be waterproof, but they do sell a waterproof one, I like how well ventilated mine is, the C-Teks look like they'd have trouble dissipating the heat, at least given the way I constantly leave mine hooked up to the car.
Of course in my case I do still have a bit of a parasitic drain that I have been too lazy to track down.

I am not really convinced the desulphation phase really does much good, if a lead acid battery is let run low for so long to the point a battery is failing from sulfation, you'd think the desulphation phase may give it a little more life, but I think that would be a short additional life, at that point it is most likely better to buy a new battery.
That C-Tek does look cooler than mine though.


Found a good read on sulfation.
Sulfation and How to Prevent it - Battery University


"Several companies offer anti-sulfation devices that apply pulses to the battery terminals to prevent and reverse sulfation. Such technologies tend to lower sulfation on a healthy battery but they cannot effectively reverse the condition once present. Manufacturers offering these devices take the “one size fits all” approach and the method is unscientific. A random service of pulsing or blindly applying an overcharge can harm the battery in promoting grid corrosion. Technologies are being developed that measure the level of sulfation and apply a calculated overcharge to dissolve the crystals. Chargers featuring this technique only apply de-sulfation if sulfation is present and only for the time needed."


If you read that it seems sulfation mainly comes from a batter not maintaining a proper charge, so if a batter is properly maintained (being deprived of a full charge) it seems desulfation would not really be necessary.

sulfation occurs all the time, if you keep your battery topped up it deposits less. sometimes it is possible to desulfate a battery, desufating chargers give quick bursts of power that are opposite charge of the plates to try to get the sulfate off. sometimes it works and most times its like you say its better just to keep it topped up.

as far as the charger i got the 4.3 and they are both about 50 bucks but the ctek is water proof and charges almost 4 times as fast. i never had any heat issues, and are constantly in full charge mode because i move it to each car, quad, tractor, mower, etc. all the crap i have around here. and when i had the big tractor outside it was nice just to put a cord out and leave the thing on the seat.