My old Crypton Battery Charger ~ Risen like the Phoenix ...
 

I had popped out when MarinaBrian called last week. He spotted my old battery charger in pieces out in the sunshine to dry after I had painted it to freshen up that half a century of fading paint. He mentioned this on the "WIDWM R75/ZT Today" thread.. :)

After fifty years of regular use, the slide switch from 6volts to 12volts had started to play up and the Charger would sometimes turn off before the charge was complete. Fiddling with the slide switch usually got it going again but not always reliably. When working well it is a superb battery charger and at least worth trying to restore to good health for that reason.

Removing the casing revealed the problem. The 12 volt wire to the slide switch had become detached and so contact was not always good. Old age simple as that. Imagine my delight when searching ebay that a near identical slide switch was available for a total of £1.47p posted ! Even all the dimensions were identical including the position of the mounting holes.

It arrived a couple of days ago and an hour with the soldering iron saw the various wires reconnected to the new switch. Before replacing the top cover, I decided to give a brief test to see if my work had been worth while. It had ~ see first image working perfectly.

I allowed the test to last for a while and it had not turned itself off. Now reassembled, ready for another half century of reliable use... ;)

I like little jobs like this. Get lots of pleasure from it. Getting things going again and in good health in this throw away world of today. Be they an old Battery Charger or an old Rover or MG most folks would throw away at the first sign of something wrong needing a few quid spent...

The second image shows the "before" state of the Charger. The third all back together after reassembly. Just need a nice pair of curved crocodile clips to replace the old worn out ones and the job's a good 'n..

Well done, it looks really good. I often find old tools are superior to the new versions.

I too have a Crypton charger identical to yours (5A 6 or 12 volt) which must be around 50 years old and still works perfectly well.

I did treat myself to a CTEC smart charger around 5 years ago so I can leave it on indefinitely when it suits me and that is a great little unit which will no doubt see me out!

A man after my own heart, I love fixing old stuff where possible, swmbo gets quite irritated by the amount of time I can spend tinkering :D

Well done on getting it sorted, its a very satisfying thing to do - irrespective of the effort put into it.

I disposed of all of my uncontrolled chargers long ago, or converted them to controlled ones if they were worthy of the effort.

You can convert many of them with just a voltage comparator and a relay which trips open at a pre set voltage.

Marinabrian was in Gloucester??? D’Oh! I could have had a spare key…

Couldn't agree more. I’ll never forget when my Black & Decker jigsaw suddenly stopped working, just out of warranty. In fairness to B&D, I WAS using it to saw pallets up for my woodburner, which probably wasn’t its primary intended purpose.

Naturally, I took it to bits, and discovered that a pin on a cog wheel had sheared – all it needed was a new wheel/pin. I trotted off down to the B&D shop (they had their own, back then) in my shiny red Astra GSI 16V – how times, and I, have changed – and asked for one:

“Better to buy a refurbished unit, Sir. Year’s warranty and everything. Only £39.99”.

- Thank you SO much for your helpful suggestion, but I’d just like the cog please, as I really don’t believe in just chucking things away – do you supply them?

“Oh, yes Sir, we do”.

- Excellent! I’ll have one of those, please.

“Certainly Sir, That’ll be £39.99…”

Bit like the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch…

I was on holiday staying in a cottage in English Bicknor.....

Somehow I don't think Mrs Marinabrian would have been too happy if I was off gallivanting doing keys :eek::getmecoat:

Brian :D

Yes, completely unreasonable, these women :getmecoat:

And there I was thinking my battery charger was REALLY old at 35 years.---:duh:

I'm still using the socket set I bought in 1972 - some sort of anonymous brand everybody told me not to waste my money on at the time, as it was "cheap ****". A bit like my £16.50 rear parking sensor setup... 4 years and counting...

Oh sorry, I'm not allowed to say ****. Funny, the word has nothing to do with poo... it's from late Middle English for chaff/Middle Dutch "krappe", anything cut off or separated... not the most offensive thing in the world. Hey ho.