UKC

As in the title, I’m in need of a car battery charger, well a brief google turns up a bewildering array.  My primary use will be maintenance aka trickle charging.  So, any tips as I can spend any amount of money, but want one that does the job but not stupidly expensive  

Depends what you're planning to charge - if it's a car (12v) this one is really good - comes with an adapter you can leave in place on the vehicle you want to trickle charge so is easy and convenient to attach or remove the charger when needed. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Automatic-Maintainer-maintainence-motorcycle/...

If you need 6v or both 12v and 6v maybe try this one? 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-chargers/half...

Cheers, yes it’s a car 

I'm actually using an Optimate 3 SP motorbike charger as a trickle charger on the car

Left over from when I owned a motorbike and someone else on here recommended it would be ideal as a car trickle charger when I asked the same question a couple of years ago. Has worked brilliantly on my Audi over the last couple of years.

Comes with both a lead that can be left attached to the battery, or a set of croc clips.

CTEK

A CTEK charger works well for me. Good range of options. Some models have options for refresh cycles etc. Quite compact.

Same here! I have an Optimate left over from my biking days and when the battery went flaky in my previous car I hooked up the adaptor so I could plug it in every night to keep it topped up. It's not really rated for such a big battery but did the job fine.

My current car needs to be charged every night too, but that's to be expected with a Nissan Leaf 🙂

Check what kind of battery you have. If your car has a stop/start system, it will have a specific kind of battery (an EFB or AGM battery), and you will need a charger designed for such. To be fair most modern chargers handle this, but the very cheapest ones may not. 

Cheers

Paul 

Interesting - I wasn't aware there was any difference.

My Audi has stop/start and the Optimate doesn't seem to have had/caused any issues with it - and bikes don't have stop/start (that I'm aware of).

CTEK

not only does it charge, it recondition. I had a couple of "dead" batteries knocking about which are now functional. 

Great as a trickle charger for my toy car too. It came with a wiring loom to make attachment easy as well as a pair of clips. 

NOCO are amazing but pricey. 

Thanks everyone for the help