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No issues (other than I found it does not play nice with an 18 AWG SAE extension. After upgrading to a 12 AWG extension, I’ve had no problems).
Just to clarify, the extension is from the Ctek to the car. I had already been using SAE cables (as used by my Deltran Battery Tenders), and wasn’t going to swap them out just to use Ctek’s proprietary connectors. Ctek sells a converter from their plug type to the SAE plug type, which allowed me to simply swap the Deltran and Ctek.
I ran into periodic failures on the Ctek, which was pissing me off (especially with the dang thing mounted high on the wall, needing a ladder to reset it each time). Finally determined that the 18 AWG extension wire, that the Deltran was happy with, was triggering the Ctek failures (probably some voltage or current drop it didn’t like). Went to a thicker extension, and the Ctek has been happy ever after.
Just to clarify, the extension is from the Ctek to the car. I had already been using SAE cables (as used by my Deltran Battery Tenders), and wasn’t going to swap them out just to use Ctek’s proprietary connectors. Ctek sells a converter from their plug type to the SAE plug type, which allowed me to simply swap the Deltran and Ctek.
I ran into periodic failures on the Ctek, which was pissing me off (especially with the dang thing mounted high on the wall, needing a ladder to reset it each time). Finally determined that the 18 AWG extension wire, that the Deltran was happy with, was triggering the Ctek failures (probably some voltage or current drop it didn’t like). Went to a thicker extension, and the Ctek has been happy ever after.
Ahhhh ok. I just bought the hardwire connector with the larger eyelets and the 8' extension from CTek. Think I was about $135 all in.
You're extraordinarily unlikely to run into any issues leaving it plugged in, but if you're concerned, you could always unplug it when not in use out of an abundance of caution. But I'd be willing to bet there are dozens of other devices in your house that remain plugged into outlets 24/7/365 without issue. A CTEK when not in use has negligible parasitic draw, anyway.
And as far as connecting/disconnecting... you could again - out of an abundance of caution - unplug it from the wall before connecting/disconnecting the quick connector... but it's very much designed for you to not have to do that. The circuitry limits the voltage and current when initially connecting, so it's not like you're going to have any arcing or anything like that just because you're hooking up the quick connector.
I keep my CTEK tucked snuggly in a recess of the spare-tire insert along with a 50-foot extension cord on the right side of the spare tire. That way if my battery needs some help while traveling, I have what it takes. So the CTEK is unplugged whenever I use the car, but it is still connected to the car's battery via the jumping posts. When using SDD, I do disconnect the CTEK quick-connect coupling before hooking up an Iota DLS power supply to the jumping posts .
