CTEK CS FREE Portable 12V Battery Charger

We’ve been fortunate enough to travel and experience many incredible places. That feeling of the unknown as you turn down a dirt road is always worth it. Breaking down is a ‘right of passage’ in Vanlife. New and used vehicles all have their moments, whether it’s a flat tyre, transmission, water pump or dead battery, it’s going to happen.

We’ve been using CTEK products for years now so we were excited to check out their latest charger.

Charge up the CTEK CS Free off your inverter.

What is the CTEK CS Free?

The CTEK CS FREE is very efficient and intelligent multiple functioning portable battery charger. The adaptive boost technology allows the charger to identify ANY 12 volt battery and charge it back up to full capacity within 15 minutes without the need to plug into mains power. It’s completely safe for your vehicle and won’t harm your battery or vehicle electronics.

It features both USB-C and USB-A outputs and can also be plugged into mains power and used as a maintenance charger.

If mains power isn’t available, the CS FREE can be completely recharged via the vehicle’s cigarette socket, inverter or solar panels and can charge back up to full within an hour.

We have had other portable chargers in the past and they have been heavy, cumbersome, ugly and taken up way to much precious realestate in the van. The CS Free is a pretty sexy piece of hard ware. It’s compact, sleek, black, illuminates, only weighs 1.4kgs and is incredibly easy to function.

I love that it can hold it’s charge for up to 1 year so you can easily pack it away for that inevitable time you need it or help a neighbour out.

Another benefit of the device is that it is capable of being used as a portable charging station for everyday technology such as your laptop, camera, smartphones, Boom box and tablets.

After traveling in a van for over 8 years I’m a big fan of taking any anxieties out of travel and can happily recommend investing in peace of mind with CTEK’S CS FREE.

Produced and written by Jared Melrose Campbell @youandiandthesky & @vanlifediaries