Battery Tender/Trickle Charger

[Dr Dave]

I have a Harbor Freight $5.99 maintainer,works good. I hang the charger cords over a mirror, or run it through the steering wheel as a reminder to unplug. For trailers, welder, mowers and atv, I prefer the solar chargers, $20 to $30 and no cords or electric use. Power Up makes a thin lined one, model bsp-5x5-12, and adhere it with silicon.

Dave

[crazyal]

Battery Minder 36 Volt BM36271 | BatteryMinder 36v 3 Amp Golf Cart Battery Charger Desulphator

Works well for my golf cart.

12 Volt Smart Battery Chargers | 12v Powersports Chargers

Options for those new to battery tending technology.

Battery Minder Plus BM12v117 | Batteryminder 12v 1.3 Amp Battery Charger / Maintainer

Caught these on sale for $35 and picked up three a couple months ago and shipping was $11.80

Due to the Desulf feature I prefer Battery MINDER over Battery Tender brand but I am a gear head with a technology streak. I have the $20 brand that WM sells on the towncar. Park it for three weeks and you have a dead battery other wise.

Any battery not fully charged 100% of the time can last 2x-3x longer if it is getting several milliamps full time. Even the $6 tenders from HF seem to work per many. I think anything that will not cause a battery to even get warm may be safe. Solar options with milliamp out put even if like 17 volts seem to be just fine but they do not work 24/7 either.

I also have a Battery Minder. I wasn't convinced at first but I've used it to bring about 6 batteries back to life when nothing else would work. Now I make it a point to once a year to put it on each battery and let it do it's stuff. Now all I do is keep the acid level topped off and a once a year maintenance charging. I have two Interstate batteries that are over 10 years old now that go months at times between uses in my dozer and backhoe. I figure any battery that can start a diesel in the winter must be pretty good.

[3930dave]

I have been hoping to find a battery tender that would work on my golf cart. The cart has 6 - 6 volt batteries in series, and they ain't cheap! Newer carts have 8 - 6 volt batteries, and they run about $150-$200 each. I'm thinking that a tender would extend their life. I couldn't find a 6 volt Battery Tender brand, so I picked up a couple of Schumaker 6V tenders. Do you think that plugging into the golf cart would maintain them, or burn up the tender?

On machines that sit (esp. something not computer controlled) I like to use a basic battery disconnect switch, like this one:

Top Post Battery Master Cut-Off Switch | Princess Auto

In your case, I'd install the switch without the bypass jumper (for keeping radio memory, etc. alive).

Open up the switch, then charge each 6v battery in rotation, with your 6v tender. That's how I would do it.

But remember.... these are just tenders, so make sure to do your primary heavy charging with the normal charger first.

Rgds, D.

[jinman]

I recently purchased a Pulse Tech XC100-P charger/maintainer. After much discussion in a thread here on TBN with an employee of this local company (Southlake TX), I decided to do some research into pulse charging technology. What I found was that pulse charging seems to extend battery life of new or nearly 100% batteries, but will have minor to poor results with restoring old and heavily sulfated batteries. I do think $78 is a bit expensive for an 'experiment' to see if it works. This charger will charge a battery slowly at 2.5 amps while pulsing the plates. When charging is 100%, it switches to maintenance and keeps the pulses active. I bought two new 100 ah deep cycle marine batteries and will swap this charger back and forth between them. With one battery at a 50% charge level, the Pulse Tech charger brought it to 100% within 24 hours.

I won't know if this charger does what it promises for many years, but at least I'll have confidence in my data at that point. The charger was $78 and no shipping to my door. I ordered it one morning and the next day it rolled up to my house in a UPS truck. I don't know how I got such sudden delivery, but that sure made me feel good about the product.

[Jaylegger]

Just thought I'd pass along to our Canadian members that Canadian Tire has the CTEK 3300 on sale at 55% off right now. I bought two and so far appears to be a greater charger/maintainer.

[uglyboywith11fingers]

I bought a Schumacher tender (happens to be 6v/12v switchable) about 10 years ago at Princess Auto.
My TG1860 garden tractor and Mazda Miata both sit in the barn all winter, I go out every week or 2 and move the tender from one unit to the other... works great.

Pete

[Gary Fowler]

I had the portable jumper battery (not worth a hoot at jumping a car off, supposed to be 650 CCA but battery is size of a trailer brake battery 2"Wx4"L x 6" H) that I used for a year or so running my 12v fuel pump but the battery went bad in it and would no longer charge. I took it apart, found the battery terminals all corroded up and battery bad but the charger still worked and the battery clamps were top notch so I took off a few wires and redirected the charging current directly to the heavy duty battery clamps and now I have an additional battery tender in addition to my 4 Schumacher charges from Walmart.

[stevem5215]

I bought the Pulse tech back in the fall of last year. I put it on a battery that was badly sulfated and wouldn't hold a charge. I left it on for a few months now and it does say it's charged the battery to 100%. The temp out was about 25 f and it would not start the tractor. I'm going to leave it on till spring and see what happens then. It does appear to have desulfated the battery and it's fully charged. This is on a 5 yr old battery from Walmart on a Jinma 2420 diesel tractor. I've had the battery in service for 3 years and it sat uncharged for 2 of the 5. (which wouldn't be good for it either). Anyway that's my test of the this charger and the current status. It does look a good charger so far.

Steve

[whistlepig]

I have had some issues with keeping batteries on various equipment batteries charged. Things like the lawn mower, ATV etc have presented me with dead batteries in the last several months.

Have any of you used or have first hand experience with battery tender type devices? Are they worth the $35 plus? Or is are they a lot of hype?

I have had one of these for a couple of years now. It's the best that I have ever owned.

All-In-One "Deep Cycle"

[94BULLITT]

I have had one of these for a couple of years now. It's the best that I have ever owned.

All-In-One "Deep Cycle"

Thant is a nice looking unit.