Oil & Fuel Battery Tender Success Story?

[stlbill]

Hello,

I only want to share my battery tender story. The stock battery in my Deere 2305 gave up last month after being on a battery tender almost every time it was parked overnight. I got 6.5 years off the battery which I think is pretty good. I thought I had read on here of some only getting 2-3 years without a tender.

The strange thing was how it gave up. Like others it went to bed just fine and suddenly failed when I had a full days work planned for it, of course. What I thought was most strange was that it failed with the battery tender attached and its light showing green!

Replacing the battery fixed the issue. I did try to put a 6 amp charger on the bad battery for about 20 minutes and it put some life into it, but not enough to start the engine.


-Bill

 

[stevem5215]

I have tried various tender manufacturers and they all work good. I'm trying the long term test with them all and will report the results as they fail. Right now I've got a couple of batteries that are approaching 5 years. If I get 6 or 7 out of them I'd be happy anyway considering before that was always a 2 - 3 year thing. Most of them I attach the tender only when I know the machine isn't going to be used for a month or more.

Steve

 

[oosik]

My previous tractor had a gel cell battery. Lasted eleven years. Unable to find a gel cell replacement so went with an AGM. It was still good at five years when I traded in the tractor. I never used a battery tender on the gel cell.

Now I keep a battery tender on the new tractor during the winter. I have a battery tender on the motorcycle 100% of the time.

Never had any problems with any of the tenders I've used.

 

[dickfoster]

My previous tractor had a gel cell battery. Lasted eleven years. Unable to find a gel cell replacement so went with an AGM. It was still good at five years when I traded in the tractor. I never used a battery tender on the gel cell.

Now I keep a battery tender on the new tractor during the winter. I have a battery tender on the motorcycle 100% of the time.

Never had any problems with any of the tenders I've used.

IMHO AGMs are the hot lick. I won't buy anything but an AGM for automotive type applications. You get what you pay for.

 

[KennyG]

My JD 2320 is now over 6 years old (500 hours) with the original battery and going strong. I try to give it a booster charge once a year or so if I can remember to. When I think about how much time I've saved not hooking and unhooking a battery tender, I think I'm way ahead. :cool2:

 

[JFoy]

My BX25 is less than a year old but during the winter, I cranked it every two weeks and let it run for 10 mins. Good idea, bad idea, or should I use the tender next winter?

 

[stevem5215]

I would use a tender and not start it. There's no reason to start it if you aren't going to use it (and fully heat it up).

Steve

 

[dickfoster]

My BX25 is less than a year old but during the winter, I cranked it every two weeks and let it run for 10 mins. Good idea, bad idea, or should I use the tender next winter?

I'd put a tender on it and or remove it and store inside for the winter if it out in the cold. Only running it for 10 min every two weeks like that is probably not even replacing the charge used to start it and it will lead to sulphation and shorter battery life. I almost ruined two AGMs by running infrequently for short periods like that. Standard wet cell types would fair even worse. I was able to get them back with a pulse charger however.

 

[mrmikey]

I keep a tender on all my batteries, tractor (7 years and counting), bike, 4 wheeler just bought them both two years ago so I don't know yet.......Mike

 

[Deere Dude]

I never ran a tender but I just changed my tractor battery at 6 years and a couple months. It ran great all along through the years and then it just stopped. Wonder why? Would a tender have extended that? Probably not, but I don't know.