Smart battery chargers with reconditioning modes

[Gale Hawkins]

My FIL believes that he can connect his $5 Harbor Freight trickle charger to his TOTALLY dead tractor or UTV battery and it will charge it right up!

Don't tell him he can't and let us know how it works out for him. If he was using that charge PLUS one with a Desulf mode at the same time he would have a better shot based on my personal experience.

I did try saving a dead battery by flipping the polarity the posts. I got one or two to flip and actually take charge but when I flipped it backward to factory polarity it died HARD. One can google how to do this for what it is worth.

It took me days to kill the OEM polarity so I could reverse it. One cold rainy night I had one go into Run Away mode and removing the charger did not stop it from generating a lot of heat. I set it under a gutter spout and it never did actually melt down.

daugen this morning I hooked the B&D/Vector smart charger to the wife's AGM. In the AGM mode I knew it would not let me run an Equalize cycle. It was charging at about the rate of 4 amps but the voltage output was 15 volts which is similar to FLA battery in Equalize Mode. I am going to run all 4 of our AGM batteries through the AGM cycle this week.

 

[ultrarunner]

I would always run into batteries that had the polarity reversed... at least one a month... user error.

There was a time when it was not uncommon for cars to be positive ground... if never failed when a light or similar was left on then someone would hook up a charger the wrong way assuming Negative is always to the Chassis which would be wrong.

 

[sixdogs]

My FIL believes that he can connect his $5 Harbor Freight trickle charger to his TOTALLY dead tractor or UTV battery and it will charge it right up!

My FIL used to put wood screws in metal holes and figured it was OK. Old school dies hard.

 

[HillStreet]

Anybody have a Noco Genius, CTEK, or similar charger with a battery reconditioning mode?

Between tractor, boat, ATVs, lawn equipment, vehicles, I get fed up with short lifespan batteries. A one year old battery out of one of my ATVs is already acting like it doesn't want to take a charge, after having had reasonable care.

Wondering if I should invest in a smart charger with a repair/desulphination mode.

Anyone had good luck getting some questionable batteries back in good working shape with these types of chargers?

I use a smart battery charger on the airplane battery. Went through a period where I was replacing batteries ($300) every 18 months. I am now on a three year period after getting the charger. I leave it plugged in all the time.

 

[daugen]

I am constantly connecting my smart charger to my home made water wagon. Have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs and this cart
has been my savior. I can sit on my comfortable garden tractor seat and water; no more lugging water hoses and cans.

While I regularly use my larger charger on just two devices, this old tractor battery in my water wagon, and an equally old set of batteries
alongside my diesel tank for the 12VDC pump, an IDI. I'd love to rig up something where I don't have to use alligator clips on batteries. I did replace
my clips with better quality aftermarket alligator clips, bigger, sort of Good Grips clips. But there has to be a better connector for constant
connections, and having owned a Radio Shack for five years, I can think of a few. I have bad arthritis so I really do need something easy to handle, which is not your
normal issue I realize.

I can go three barrels, sometimes four before the pump starts to slow down. That's usually long after I have slowed down even more...
Without constant use of these smart chargers, I think I would have been buying new batteries long ago. But so far, the ones I've recycled, usually after five or seven years in something
else, are going strong in their second life.

I have envisioned designing a better water wagon, with a horizontal tank for lower CG. This thing has wanted to turn over on me a few times, but I have it strapped and the
JD cart is rated for 300 pounds more so it has worked so far. Just have to be careful near ditches, otherwise everything is flat as can be here.

Back on topic, my charger has options of 2, 4 and 8 amps. Are there pros and cons to these settings beyond the obvious time savings?
I sure don't use the 8amp setting when I charge the tiny little battery in my DR Rotohog tiller...I'd be afraid it would blow up.
Though I doubt it would, it would reach the proper voltage and the charger should turn off, or way way down. And do so intelligently.
Something lacking for sure in the old battery boilers.

btw, these alligator clips in pic got replaced with bigger ones.

 

[daugen]

Amazon.com: CrazyEve 5 Sets 2 Pin Car Waterproof Electrical Connector Plug with Wire Electrical Cable Connector Plug: Automotive

I just got some of these in a few days ago to install LED lights on the small Massey. I really would like something heavy duty for these chargers, almost like a plug
in connector used for dockside power on a boat. I bet there are heavier duty versions of these plugs, only need two leads, but to carry 8 amps, maybe sized for 15?
I think I know enough to be dangerous here...but always want to prevent toasters, perhaps with an inline fuse.

these big chargers weren't cheap and I don't want to buy five more of them, this one is going to travel.
But clips are iffy and have exposed shortable connections if one is clumsy. Not us of course.

 

[John_Mc]

I'm honestly surprised batteries don't come with safety stickers saying "charge on GEL setting only" or whatever is correct.
AGM batteries seem to announce what they are, but how to tell the difference between gel and flooded? I'm now defaulting to flooded because I have no idea what battery is flooded and what is gel. How does one tell? Sure makes a big difference in charging and could have a sizeable impact on battery life.

Might be safer to default to Gel. The voltages for that are a little lower. It will charge the Gel properly, but slightly undercharge the flooded lead acid battery.

I've seldom had to resort to just defaulting to Gel. I'm slowly weeding out all the Gel batteries in my inventory (I think AGM is a superior technology, and flooded is cheaper). The batteries I'm not sure about I Google any identifying marks on the case to find the type and write it on the battery.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Our chargers default to Gel Mode when they first are connected to AC.

 

[ultrarunner]

I wouldn't mind picking up a battery minder but I have just as many 6v as 12v...

My Battery Savers and Battery Tenders are either 6 or 12 and a combination would be convenient.

Some of the latest models are both... mine are older.

 

[Garandman]

Anybody have a Noco Genius, CTEK, or similar charger with a battery reconditioning mode?

We have one, mostly because it has an LiFe mode and we have those on a couple motorcycles.

It did bring back to life one very dead AGM Battery. It took a loooong time, but eventually charged it up.

My go to charger is a Clore. It is much faster, has AGM mode but not LiFe, and has a fan. Seems to be faster than the NOCO for normal maintence charging.

I set a calendar item on the 1st of every month to charge batteries, not all of which are on Battery tenders full time.