Battery Tenders

[ruffdog]

I received the 2 Battery Tender Plus maintainers yesterday and they are working great! They weigh at least double what the other ones did and the cord material is better. They go through the same charge cycle and then they actually maintain the battery at ~13.5v while in maintaining mode. Isn't it great when something you buy actually works! :cool2:

 

[crbr]

I use NOCO brand chargers, they all have 6 & 12 volts, not the cheapest, but worth it

NOCO - Our Products

^ ^ This

NOCO is the cat's meow....

Amazon dot com.

I gave up the BTs years ago due to warranty refusals.

.

 

[fried1765]

^ ^ This

NOCO is the cat's meow....

Amazon dot com.

I gave up the BTs years ago due to warranty refusals.

.

The Battery Tender brand does have a history of warranty refusals.
I buy Battery Minders exclusively now.
NOCO is highly regarded, but is more expensive
I buy BT only.... if it is on sale at COSTCO.

I have 16 maintainer type chargers.

 

[shovelmike]

I read of several fires started by Battery Tenders, didn't give it much thought until one day when I hooked mine up to my Sportster, plugged it in and smoke started pouring out of it. I threw it away, and replaced it with a Schumacher, which has been good so far.... later I bought a second Schumacher.... surprisingly it weighs about a third of what the first one did.....better or worse...I don't know. I know that I don't trust any maintainer completely, as with any device things can go wrong.

 

[Industrial Toys]

On my list of things to do today is put a fuse on the battery lead and line cord, of my new chinese tender/charger. It works great and I especially love the amperage and voltage displays. But I'm not too fussy of the thing burning down the place.

 

[fried1765]

On my list of things to do today is put a fuse on the battery lead and line cord, of my new chinese tender/charger. It works great and I especially love the amperage and voltage displays. But I'm not too fussy of the thing burning down the place.

The 1.25amp. Battery Tender Plus chargers all come with an in-line fuse.

Battery Tender units are also made in China, but are of much higher quality than HF, or other low end units.
Many cheap Chinese electrical appliances do not meet UL/CSA standards, yet are sold to folks who will buy the cheapest of everything.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I just don't like paying heavy markup on the SAME chinese stuff. Maybe with a different name on it.

I have thrown several expensive Schumaker chargers in the garbage, where I figured they belonged..

I have also destroyed three 400 dollar or so Xantrax Truecharge chargers by hooking them up backwards (my stupidity) but they claim that won't hurt them.

I almost had a battery explosion over Christmas when yet another 40a 3 stage Xantrax Trucharge charger started to boil a battery. It was another freebee, but for all it's sophistication, that shouldn't be allowed to happen.

 

[aczlan]

I'm guessing more garages and houses caught fire from the vehicles themselves, than from Chinese battery tenders. Best we park them outside too, I guess.

The NYS Thruway and NYDOT (among others) had that happen, their plow trucks started catching on fire due to poor wiring (battery cable going from the battery behind the cab to the starter shorting out and melting the plastic fuel line that ran next to it), some were even while the truck was driving down the road.
A lot of municipalities now have a battery disconnect switch to shut off all power when the truck is turned off.


Aaron Z

 

[Industrial Toys]

Even with the chargers causing the fire to start with, it's probably the energy of the battery itself that caused the heat. The reason, why I am going to put a fuse in line with the cheap charger/tender.

My friend who installs thousands of commercial Inverter systems on utility trucks, has that ever present FIRE risk with all that stored energy. Sometimes a new milllion dollar rig gets burned down to the water line and the finger pointing starts. They have all their stuff inspected by ESA, but many upfitters don't and their electrical work is often terrible beyond belief.

 

[fried1765]

I just don't like paying heavy markup on the SAME chinese stuff. Maybe with a different name on it.

I have thrown several expensive Schumaker chargers in the garbage, where I figured they belonged..

I have also destroyed three 400 dollar or so Xantrax Truecharge chargers by hooking them up backwards (my stupidity) but they claim that won't hurt them.

I almost had a battery explosion over Christmas when yet another 40a 3 stage Xantrax Trucharge charger started to boil a battery. It was another freebee, but for all it's sophistication, that shouldn't be allowed to happen.

I absolutely agree with you on the Schumacher chargers.
They are cheap junk.
I have thrown several of them away also.