Battery Minder presently on sale - $27.51

[rScotty]

The only problem I have with our old (original?) model 12248 Battery Minder is it makes me reluctant to give up and junk old batteries. Even when my old pre-smart "dumb charger" won't charge a battery, sometimes if I leave it on the Battery Minder for a few cycles the battery will recover. Just this week a couple of batteries bound for the recycler seem to have responded to the Minder and now are holding 12.7 volts for several days after being charged. That's a promising sign; but not definitive.

The way to know if the battery is really any good is to load test it over a few hours. I still have to figure out a decent dummy load so I can do a timed discharge. There's no other way I know of to actually check to see how well a battery has taken a charge. I know that the 20hr rate is the standard, but I'm just a tractor guy. And the 20 hr rate means little to me. Since I try never to discharge that completely or at such a high rate, I'm still kicking around what kind of discharge rate would tell me that a battery was worth keeping around.

 

[jjeff]

I have a midtronics conductance tester
(bought it for my old job) I think it was about $200 15 yrs ago. it measures the impedance between plates gives a reading of the batteries health among other things. I have never been able to revive a battery after testing it and the tester says its shot. Battery maintainers work great it's amazing not having to replace batteries every year or so.

 

[fried1765]

Did you click the link I posted?
NT ships the ones listed on Amazon. You can't buy it 'on Amazon' without the shipping cost:

So as m1garand762 noted, you can buy it in person at TSC or Walmart to get one without the shipping surcharge.

New model vs old? What is improved? I can't find the prior thread on these but what I thought I recalled reading then, was that this older (and less expensive) model had been dropped by retailers and Northern Tool mailorder was the last available source. It's good to learn they are still in the stores.

​

Yes, you can buy the Battery Minder on Amazon with free shipping.
I buy EVERYTHING on Amazon with free shipping.
Who needs a Battery Minder immediately?
I just put items on my Amazon list, and wait until the list totals $25+, for free shipping.
I buy many items on E-Bay also, with free shipping.

 

[DK35vince]

Battery maintainers work great it's amazing not having to replace batteries every year or so.

You must get some really crap batteries.
I average 9-10 years (or more) on batteries that have never had a battery maintainer on them.

 

[jjeff]

You must get some really crap batteries.
I average 9-10 years (or more) on batteries that have never had a battery maintainer on them.

The snowmobile and lawn mower ones are the ones that seemed like I was always replacing. Bigger batteries not so much. But I run maintainers on almost everything now.

 

[rScotty]

It's really difficult to tell which lead/acid batteries are good ones to buy. Even the way they are rated doesn't make much sense considering how they are used.

For years I used Optima round cell batteries (red, yellow, and blue) for various duties and they were fantastic. Easily lasting 10 years or even more. ....and then the USA company sold and the quality went way, way down although the product looked the same. It took me a few years to catch on. Now they have sold yet again and gotten even worse. The last two I bought didn't even last their one year warranty, and getting the company to live up to their warranty is like pulling teeth long distance via a telephone call to a person whose job it is to be difficult.

This year I switched to Odyssey & NorthStar batteries for things like the big JD backhoe that get used a lot - supposed to be good, & popular with police and fire departments. For basic car and truck use I'm starting to use Interstate Battery's sealed AGM line.

I heard this Spring that Odyssey and NorthStar were considering selling their business to a European/Asian conglomerate. (Bloomberg Business Week).

There are some smaller specialty RV & Marine battery suppliers still making good batteries in the US. It can be a messy manufacturing process, so battery makers tend to cluster in certain states with favorable laws.

 

[fried1765]

The snowmobile and lawn mower ones are the ones that sceemed like I was always replacing. Bigger batteries not so much. But I run maintainers on almost everything now.

Those little batteries are almost all cheap junk.
A Battery Minder, or Battery Tender does usually keep them alive for 4+ years.