Battery Maintainers

[Newell52]

Picked up a Schumacher at TSC today. Installed it this afternoon. Will report back when the temp drops again. Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Bird]

I have the Sears DieHard charger/maintainer. I like it because it has the display, analyzer (automatically determines whether 12 volt or 6 volt and displays percentage of charge), then shows "charging" and when fully charged, shows "maintaining". I bought it for the battery in my Toro ZTR mower. It also came with an assortment of 3 different quick connectors to connect to the battery. So far it's been great, but it's only one year and one week old. And I see the price has gone up $6 since I bought mine.

 

[3930dave]

Picked up a Schumacher at TSC today. Installed it this afternoon. Will report back when the temp drops again. Thanks for everyone's input.

That should serve you well. I have a 15amp Schumacher charger, and like it.

One thing to watch with these new digitally controlled chargers is they occasionally can be too-quick to condemn a battery (erring on the side of safety), and refuse to start charging. When I encounter that "error", the next thing I do is haul out my 30+ year old analog 6amp charger to charge with - I've recovered some batteries that way.

Rgds, D.

 

[94BULLITT]

I have one of these

G3500 | Features | Genius Battery Chargers

It has a 8 step charge process. It will charge Wet, Gel, MF & AGM batteries. It does 6 and 12 volt and has a cold mode.

 

[Mechanos]

I have one of these

G3500 | Features | Genius Battery Chargers

It has a 8 step charge process. It will charge Wet, Gel, MF & AGM batteries. It does 6 and 12 volt and has a cold mode.

I have the same. Excellent charger. It's different charging steps can reverse the build-up of sulfides on the plates and can even "restore" some neglected batteries if they're not too far gone. Even though it is called a charger, it also functions very well as a maintainer. If I'm not using it to charge a battery in need, it stays connected to the AGM cell in my off-road truck that doesn't get frequently used.

The cables that attache to the battery disconnect from the charger so extra set of cables can be purchased and left permanantly attached to various batteries.

 

[murphy1244]

I have the same. Excellent charger. It's different charging steps can reverse the build-up of sulfides on the plates and can even "restore" some neglected batteries if they're not too far gone. Even though it is called a charger, it also functions very well as a maintainer. If I'm not using it to charge a battery in need, it stays connected to the AGM cell in my off-road truck that doesn't get frequently used.

The cables that attache to the battery disconnect from the charger so extra set of cables can be purchased and left permanantly attached to various batteries.

I had not thought of using it as a maintainer, thank you.

 

[Travelover]

I saw Battery Tenders at Costco today - I think about $30.

 

[eventer79]

Anyone tried one of these? I'm a big fan of off the grid, plus things are not always close to the house --

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-1163 5W Solar Maintainer: Automotive

Amazon.com: Nature Power 40019 2-Watt Solar Powered 12-Volt Battery Maintainer: Patio, Lawn & Garden

 

[94BULLITT]

I have the same. Excellent charger. It's different charging steps can reverse the build-up of sulfides on the plates and can even "restore" some neglected batteries if they're not too far gone. Even though it is called a charger, it also functions very well as a maintainer. If I'm not using it to charge a battery in need, it stays connected to the AGM cell in my off-road truck that doesn't get frequently used.

The cables that attache to the battery disconnect from the charger so extra set of cables can be purchased and left permanantly attached to various batteries.

Mine stays on the L4240. I need to get some more. I like charging through the 12v power port.

Anyone tried one of these? I'm a big fan of off the grid, plus things are not always close to the house --

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-1163 5W Solar Maintainer: Automotive

Amazon.com: Nature Power 40019 2-Watt Solar Powered 12-Volt Battery Maintainer: Patio, Lawn & Garden

I have a couple of solar panels for charging batteries. At first I was really sold on them but now I am not. A 2 watt on the dash of a car will only make about .1 amps. I also have a 5 watt. I leave it on my car. I also does not do enough to do any that much good. I moved it inside the shed where the BX stays and I can get about .35 amps out of it. It will charge the battery from 12.59 to 12.63. By the time you factor in the hours that is doing nothing the solar chargers really don't do much good. At night your surface charge drains off and you are back at square one the next morning.

 

[sdef]

I have a couple of solar panels for charging batteries. At first I was really sold on them but now I am not. A 2 watt on the dash of a car will only make about .1 amps. I also have a 5 watt. I leave it on my car. I also does not do enough to do any that much good. I moved it inside the shed where the BX stays and I can get about .35 amps out of it. It will charge the battery from 12.59 to 12.63. By the time you factor in the hours that is doing nothing the solar chargers really don't do much good. At night your surface charge drains off and you are back at square one the next morning.

In my experience it takes a charger rated with ~ 3 amps of continuous power output to keep a battery maintained on a modern automobile with their constant current draw, maybe associated with factory alarm systems and the computer system(s). I tried in vane to get the Schumacker 2 amp trickle chargers to work on a 1996 Jeep GC and a 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT. Only when I upgraded to the CTEK 3.3 amp units did my auto batteries stay charged.

I do use Battery Minder 1.3 amp units for the devices not having a constant current drain, such as the standby generator, garden tractor and trailer battery. And just ordered two more @ $20 each at a Northern Tool sale ($50 at Amazon) today. These should also work well for a tractor battery.

I also used to power all of these units during the day time with a high quality 50 Watt solar that ran a sine wave inverter for the battery maintainers and then would let normal line power handle the night time maintaining.