Oil & Fuel Battery Tender Success Story?

[truckdiagnostics]

Three batteries that would not hold a charge if they sat idle for a week or two despite being charged repeatedly with my "dumb" charger, but which now work fine after a solid week or two hooked up to my smart charger is proof enough for me.

I have a suburban that sits for long periods i gave up and put a tender on it. It was the parasitic loads with the key off. Also, once a battery becomes sulfated, it is hard to get it to hold or take a charge in the future. My guess is that is more of what you are dealing with. Up until the last two years i never bother with them. I have a 4 wheeler that is EFI and it has a slight load and i had to put a small one on.

 

[kneedeep]

Mahindra 3510 bought new in spring 2003, hooked up a tender the first day and it lasted until late summer of 2011 when I forgot to plug it in. Was off for about 6 weeks.
Now, everything except daily driver is 'plugged in'.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

Mahindra 3510 bought new in spring 2003, hooked up a tender the first day and it lasted until late summer of 2011 when I forgot to plug it in. Was off for about 6 weeks.
Now, everything except daily driver is 'plugged in'.

I believe there are two factors determining if a tender is needed, where you live and if there is a parasitic load. In your case with the heat it would discharge and sulfate real fast. Down south I would have one on everything!

 

[John_Mc]

I believe there are two factors determining if a tender is needed, where you live and if there is a parasitic load. In your case with the heat it would discharge and sulfate real fast. Down south I would have one on everything!

To that I would add length of time between uses. A battery will self-discharge even without a parasitic load - it will do so at any temperature, but how quickly it self-discharges is affected by temperature. AGM batteries self discharge more slowly than flooded lead-acid.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

To that I would add length of time between uses. A battery will self-discharge even without a parasitic load - it will do so at any temperature, but how quickly it self-discharges is affected by temperature. AGM batteries self discharge more slowly than flooded lead-acid.

correct. Winter storage up north it would be cold enough where the battery would not self discharge enough to make a difference. However summer storage would be the issues for say the snow mobile batteries. That is where, fully charged in a heavy duty zip lock they go in the freezer for the summer. Works great.

 

[stlbill]

All,

An update!!!

I started this thread thinking the battery had given up after several years even though a battery tender was used. Fast forward a few months and more problems with the new battery. The tractor would not start after a brief shutdown a few months after the battery had been replaced. A jump start from a pickup truck fixed that, but the rest of the night the lights on the tractor acted "weird" is the best way to explain it. It turned out to be a voltage regulator which was probably intermittently causing the battery not to charge correctly when the tractor was running.

 

[the old grind]

Took me a few to find this thread, catch up, and subscribe. I have an even dozen batteries to keep up and hate switching leads as much as I hate suddenly remembering that I'd left a 4A or 6A dumb charger on something for waaay too long (days ) and have likely done it harm by then.

I've had fair luck with HFT's <$10 'Foaters' but have had two of eight or so either DOA or last only 24 hrs or so. My home-brew desulfator has brought some real clunkers back for another season or two, but lacks any regulation and has indeed cooked a few that had little hope when first connected.

Looking for something I'm less afraid to leave unattended for days at a time I got curious about brands, 'bests', and surfed for tests and/or reviews. Of course many 'review' sites just touted one brand and listed their various models. What I found on a Gold Wind site was a test of several popular models. :thumbsup: (somewhere, it's late ..)

I'm intimidated by the confusing depth of B-T's line, so I ordered a BatteryMinder, based on 'good words', and an AccuMate based on tests by the Gold Wing guys. Oh, and my pick among the Deltrans would be B-T 'Plus' ... I think. :confused2:

 

[94BULLITT]

Took me a few to find this thread, catch up, and subscribe. I have an even dozen batteries to keep up and hate switching leads as much as I hate suddenly remembering that I'd left a 4A or 6A dumb charger on something for waaay too long (days ) and have likely done it harm by then.

I've had fair luck with HFT's <$10 'Foaters' but have had two of eight or so either DOA or last only 24 hrs or so. My home-brew desulfator has brought some real clunkers back for another season or two, but lacks any regulation and has indeed cooked a few that had little hope when first connected.

Looking for something I'm less afraid to leave unattended for days at a time I got curious about brands, 'bests', and surfed for tests and/or reviews. Of course many 'review' sites just touted one brand and listed their various models. What I found on a Gold Wind site was a test of several popular models. (somewhere, it's late ..)

I'm intimidated by the confusing depth of B-T's line, so I ordered a BatteryMinder, based on 'good words', and an AccuMate based on tests by the Gold Wing guys. Oh, and my pick among the Deltrans would be B-T 'Plus' ... I think. :confused2:

Do you have a link to the accumate tests?

 

[check]

I believe there are two factors determining if a tender is needed, where you live and if there is a parasitic load. In your case with the heat it would discharge and sulfate real fast. Down south I would have one on everything!

Wow. Didn't know that. Up north, I was always told that you should bring a battery inside for the winter, in order to prevent it from freezing. Completely different from what I'm reading here!

 

[John_Mc]

Wow. Didn't know that. Up north, I was always told that you should bring a battery inside for the winter, in order to prevent it from freezing. Completely different from what I'm reading here!

A fully charged battery will not freeze (at least not at temperatures we see here in Vermont). It should be noted that while a battery's rate of self discharge is slower in colder temperatures, the battery also puts out less in the cold, and engines are harder to crank in the cold (oil thickens, clearances shrink, etc.) So even you a battery may hold a higher % of it's full charge after a month or two of disuse in the winter, that still may not be enough to start the engine to which it's attached. That's usually when people around here discover that their battery is no longer doing the job -- they might get by with a weak one in warmer temps, but they need one in top shape in the winter.

In really cold climates, people sometimes add a battery heater as well as a block and/or oil heater. I've never used a battery heater. I've often wondered if the heater was powered off the battery whether the heater gets you more benefit than the drain on the battery it causes. (I assume if the heater is powered by the battery, you shut it off before starting.)