Battery Tenders

[Mark_in_NH]

Does anybody have any experience with any of the battery tenders that are on the market ?
For the $40 +/-, it seems like it would be a good and handy investment.
Any thoughts or opinions ??

 

[thcri]

My brother in law has one on his Corvette. He loves the thing. Evidently it will pull the battery down some and then recharge it as if the vehicle or rig was being used. He has used it now for two winters and when he takes the vette out of storage the battery was there and ready to go. Now that I think about it I should get one for my boat. Kind of a pain to have to disconnect and reconnect the battery every so often during the winter when I could just leave it on.

murph

 

[Mark_in_NH]

murph,
I thought this one was interesting. Fully waterproof, it is supposed to work even while fully submerged.
http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=DEL-022-0150-DL
I like the idea of permently mounting one to the tractor. Then just plug it in as necessary, like the block heater.

 

[thcri]

Mark,

The water proof idea would be great for my brother n law since he fell through the ice with dad's tractor a few winters back. Yep, submerged the whole tractor. What a pain to get out. We had to cut the ice with chain saws and pull the tractor with a wrecker from the beach. Took hours.

But my question is if you going to be using the tractor through out the winter you should not need one of these. It is my understanding unless I am thinking of something else this is for vehicles and such that will drain a battery during long periods on no use. My boat for example has a radio in it that will drain the battery over the winter. A pain to reprogram after I disconnect the battery. This tender is suppose to keep the battery fluctuating as if the unit is being used??

murph

 

[Mark_in_NH]

After seeing this page,
Battery Tender Failure
I am not sure I would want one "inside" my tractor.

murph,
I am thinking of mainly cold weather use. Depending on snow fall, it maybe several days to possibly weeks in between my tractor seat time. In this past extreme cold that we just had (more is on the way) I had to assist my tractor battery with a jump from my truck.
My thinking is that for minimul $$ outlay, I would be assured of a battery that was always at it's peak.
God know's that I Never am !! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[BillyP]

I'm spying on your thread Mark.

I'm in need of a battery charger too. I have a stand alone generator for my poultry houses. This system starts every week for exercise but I'm in need of a 'good' charger, for the idle days.

 

[JerryG]

I have a couple of Everstart brand automatic trickle chargers, they work real well. I use one on my generator and haven't had any problems sense installing it. BTW, they are from Wal-Mart for $29.95.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Jerry,
From what I have and still am, reading and understanding. A trickle charger and a battery tender are two differnet things.
I suspct that it is mostly the circutry of the modern battery tenders that allow it to flucuate it's output, to meet the batterys needs. Where a trickle charger just provides a constant (minimul) voltage trickling into the battery. (I think)

 

[JerryG]

I don't know about the circuity, but these are automatic as to the charging . If the battery needs charging, they charge, if not they don't. I have been using them for about four years on a stand alone generator and they work perfectly.

 

[thcri]

My understanding of a tender is that is will not only charge a battery it will actually pull it down some and then recharge. This is to make the battery operate in a real life situation.


Just what I know of them.


murph