Battery Tenders

[3Ts]

I have a Schumacher charger that I bought over 45 years ago and it's still working. I believe it has a selenium (not silicon) rectifier, it's that old and it's still working - as a bulk charger. If I leave it connected to long it will boil a battery so it's always on a timer or checked frequently. I do have several maintainers that I bought after reading the posts on here that I can and have left connected.

 

[ultrarunner]

Grandpa's Schumacher is still in service... must be from the late 50's

I will need to check but I am certain my first tender is made in USA... maybe circa 1980???

 

[rScotty]

I've been using Battery Minders now for maybe 4 or 5 years. They are incredibly good - and rather expensive. I buy them through Amazon.
Worth it in spite of the price because the Minder makes a noticible difference in battery life if hooked up to the battery for a day or two every couple of months.
I don't know what the Battery Minder is doing to the battery at that time...but whatever it is, the batteries seem to thrive on the attention.

 

[fried1765]

I've been using Battery Minders now for maybe 4 or 5 years. They are incredibly good - and rather expensive. I buy them through Amazon.
Worth it in spite of the price because the Minder makes a noticible difference in battery life if hooked up to the battery for a day or two every couple of months.
I don't know what the Battery Minder is doing to the battery at that time...but whatever it is, the batteries seem to thrive on the attention.

Formerly I would only buy Battery Tenders.

Now: I only buy Battery Minders.
I have a few!
Same good experience as you are having.

 

[trctr155]

"I should do what"?

Keep your plow truck outside.
When the China cheapo starts a fire,..... you will only loose your plow truck,.... not a building too.

Now that was funny,LMAO

 

[drizler]

Where do CTEC chargers fall in all this? I haven稚 seen them brought up here. I got a 5.0 last year and haven稚 used enough to start bragging . One thing sure. On older heavily sulphates batteries it didn稚 work any miracles......

 

[rScotty]

Where do CTEC chargers fall in all this? I haven稚 seen them brought up here. I got a 5.0 last year and haven稚 used enough to start bragging . One thing sure. On older heavily sulphates batteries it didn稚 work any miracles......

I don't have any experience with the CTEC charger. So far as I know, the CTEC is basically a trickle charger - maybe with some intelligence & maybe not.

Years ago I had a mechanical shop and it wasn't unusual to have 20 batteries all needing attention. Usually they were lucky to get trickle charged if I remembered to move the home-made trickle charger from one to another. My experience is about like yours.... trickle charging is good because if the battery is good it keeps it from going flat when it isn't being used. So you have battery when you need it. But I can't say that trickle charging did anything to help an older sufated battery. I always hoped it would, but it never seemed to improve an old battery. It did keep good ones at full charge though and that was worth doing.

So I think the answer to where the CTEC fits in is that trickle charging is one of the things that the Battery Minder does. But the Battery Minder seems to do more than that. Along with whatever it does for sufated batteries, the Battery Minder has a high amp mode for charging fully flat batteries. On high amp mode it monitors what's happening somehow so that it doesn't overcharge and then turns itself into trickle mode at the end. It has some dash lights to let you know what mode it's in.

I don't know exactly why the Battery Minder is good, and I've no stake in the company. It works for me.
rScotty

 

[Industrial Toys]

Modified my cheap chinese charger/tender with a fuse for peace of mind. Noticed they didn't even have engineered crimps on the aligator clamps or solder, just squeezed on! Nice.

 

[fried1765]

View attachment 636854

Modified my cheap chinese charger/tender with a fuse for peace of mind. Noticed they didn't even have engineered crimps on the aligator clamps or solder, just squeezed on! Nice.

Excellent idea!
All Battery Tender brand units are shipped that way.

 

[fried1765]

I don't have any experience with the CTEC charger. So far as I know, the CTEC is basically a trickle charger - maybe with some intelligence & maybe not.

Years ago I had a mechanical shop and it wasn't unusual to have 20 batteries all needing attention. Usually they were lucky to get trickle charged if I remembered to move the home-made trickle charger from one to another. My experience is about like yours.... trickle charging is good because if the battery is good it keeps it from going flat when it isn't being used. So you have battery when you need it. But I can't say that trickle charging did anything to help an older sufated battery. I always hoped it would, but it never seemed to improve an old battery. It did keep good ones at full charge though and that was worth doing.

So I think the answer to where the CTEC fits in is that trickle charging is one of the things that the Battery Minder does. But the Battery Minder seems to do more than that. Along with whatever it does for sufated batteries, the Battery Minder has a high amp mode for charging fully flat batteries. On high amp mode it monitors what's happening somehow so that it doesn't overcharge and then turns itself into trickle mode at the end. It has some dash lights to let you know what mode it's in.

I don't know exactly why the Battery Minder is good, and I've no stake in the company. It works for me.
rScotty

^^^^^ Agreed!