Battery Maintainers

Newell52 · Nov 28, 2013

Can anyone recommend a good maintainer/charger for winter use on a tractor. When temp drops down my tractor gets weak. Looking for one I can mount by the battery and leave plugged in. If you have one that works well please tell me the brand. Trying to stay away from the cheap Walmart stuff.

Code54 · Nov 28, 2013

I have a few of the very cheap Harbor Freight ones (4.99 w/coupon) and been using them for years without issue. Seems to work as well as my name brand far far more expensive one.

PRF · Nov 28, 2013

Love this one:

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0128 Battery Tender Plus 12V Battery Charger: Automotive

JerryK · Nov 28, 2013

Shumacher, amongst others. I have five or six purring out in the barn as we speak... all bought at the Wally.

GGB · Nov 28, 2013

JerryK said:
Shumacher, amongst others. I have five or six purring out in the barn as we speak... all bought at the Wally.

I'll also vouch for Schumacher.
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai...er_id=8175035&catalog_id=10593490497008025839

kennyd · Nov 28, 2013

I own about 4 Battery Tenders, motorcycle's, gator, tractor and whatever all have one. My neighbor bought a HF one, cooked the brand new battery in his generator in a week, no money saved there...

nikdfish · Nov 28, 2013

The junior works fine as a maintainer for standard & deep cycle...

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger: Automotive

Nick

sdef · Nov 28, 2013

I have not had any luck with the Schumaker ones from Wal-mart and have cooked a couple batteries as there does not seem to be enough regulation. However I do rely on Schumaker for my starting/fast charging units.

So for the past 5 years or so I have been using Battery Tender and CTEK with 100% reliability. I also would purchase the similar NOCO products.

Labrat · Nov 28, 2013

I have 3 of the shumacher's. I like the fact that they charge and maintain. They were 20 bucks ea at TSC. I still need another one

3930dave · Nov 28, 2013

This is the latest one I've added to my collection. Ctek 3300

CTEK Multi US 3300 - CTEK Battery Chargers

I like that it is compact (relative to output current), very well sealed for outdoor use, and has a cold weather mode that bumps the voltage up (same setting is used for AGM batteries at normal temperatures).

I might not leave it connected for 6 months straight at a time, but I consider it friendly enough to leave connected for long periods at a time.

You can find it on sale for around half of list price. Rgds, D.

P.S. - old thread on Ctek, etc.... :

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/270368-ip65-plug-n-forget-battery.html

sdef · Nov 28, 2013

3930dave said:
This is the latest one I've added to my collection. Ctek 3300

CTEK Multi US 3300 - CTEK Battery Chargers

I like that it is compact (relative to output current), very well sealed for outdoor use, and has a cold weather mode that bumps the voltage up (same setting is used for AGM batteries at normal temperatures).

I might not leave it connected for 6 months straight at a time, but I consider it friendly enough to leave connected for long periods at a time.

You can find it on sale for no more than half of list price. Rgds, D.

P.S. - old thread on Ctek, etc.... :

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/270368-ip65-plug-n-forget-battery.html

I leave my CTEK's and Battery Tenders on 24/7 continuously on my Jeep GC, garden tractor and 8kw generator. And previously on my 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT with 90k miles on it. Never an issue. These are well regulated and do not boil the water out of the batteries.

techwrtr2 · Nov 28, 2013

I have a number of these scattered about BatteryMINDer Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator — 1.3 Amp, 12 Volt, Model# 12117 | Battery Maintainers| Northern Tool + Equipment. Keep them on tractors, pickup and trailer batteries. Have a couple others the name of which I cannot remember. Work well but too.

whistlepig · Nov 28, 2013

I've owned a bunch. Bought one of these about 4 years ago. Not the cheapest but it's simple to use and very reliable.

12 VOLT 50 WATT Vehicle Battery Charger, Maintainer and tester w/Deep Cycle

byronlj · Nov 29, 2013

I don't know if this is wrong, but I have been maintaining 2 pairs of vehicles with 2 maintainers. I just hook jumper cables between them. I have done it the previous 2 winters and had no problems.
Dave

joshuabardwell · Nov 29, 2013

byronlj said:
I don't know if this is wrong, but I have been maintaining 2 pairs of vehicles with 2 maintainers. I just hook jumper cables between them. I have done it the previous 2 winters and had no problems.
Dave

As long as the batteries are the same capacity, this is fine. If the batteries have very different capacity, you can get problems.

3930dave · Nov 29, 2013

joshuabardwell said:
As long as the batteries are the same capacity, this is fine. If the batteries have very different capacity, you can get problems.

I'll second what JB said. Doing that with my 7.3 and Honda wouldn't be prudent.

Jumper cables battery-terminals-to-battery-terminals is pretty reliable. On modern vehicles, cigarette-lighter-(or whatever the pc term is today

) to-cigarette-lighter cables can create headaches for long term maintaining, as sometimes there are electronic controls in these lighter socket (ie. vehicle side) circuits that create headaches.

Yeah.... got the Tshirt the hard way.....

Rgds, D.

Katahdin · Nov 29, 2013

This one has worked very for me this past year:

1.5 Amp Three Stage Onboard Battery Charger/Maintainer

Its very easy to install, the weight of the battery holds it in place (it comes with a bracket not shown) so there are no holes to drill if space around the battery allows.