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

 

[mainiak1]

I have a battery tender on my tractor it works great. I don't use my tractor much in the winter.

As for the picture of the burned out wires on the camper. This guy was probably trying to use his twelve volt system while the battery tender was still plugged in. They are not supposed to be used like this.

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Hi...


I have the Battery tender by Deltran...
used it for ~7 years now... mostly on the motorcycle year round...

...in winter... switch it to the camper battery... garden tractor battery... and CUT battery (outside)... and motorcycle...

..no issues with it...

The quick disconnects available for it... and the regular terminal clamps... make it EZ to switch from one battery to the next...


Dave...

 

[BIGUN]

My brother gave me one like this for Christmas. Seems pretty good.

Vector

 

[Phred]

Anyone run one of these on a diesel truck?
It appears that some of them will charge up to four bateries in parralel, which would allow it to work on a truck with two batteries.

Also the manufacturer discussions appear to imply that these units do not discharge the battery and then recharge them to maintain the charge. The just charge them up and hold them.
The advertised difference between the "tender" and charger appears to be that the tender charges it up and then reduces the voltage to prevent damaging the battery when connected up for a long period of time.
This feature may also be possible with some of the better chargers, but I have not looked into it for sure.
The charger I have appears to atomatically stops applying voltage when it senses the battery is charged.

Fred

 

[Bob999]

I have been using the BatteryMinder for the past year and am very pleased with it. BatteryMinder

 

[JDgreen227]

I have run down my ATV batteries by leaving the ignitions on and once they get a deep discharge they are ruined. At $55 per battery they are much more expensive than a battery tender so I think the tender is a worthwhile purchase. I tried using a large charger set at 2 amps for a tender but ruined one battery doing that. From what I have read, leaving a big charger on a motorcycle/ATV battery, even at 2 amps, will gradually overcharge it. Thanks for the link to the BatteryMinder.

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Hi...


I've left the Battery Tender hooked to my motorcycle battery for the winter months will no ill effects...


Dave...

 

[SPIKER]

Some of the Tenders are pretty cheap, like 14 bucks at harbor freight. they turn on and off as the battery needs it comes on and as it is charged it goes off. only provides a little power though, like less than 2 amps. the best thing is some of them are pulse generators which pulses the battery and knocks off the sulphate off the battery plates which is the primary cause of old batterys dieing. the build up sulphate on the batterys lead plates. that leads to the demize of it ...

not sure if the 14 buck ones do that but I know some of them advertize the pulse info as a Plus... a lot fo the NEW battery chargers will turn OFF automatically but will not turn back ON automatically! so watch out for that too.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[tomnky]

I wonder how these work for the breakaway battery on a trailer.I am thinking they might be good especially for winter months when the trailer isn't used much.

Anyone tried them for that?

 

[Trev]

I got a Battery Tender Plus over the winter to keep my new battery in tip-top shape. Now that's it's getting warmer (I actually tilled today!) I'm wondering if it's worth keeping using it in the summer? Does this extend the life of the battery, or in any other way help during summers when the tractor will typically be used on at least a weekly basis for mowing and so on?

Thanks,
Bob