Batteryminder 1500 Review

[Fallon]

Desulfuitization via pulsing at the resonance of a lead sulfite crystal sounds like snake oil, but isn't. It won't work miracles, but it does help lengthen a batteries lifespan a bit.

A pile of different chargers have that function now. You can build your own for $5-10 if you are handy with electronics. I'm handy, but have just picked up chargers with the function instead, less hassle.

 

[Ford850]

Here's another follow up on this. My BatteryMinder 1500 has been in use for about a year now. The original battery I used it on, for my DX55, was put to the test a couple times in the past week. First, after keeping up with rotating the Minder to all batteries every couple months, they have been performing like new. I had to start the DX55 last week after sitting without the Minder for weeks, and without starting it. It had been below 0 degrees for days, so I did plug in the block heater for 2 hours. It cranked over like it was summer, and I plowed the drive and then parked it again for a week. After sitting all week in -5 to 15 degree temps, today it was upper 20's, and I started it without the block heater or the aid of them Minder for many weeks now. It cranked as fast as in the summer. I am very pleased with how this battery is revived compared to a year ago.
My wife's car had a dead battery a couple weeks ago. I thought it was a shorted, since it was so drained and didn't seem to take a full charge nor hold one. I charged it using my Shumacher charger, then let the BatteryMinder sit on it for 2 days. It's back to holding a full charge again.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I have about 4 or 5 of the older Battery Tenders that I keep on my motorcycle, lawnmower, tractor, etc. On the m/c I used to be in the battery buying business every 3 years. At $185 per copy, that gets old really quick. Once I started keeping my batteries on the Battery Tender the life of my m/c batteries has extended to over 7 years now. And still perking!

I am a little disappointed in Deltran though. I had one Battery Tender just quite charging a few weeks ago. I wrote to them asking about repairing it, but they've elected to totally ignore my email. So, I can't say much for their customer service...

Now I'm in the need of a desulfator for my golf cart batteries. They're 6 volt but I can hook up a desulfator in parallel so I could use a 12 volt desulfator. At over $200 per battery, and I need 12 total, I'll be buying a desulfator charger. Any recommendations on brand?

 

[Garandman]

I started using the BT Jr on motorcycle batteries as well. Now I have them on three bikes, two snowmobiles, and have a Battery Tender Plus for the tractor.

 

[PILOON]

OK, get green with envy.
Last summer I was at a garage sale and the guy had an intelligent battery tender that he asked $10.00 for.
Since I already had 2 I offered him $5.00 and he said 'sold'. Was like new in the box. (lists at about $25-30 here)
Now my tractor, ATV and spare battery sit comfortably 'tended' ! LOL. (I do get lucky at times)

 

[RPW]

Gem99, I hope you meant in series. In parallel you are still at 6vdc.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Gem99, I hope you meant in series. In parallel you are still at 6vdc.

There's a difference? hehe - That sparky stuff is just electrifying to me. But thanks for the correction.

 

[Oldtink]

I had a BatteryMinder 12248 and got 5 years out of it before I just gave up on it and went to a Battery Tender Plus. (half the $$$)
I hope I just got a bad one but it was back for repair under warranty twice and the third time was just out of warranty and said enough of this. The darn thing was smart though, so smart it wouldn't attempt to charge a battery once it got down to 8 or 9 volts then it learned to do the same thing at 11.5v.
I liked it when it did work and left it on my tractor 24/7 which would sit idle in a cold barn for weeks but the battery was always strong when I'd hit the key.
I'm under the impression that lead sulfate isn't an issue if you keep the battery charged. Could be wrong but I don't put much faith into restoring an old slow cranking battery into like new for $150. I'll invest that in a new battery and keep a charge on it.

 

[varmint]

Not to derail the thread, but I have had good luck with the cheapo Harbor Freight battery tenders. I install marine 12V outlets in the plastic lower front panels on my Kubotas (12V ciggie lighter outlets...?) and wire a plug on the chargers instead of the alligator clips- almost instant "on" or "off", and since the battery on some tractors isn't easily accessible, this proves handy. A 10A inline fuse, of course. I guess it would make for a handy power source, if I needed it for something.
My brother had a beautiful Porsche 911 that sat most of the time (only 3000 miles in 8 years- I volunteered to borrow it and exercise it) in one of his aircraft hangers, always with an expensive battery maintainer on it, and I know he had trouble with the maintainers a couple of times.

 

[JJZ 109]

I've got a mix & match battery charger/tender setup. On the 3 motorcycles, I attached ring terminals to all the batteries with the pigtail and just plug/unplug to use. I bought a tender from the local Harley dealer and rotate that among the bikes weekly. Got about 4 HF cheapies. One is on a Mustang GT all winter. Another is on the commercial truck battery that runs the hydraulics on a Telsta bucket. Another is on the engine starting battery of the bucket truck. It sits parked all winter. Last one is on an Interstate 850 CCA battery that's just sitting as a spare.
I have a Sears 6/12 volt charger that I've had around for many, many years. That gets rotated among the four 6 volt deep cycles that I have for a JLG tow behind lift. There's also another NAPA battery maintainer that gets rotated between the zero turn mower, a JD lawn tractor and the dump trailer battery. Man, there are a lot of batteries to look after all winter!

 

[JRobyn]

+1 on the HF tenders! I have/use about 6 of them.

- Jay

 

[BarnieTrk]

My 2 cents worth:
I've worked with & owned a few different chargers.
By far the best to date is the "CTEK Multi US 4.3" smartcharger.
It isn't the most expensive but it works for me just fine! I highly recommend it.

Read the manual to learn more about it here: http://smartercharger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/manual-mus-4.3.pdf

BarnieTrk

 

[Ford850]

I put my rejuvenated battery to the toughest test yet, over the weekend. Woke up to -14 degrees, with severe blowing and drifting snow. An hour later our power went out. Normally I would wait until the weather was better before plowing the drive. But when I called the co-op about the outage, I was the only one reporting it. In case the trucks needed to get to my transformer, I had to plow my long drive, and do it right away. I hadn't used the BatteryMinder on the DX55 battery for quite a few weeks, and with no power I couldn't use the block heater. I cycled the glow plugs twice, and turned the key. It cranked fast and started right up. Whew! I got the driveway plowed, but the outage was at the road so the power trucks didn't need to come up the drive anyway. That was the coldest I've tried to start the tractor, especially without the block heater. I'm glad the battery is performing close to new again.

 

[BarnieTrk]

Ford850,
Whew.... -14*F is nippy, for sure!
I'm glad things worked out as well as they did for ya!

Have you considered getting a power generator for such events?
If you had one, you could run it to power your block heater if need be.

My neighborhood looses electrical power, probably 2-4 times a year; usually for 4-48 hours at a time. 4 hours isn't bad, but when it's very cold or very hot outside, and the power outage starts going past 12 hours, with a chest freezer, refrigerator and water well to maintain, and a radio / TV to track the storm or power outage, etc. the stress level for my wife & I gets higher than it needs to be. Since I bought a power generator, I won't be without one now.

BarnieTrk

 

[Ford850]

Ford850,
Whew.... -14*F is nippy, for sure!
I'm glad things worked out as well as they did for ya!

Have you considered getting a power generator for such events?
If you had one, you could run it to power your block heater if need be.

My neighborhood looses electrical power, probably 2-4 times a year; usually for 4-48 hours at a time. 4 hours isn't bad, but when it's very cold or very hot outside, and the power outage starts going past 12 hours, with a chest freezer, refrigerator and water well to maintain, and a radio / TV to track the storm or power outage, etc. the stress level for my wife & I gets higher than it needs to be. Since I bought a power generator, I won't be without one now.

BarnieTrk

Have I considered it? I do, every time I lose power. Other than the fact that we rarely loose power for more than 4 - 8 hours, my situation sounds very much like yours. I've looked into generators many times, and end up putting off a buy due to the expense of the ones I think I need. I would like a small Honda for convenience and to get much more use out of it, but that would not help much for the things you listed above. So I'd like this Honda Generator Model EU7000 - Mayberrys.com but I need a severe outage to push me over that edge.
Now maybe if that darn BatteryMinder didn't do such a good job, I might be shopping for a generator this week.

 

[Gunny]

but I need a severe outage to push me over that edge.
Now maybe if that darn BatteryMinder didn't do such a good job, I might be shopping for a generator this week.

The problem in waiting for a severe outage before you buy could cost you, big time. I put off buying a generator because we usually only had one or two outages a year and they rarely lasted more than 6-8 hours.
Then we had a windstorm from a Texas hurricane come through during the summer and we were knocked out for 7 days. It didn't make any difference what brand or size generator you wanted, there were none available anywhere around here, Lowes sold every generator they had the first day.

We had to sweat through that one, no AC and no fans to help cool us down but the big issue was that we had two full freezers and full a refrigerator. We gathered up every cooler we could find but three days into it, nobody had ice to sell because the two local ice plants were also without electricity.

I did buy a generator as soon as I could afterwards and naturally, we haven't lost power since, but I've found enough other uses for it to justify having it around.

 

[PILOON]

Yep, there are two times to buy a generator.

Before a power failure or after.
Choice is yours!

LOL, I lucked out when we had a major summer storm that blew down 9 poles near me. Judging by my local damage and radio reports I knew power would be down for a good time.
A local tool supply store figured the same thing so when I called they said a truckload should be at the store around 4:00 so I gave them my CC over the phone to reserve mine.
That was 10 years ago and it still serves me well 3-4 times a year.

It paid for itself simply by saving the 22 foot freezer and 2 fridges full of food.
It is wired via a manual transfer panel and covers everything except hot water and electric heaters.
Pump and septic also covered.
I have a fireplace and oil stove for backup heat.

 

[FTG-05]

I bought a Northstar 5KW generator prior to the YK2000 dud-scare. Didn't really use it all that much until we lost power after the April 28, 2011 tornado swarms that went through north AL. Then we were without power for about 4 days or so.

I used that generator to power all my refrigs and freezers (4) plus the neighbors on both sides of me. We also turned out to be the cell phone and laptop recharger station for practically the whole neighborhood. I think I ended up having about 6 powerstrips all going at once.

Haven't used it much since. Worth every penny!

 

[jimmysisson]

I've had three battery minders, two have broken. They work great when they do. I hook them up as recommended, use mostly in part-heated garage, but only 2-4 years out of them. They're non-repairable for someone like me.
Jim

 

[BarnieTrk]

jimmysisson,
I hear ya..... they are kinda like a smart phone, computers (desktop, laptop, car, take your pick), TV, when they work - they're great...when they don't work - they're just something to dust!

My smart charger also died after a couple of years, but I still had the warranty info, made the claim and they replaced it for free...so I'm back in business again.

Regarding portable power generators: Know that they need to be exercised periodically...meaning run them with a load (powering a frig, freezer, coffee pot, etc.) for at least 20 minutes every 3 to 6 months...or they will "wilt & die". Don't forget to use fuel treatment in the gas tank too...if possible use 100% gasoline, NO ethanol.

Just my :2cents:,,,,,, BarnieTrk