Your Battery Maintainer/Charger choice?

[GBJeffOH]

I turned if off after 19 sec. when he said "a very new product"... meaning he doesn't use it - he's just getting paid to speak...

The video is 11 years old.

 

[Trustable]

I need to still get one for the equipment but I can speak to the battery tender brand. My father has had a couple for a while now and they work very well

 

[CGMKCM]

I have Battery Tender Jr, CTEK and NOCO 2a,5a,10a. All work fine. NOCO has several sales per year on Amazon and the price is much less expensive on sale than Battery Tender and CTEK.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

As I said rough math and numbers will vary . Mr. Sun still isn't up ,so feel free to tweak the numbers.

When you connect the battery maintainer after running the tractor the battery is full. So it only has to provide the battery self discharge which is typically 1% per day for a new battery and possibly a bit higher when the battery is older. For a 12V 60Ah battery we are talking 7.2Wh/day.

So I think your electricity supply calculation is too pessimistic. What the maintainers really draw from the grid pretty much depends only on how good the power supply designers were and how low the no-load standby power is.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I don’t recall the name brand of all of mine.

But it don’t really matter anyways, cause I never remember to plug them in.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

When you connect the battery maintainer after running the tractor the battery is full. So it only has to provide the battery self discharge which is typically 1% per day for a new battery and possibly a bit higher when the battery is older. For a 12V 60Ah battery we are talking 7.2Wh/day.

So I think your electricity supply calculation is too pessimistic. What the maintainers really draw from the grid pretty much depends only on how good the power supply designers were and how low the no-load standby power is.

I used the worst case scenario based upon the MFRS claim they draw, without knowing operating temperature and windage, their SMPS efficiency,condition of battery, parasitic loads and of course whether you left the key on or not.There's dozens of factors to account for when doing a 'cost analysis'. having designed/built battery backed power supplies for remote energy control systems, I posted a 'worst case' as an example.

 

[hagrid]

No one likes Optimate?

 

[GreensvilleJay]

never bought one, heck never bought any 'maintainer'. Easier for me to make my own than ,ugh, BUY !

 

[mikester]

Has anyone ever figured out the cost benefit of running battery tenders? Comparing the cost of buying a tender, paying for electricity to run it versus having to buy a new battery on a more frequent basis.

$120 for my motorcycle battery and 2 hours to remove the plastic tupperware, replace the battery, and then to replace the tupperware. $48 for the battery tender that doubles my battery life.

Payback is pretty quick IMHO, just in terms of frustration saved.

 

[Vlach7]

Forgot about the off gassing of lead acid batteries. I guess a spark would have been a bad reminder.

OT: Friend has a huge solar array on his now hobby farm. Actually more of a very large veggie and fruit garden with a few acres of grass that he just mows for "fun" and compost. Net positive solar electricity generation. He is a retired electrical engineer. Loves to "tinker". Decade or longer ago he decided to install a battery storage system. Pretty much limited to lead acid batteries. Dedicated room in basement of his house. Had to add a ventilation system. Otherwise. BOOM! Gave up on the battery idea after one or more life cycles and when electric utility company had to pay for excess into the grid. So he purchased the hardware needed to reconnected to the grid. Less hassle and overall would have been more cost effective. But recently the utility companies are allowed to eventually pay less than 100% of wholesale electrical acquisition cost. Time for vanadium redox flow battery bank just to stick it to the utility company. I don't think net cost has ever been a high priority

Jay Leno uses CTEK.

Deleted

 

[ItBmine]

I have a bunch of different brands and my complaint with all of them....when used in an unheated barn, the wires are so fine and unpliable in the cold, the insulation cracks on the wires and they short out.
I usually have to replace mine every year or two.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Replace the wires with 'lamp cord' or 'test lead' wire ! I used to make 100s of test leads and yes Virginia, there IS a special wire for them. Very flexible and nice 'rubber' insulation. I finally used up the 2 500' spools a few months ago ( Belden mfr )

 

[FTG-05]

My latest:

0.75 Amp, 12V Deluxe Battery Maintainer and Float Charger

 

[McMXi]

Since this thread is about batteries and chargers, I'll share a little F-250 project that I wrapped up (pun intended) a couple of days ago.

I bought new batteries from Costco recently, specifically Interstate 65 AGM batteries that use gel mat technology. I also bought a battery wrap kit on Amazon which comes with enough insulated sheet to wrap a 65 sized battery as well as a piece to go under the battery. I cut and fit some 3/16" neoprene sheet for the top of the batteries, and then got everything wrapped up with some quality tape.

The intent here is to protect the batteries from extreme cold over the winter months. I don't use a battery tender on this truck since I drive it regularly.

 

[BruceMc]

I'm just happy that in 20 years, I'm still using the original battery from 2005!!!!

Since I bought the LX this fall the BX25 has been sitting unused outside for a couple of months now. We've had a very cold December, even by Fairbanks standards. Day after day of -40ºF. It warmed up enough yesterday that I pulled the battery and brought it inside. Surprised to find it was still sitting at 12.5V and, after putting it on the charger, it's sitting at a stable 12.8V today. 100% charge. This is the original factory battery from 2014. Impressive. It's never had any sort of trickle charger/maintainer on it.