Who's Using a Trickle Charger / Battery Tender?

[Lil Foot]

I have a slew of vehicles, so I have a slew of chargers/tenders/maintainers.
To start, I have had two HF maintainers fail completely, so I stopped using them.

My Rhino & Lil Foot both have old Optima batteries, 12 & 14 yrs old, that were acting pretty tired, so I bought these on the advice of a neighbor. They "recondition" the battery, and now they act like new.

https://www.optimabatteries.com/products/digital-400/

 

[Lil Foot]

Got this one with my excavator:

Battery Tender Junior 750mA 12V Battery Charger and Maintainer

Boost your vehicle’s battery life with our top-selling Junior automatic battery charger for motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, UTVs, lawnmowers, and more!Smarter than a trickle charger, our advanced charger and maintainer provides a full charge before switching to float mode to keep your battery at...

www.batterytender.com

 

[Lil Foot]

I have these on my 5th wheel & Kubota batteries:

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC1279-12V-Rapid-Charger/dp/B07DM22XTN

 

[Lil Foot]

This one for the TW200:

Megaboost Pro Series 4000 Charger And Maintainer - Cycle Gear

The MegaBoost Charger/Maintainer 4000 is perfect for those wanting to charge and maintain their 6v or 12v lead acid battery. Shop Cycle Gear for our 30-day best price guarantee & 90-day hassle free returns.

www.cyclegear.com

 

[Lil Foot]

I also picked one of these up at an estate sale for a buck, which I loan to neighbors on occasion:

Robot or human?

 

[Lil Foot]

I also have another charger at the cabin left to me by a neighbor who passed, but I can't remember what it is; probably hasn't been out of the cabinet for 10 years.

 

[fried1765]

I won't answer that (too much math first thing this morning), but when I want to go use my:
tractor
classic car
motorcycle
or
lawn mower

the CONVENIENCE of knowing that it'll start is worth a lot to me, rather than making a 1.5hr run into town and back, hauling a battery with me, finding the one I need(maybe several stores), plunking down $100-$200 (depending) and the long customer lineups, then back home, install the thing, hope I didn't get a dud.

Meanwhile, I could've been
tractoring
Sunday driving in my classic car
carving the twisties on my bike
or
mowing the lawn

It's an easy calculation for me (without using any math)

I have never paid more than $40 for a Battery Tender, or Battery Minder ( I watch for sales).
They ONLY use power when automatically commanded to do so, and then the electrical power use is VERY minimal.
I have never paid less (in past 10 years) than $100 for a battery, usually much more!.

It is subjective, but my batteries have lasted at least twice as long, with a Tender or Minder.
I have one battery (Toyota) that is currently 13 years old.
The economics of Battery Tenders/ Minders/etc. are VERY obvious to ME!

P.S I do not buy electrical devices from HF that are to be left unattended for long periods.

 

[fried1765]

I've hard wired trickle charger quick connects to my bikes and ZTR. I make it a habit to plug in each machine at the beginning of each month for top ups. If you can't get to the machines for months on end you might want to consider pulling the battery and storing it appropriately. You will still want to do top ups.

I leave "maintainers" on all (12) of my batteries for a full 6 months while I am keeping myself warm in Florida.
No issues!
Returning North, every couple of months during the Winter to service batteries, is NOT an option for me.

 

[MariahZ212]

I have them on everything.. Have a combination of Battery Tender and Batter Minder (prefer the Tender). Do NOT use off brands such as Harbor Freight. Have them on a boat w/ an AGM battery, John Deere X540, Ford F250 7.3 Diesel, Jaguar XKR, a stand alone battery and my LX 2610. Leave them on all the time when not using.

 

[Thunder Fish]

I as well if it has a lead acid battery,it has some sort of tender on it except for the daily drivers,I got 11 years out of a deep cycle that I ran on my electric trolling motor

 

[pokey1416]

 

[Papadiver]

Same here. I have used Battery Tender for years. I have 4 going right now on 3 tractors and an ATV. It was -2 for a few days over the weekend. It’s finally up to 27 deg right now.

Ron

 

[Velma]

I do on the tractor and motorcycles. Easier than removing batteries.

Costco has a tender at a decent price. Little larger model (ie amps) more appropriately sized for a tractor in my opinion. The motorcycles are fine on the small ‘wall’ charger size version.

 

[bbxlr8]

Have an assortment of 6 or so also - my original 30-year-old battery tender just gave up and harbor freight had an upgraded one that I just purchased

 

[Daferris]

I have a Noco Genius 2 that I have mounted to a post in the barn. I also have a 10' extension with the Noco ends on it. Each of the batteries that I am concerned about have the hardwired pigtails on them and while they are in storage I can rotate the battery on the Noco because the lead is long enough to read all of them without moving the charger. Also have it on a switch as even the F350 with both batteries takes less than a day for it to show it's completely charged. Normally go out and turn it on around the 1st of the month and then rotate what battery it's connected to as they show that they have a full charge. Not a big fan of taking the chance of over charging a battery...

 

[fried1765]

I have a Noco Genius 2 that I have mounted to a post in the barn. I also have a 10' extension with the Noco ends on it. Each of the batteries that I am concerned about have the hardwired pigtails on them and while they are in storage I can rotate the battery on the Noco because the lead is long enough to read all of them without moving the charger. Also have it on a switch as even the F350 with both batteries takes less than a day for it to show it's completely charged. Normally go out and turn it on around the 1st of the month and then rotate what battery it's connected to as they show that they have a full charge. Not a big fan of taking the chance of over charging a battery...

There is ZERO risk of overcharging any of your batteries when using a Noco Genius 2 maintenance charger.

 

[The Evil Twin]

re: Anyone used one tender with multiple vehicles by parallel connecting them?

That is totally WRONG way to wire them up unless ALL batteries are the same make/model/condition. even then they'll only be charged up to whichever one is the worst.
One battery tender(only has 2 wires from factory ) cannot properly charge more than one battery at a time.

In multiple vehicles- not recommended.
Multiple batteries in a bank- totally recommended.
Most of the high quality battery maintainers provide the diagram to charge/ maintain multiple batteries with one maintainer. It's pretty easy.
The RV and lawn equipment batteries all come out over winter. They sit on a shelf connected properly and on one maintainer/ charger.
That said, I would not connect multiple batteries with one being significantly discharged. They should all be relatively charged.

 

[BXHoosier]

I use a Ctek charger/ maintainer that the previous owner used on my BX. I try to plug it in for a couple days every month or two to keep the battery topped off. I’ve had the tractor since July 2017 and it has the same battery. I don’t know how old the battery was when I bought the tractor. Yesterday, I pulled the batteries out of my zero turn and old Cub Cadet in the barn and hooked them up to the maintainer to top them off.

 

[fried1765]

I use a Ctek charger/ maintainer that the previous owner used on my BX. I try to plug it in for a couple days every month or two to keep the battery topped off. I’ve had the tractor since July 2017 and it has the same battery. I don’t know how old the battery was when I bought the tractor. Yesterday, I pulled the batteries out of my zero turn and old Cub Cadet in the barn and hooked them up to the maintainer to top them off.

I see no advantage (other than not buying extra chargers) to manually "topping off" batteries with a maintenance charger.
A "maintenance charger" is designed to remain connected, and to automatically charge ONLY when top off need is sensed.

 

[Joisey]

A quality battery minder shouldn't do that. A trickle charger will. Not the same thing at all.

I've had battery minders and battery tenders built to service individual batteries go haywire and cook a battery to death. I won't even mention the units that sears sold as battery tenders. I bought a Battery Minder 244CEC2 and have had zero trouble since it's purchase better than 6 years ago. I believe the secret is this battery minder compensates for ambient temperature.