Best vs. cheapest battery maintainers.

I'm not a Costco fan because it's 45 minutes away. But here in Canada I only see one maintainer there,

Shell SBC400 4 Amp Battery Charger and Maintainer Price $59.99 CAD
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That's more than twice the price of my MOTOPOWER MP00205A 12V 800mA from Amazon.
In my opinion, a maintainer is not a charger and vice versa. I have a couple of 15 amp chargers with engine start and three maintainers with outputs ratings from 800mA to 1.5A. You don't need anything more to maintain a battery. And a 4A maintainer will take hours, if ever, to charge a dead battery. Spend $40 to $100 on at least a 10A proper battery charger.
 
Thanks webfors, that did not come up in my search. But it's still high for a battery maintainer in today's marketplace, and 4.5 amps is unnecessary for maintaining but inadequate for quick charging.
 
Jetronic said:
there's really no such thing as quick charging, the absorption phase takes several hours.

You can do bulk charging a bit quicker though
Click to expand...
I'm talking when my car won't start on a cold winter morning because the battery is low for whatever reason. Before I had a charger with engine start, I'd put on my 10 Amp charger, go in and have another cup of coffee, and it would be ready to go. You can't do that with a 4 Amp battery maintainer. Like I said before, chargers and maintainers are two different animals and not interchangeable.
 
Oldyellr said:
I'm talking when my car won't start on a cold winter morning because the battery is low for whatever reason. Before I had a charger with engine start, I'd put on my 10 Amp charger, go in and have another cup of coffee, and it would be ready to go. You can't do that with a 4 Amp battery maintainer. Like I said before, chargers and maintainers are two different animals and not interchangeable.
Click to expand...

I once had a car that had sat long enough that it wouldn't start.

Lacking a battery charger at the time, I used a Radio Shack 1.75A, 12V power supply to charge the battery. After 10 minutes or so, I tried again and the engine started.

The back of it looks like this:

1670294311093.jpg
 
And let's think about this. If we put 1.75 amps into the battery for 10 minutes, that is 1050 amp-seconds. If it takes 3 seconds of cranking to start the engine, we've added 350 amps of cranking power (minus whatever the charging losses are) to whatever was in the battery before we started charging it.

Obviously it's not enough to charge a completely dead battery to the point that the engine will start, but if the battery isn't that dead, it will be enough.
 
Am I the only person that bought a NOCO 5? It seems to do the job, says it's temperature compensated, has AGM setting, etc.
Oh, and it doesn't get hot while charging which is a big plus here in FL.
 
I just picked up the NICO 2 Genius a couple of days ago. I figured I don't mind leaving it on overnight if I had to.
 
Costco USA has a decent sale on a 5amp battery maintainer for $40 with free shipping:
Claims compatibilty with flooded, AGM, Gel and lithium batteries. Automatic 6v and 12vt operation. All the usual microprocessor algorithms for pulse, bulk, desulfation and maintainence charging. Comes with clamps and ring mounts.
Uses standard SAE charging cords too.
 
Last edited:
Oldyellr said:
Thanks webfors, that did not come up in my search. But it's still high for a battery maintainer in today's marketplace, and 4.5 amps is unnecessary for maintaining but inadequate for quick charging.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter, once the battery reaches full charge, it drops down to the float charge which is not at 4.5 amps. Depends on the software programming, but will usually be quite low...like .2 or .3 amps. That is how they prevent overcharging the battery and boiling the electrolyte on a flooded battery.
 
Oldyellr said:
I'm talking when my car won't start on a cold winter morning because the battery is low for whatever reason. Before I had a charger with engine start, I'd put on my 10 Amp charger, go in and have another cup of coffee, and it would be ready to go. You can't do that with a 4 Amp battery maintainer. Like I said before, chargers and maintainers are two different animals and not interchangeable.
Click to expand...
Actually you can charge a battery with a 2amp, 4amp or 5amp battery maintainer, it just takes more time. I have a selectable 2 and 15 amp charger, with a 100amp boost capability. Yes, in a hurry the 15amp setting will charge quicker, but any battery manufacturer instructions will state that it is preferred to charge at a lower rate, as it is better for longevity. Optima Batteries even states in their instructions "low and slow" is best for long life when charging.
From Optima website:
"Low and slow is best. A low-amp charger (one to 12 amps) is generally the best choice for charging any lead-acid battery. It's quicker to charge at higher amperage, but it also can generate a lot of heat, which reduces the life of a battery, just like the heat of summer."
 
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