charger/maintainer
- Thread starter zrxkawboy
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BatteryMinder.
Hard to go wrong with a Deltran Battery Tender. I've had good luck with my relatively low-amp capable float chargers from Harbor Freight & Vector as well.
JHZR2
Staff member
battery minder 12248 or equivalent battery tender.
Actually the schumacher land and sea battery charger unit looks pretty good and can be had at box stores like walmart.
Be sure the one you get is "automatic." It'll drop its output when the battery is fully charged. Any one between .75 amp and 1.3 amp is fine. BatteryMinder and Battery Tender Jr. are both very good, and there are other brands that work OK.
We have one, I'll go out and look to see what it is. It definitely helps. The shadow doesn't like to start sometimes when it's hot, and will just drain the battery. I had to get jumped a few times, or push start it. I haven't had to do it again since we picked up this charger.
I have always used the Deltran tenders. In fact I have only bought two of them 7 years ago and both are still in sevice.
I'm using a few Deltran Battery Tender Plus
Most of the fellas I ride with use the Deltran Battery Tender Jr.
In a pinch, when I was 1 short, I used the HF battery float maintainer for about 2 years on one of the wife's bikes till I got round to getting another Deltran - for on sale for under $10, I have to say it did the job. A bike I sold about a year and a half ago, I let the buyer have that HF maintainer figuring he would use it for a little bit until he'd find something better - few weeks ago when I talked to him, he's still using it and said the same battery is in the bike when I sold it to him. I really can't complain for something that was under $10 for getting the job done.
I've used a couple HF maintainers for a boat, now long gone, and have to say the HF maintainer did its job there too.
And one of my workers is using the HF maintainer on his bike.
I keep a couple new in the box HF maintainers just in case some day I have a use.
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I have a Battery Tender Jr and it works very well. I think it's based on the UC3909 lead-acid charger chip, although I couldn't read the print on the device. It appears to use a standard step-down transformer with a linear regulator.
I recently bought a small tender on sale at Canadian Tire that is based on dual-op amps. Unlike the Deltran, it only provided 2-stage charging, but looks to use a switching power supply, so it *might* be more efficient.
i have two battery tender's one for each of my motorcycles, both bikes are still on the factory batterys thanks to these tenders. and considering there 04/05 motorcycles thats pretty good.
I have HF battery maintainers on my lawn tractor and Polaris Ranger.. so far so good.
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Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
i have two battery tender's one for each of my motorcycles, both bikes are still on the factory batterys thanks to these tenders. and considering there 04/05 motorcycles thats pretty good.
I have HF battery maintainers on my lawn tractor and Polaris Ranger.. so far so good.
My battery tender was made 20 yrs ago or so and all it did was to ruin batterys. I was going through 7 or 8 batterys every couple years in my bikes by trying to "maintain them". Now I have no idea if a newer battery tender is any different so results may be different now, but I got a Pulsetec Extreme motorcycle battery changer and now all my batterys are 7 or 8 years old and working fine. I just charge once every 3 months or so on each battery when they are not in use. This is how I did the battery tender too, and had bad experience.
I see one guy is running the HF battery maintainer any one else? was going to try one but don't want to burn my garage down.
Originally Posted By: RonH
My battery tender was made 20 yrs ago or so and all it did was to ruin batterys. I was going through 7 or 8 batterys every couple years in my bikes by trying to "maintain them". Now I have no idea if a newer battery tender is any different so results may be different now, but I got a Pulsetec Extreme motorcycle battery changer and now all my batterys are 7 or 8 years old and working fine. I just charge once every 3 months or so on each battery when they are not in use. This is how I did the battery tender too, and had bad experience.
I guess I'll bump this thread back up instead of starting a new one, anyway I'm looking at these two maintainers they both look like they would be a good choice and priced reasonable through amazon,what do you guy's think between these two??
(a) http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SEM-156...367&sr=8-14
(b) http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021...3670&sr=8-1
This does not directly answer your question, but having used Battery Tenders for years, I decided to try BatteryMinder. I have a model #2012 that desulfated and revived a mower battery that went from only clicking the starter after being on a Battery Tender Jr for previous 3 months (solid green light) to cranking the engine like a new battery after 2 weeks on the #2012. Consider the #12117 and #12118(for AGM batteries) as well my favorites: the 2012 and 2012-AGM before you decide. Hope this helps.
I was looking at the BM but found this link bellow,i know it's not the same model.
http://www.fusselman.org/wiki/Desulfator
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