Battery Maintainers

[rbattelle]

With fuel prices so high, I'm parking my truck quite a bit now. I'm hoping to drive it once a week, but I'm afraid all that inactivity will kill the batteries over the winter.



So I'm thinking of getting a battery maintainer. So far I've looked at



Battery Tender



BatteryMinder



I'm leaning toward the BatteryMinder, since it also includes a desulphator and will work with Odyssey type dry-cell batteries (which I will hopefully have one day).



Anyone have anything positive or negative to say about these? Or perhaps a recommendation for a better unit?



Ryan

 

[Matt400]

Hi Ryan,

I think once per week is plenty, in fact once per month should be fine as long as once its started it runs for 30 minutes or more.



I don't have any experience with the ones you posted but do use this one:

Battery Sentinel Battery Chargers on a couple of motorcycles, brush mower and boat battery. Works real well with a great warranty.

 

[rbattelle]

I think once per week is plenty, in fact once per month should be fine as long as once its started it runs for 30 minutes or more.

So you think with that kind of duty cycle a maintainer is unnecessary?



I'm just afraid the batteries will freeze in winter if I don't run the truck for a week. Is this an unrealistic fear?



Ryan

 

[rweis]

I use a smaller (2 amp) BatteryMinder on my RV batteries. It does the desulfation, charges, can be left connected for several years. Your size seems better for both batteries. What about the desulfation mode? (high frequency), will it injure any of the DC electrical?



Bob Weis

 

[rbattelle]

What about the desulfation mode? (high frequency), will it injure any of the DC electrical?

Good question. Probably not, but I don't know.



Ryan

 

[Matt400]

So you think with that kind of duty cycle a maintainer is unnecessary?

I do, but your concern for freeze is one I have never thought about being on the west coast. Where we are the temps can get in the teens but 20's is more common and I have not seen that trouble around here.



I have sold many of the sentinels to customers that leave their car for several months but none to people who drive them at-least once per month.

 

[tgordon]

Hardly any farmers will put a maintainer on their battaries and they can manage to get 3-5 years out of them bouncing around in a field. IMHO what you are doing is well above the needed. As to the battary freezing, unless you have been adding water to the battary if it freezes it was well on its way out the door anyways is what I have always been told, and the little experiance I have with it has supported that. As to what to look for in a maintainer, I have no ideas at all.

 

[p-Bar]

To do it right you will need two of them and will have to disconnect one of the batteries otherwise you will get false reading while only one of the batteries may need the kick. I've bought the cheapys from Harbor Freight they sense a drop in voltage and charge with only 500ma which is all you really need to mantain a battery if it is in good shape.



Don

 

[JFaughn]

I got at least 3 different types of these , I have solar power stuff , multiple battery banks for house hold , RV ect .
They do work , some of my battery banks are over 10 yrs old .
The freezing is only an issue with almost totally discharged batteries , that 10 yr + bank is in a unheated bus , over/under -30*F most every winter .

 

[jwgary]

I just bought this one from Northern Tool Vector 2/10/25 Amp Charger with 75 Amp Engine Start, Model# VEC1095A | Battery Chargers + Jump Starters | Northern Tool + Equipment

I haven't used it to do a desulfate or anything like that. I just needed something to get more juice in my batteries after I was cranking it a lot to purge air out of the fuel system on a cold morning that was requiring the grid heaters while cranking. It will do the gel batteries like my optimas. It seems fairly easy to use and will give you some good diagnostics on the batteries as well (open cell, shorted cell, etc. ). The back has some compartments to keep all the cables in too so it stores easily.

 

[rbattelle]

To do it right you will need two of them and will have to disconnect one of the batteries otherwise you will get false reading while only one of the batteries may need the kick.

The Battery Minder will charge/maintain up to 6 batteries simultaneously without disconnecting them from service.



I guess this "problem" is less of a problem than I thought. I think I'll put off this purchase...



Ryan

 

[midlife crisis]

I see the cheapies that Harbor Freight is advertising for 9. 99. I might just have to experiment with one of the quads or plow tractor.

Ryan- my early 03 sits in the barn months at a time. Still on the orig

batteries. As long as they are charged, they shouldnt freeze.

Years ago, we went to leaving them in the boats we were winterizing, as opposed to pulling out & storing. As long

as they were fully charged-we never had one freeze. (I hated pulling out those 8D's!)

 

[icman95]

Careful with the cheapies from Harbor Freight or Northern. Some of them don't automatically turn off and can overcharge the battery. I had one on a bike and this happened. I'd imagine it won't happen on a big battery like in the truck. I got my small automatic one from the local auto parts store. Just a generic minder that actually came designed to be bolted to the firewall, permanently wired to the batts and then pluged in on an as needed basis much like the grid heaters. I didn't install it this way, as I use it for my bike, but it works great. I think if you keep a trickle charger on them (mine is 1. 5 amps) you won't have to worry much about the sulfating anyway.

 

[Pavemen]

i picked up a $50 battery charger/tender from Target. Dark yellow box. Small unit, does 2A, 6A and 10A rapid charges as well as float charges to keep it topped off.

I leave my gasser trail rig plugged in 24/7 when its parked out back to maintain the batteries. No issues at all.