Most liked posts in thread: Battery Tender?

Good ones are good,

and crappy ones are crappy. The cheap ones tend to just trickle a little current into the battery hoping that this is the right about. Better ones look at the battery voltage to keep from over or undercharging. With modern cars, the computers never sleep and I don't know what the drain is. Systems "go to sleep" over time and that drops the standby current. Do your homework and get one that is smart.

Matt

 

Battery Tender's are great. I use them on my motorcycles. Both have 9 year old batteries. They still work perfectly and start right up no matter how long between rides.

The nice thing about the Battery Tender brand is the fact they hold it fully charged without overcharging. Many of the lower priced models over charge. Like Matt mentioned, they are one of the "smart" ones.

 

I use their Jr model since it takes up little space. It's only a 0.75A charger, more than enough to maintain the small battery in my cycles. For a car, I'd get the Plus model with slightly higher amperage, 1.25A.

 

Hi Steve,
You don't need to pay a lot of money. You don't want a trickle charger (and they cost way more anyway). All you need to do is get an Automatic Battery Float Charger. On sale you can pick one up for $5.99, normally around $10. Try Harbor Freight for one with alligator clips or here is a link for a larger one you can mount under your hood for around $20.

At $6-$10 you can afford to occassionally drive off with this one connected lol (I did that just 2 weeks ago). My last one I used for over 5 years (same brand and model and same price $5.99), without any problems and without replacing the battery. This is one instance that I do not believe more money makes for a better product. I'm sending my wife to pick up 2 more of these today.

 

I've had a battery tender in my MINI since it's first winter, 6 years ago. Back then I was living in a much colder climate than I do now, -30F was normal for a lot of the winter, with some lows going down to the -40's. I used the tender almost all winter so Poco had lots of juice to start-up in the mornings. I got mine from the dealer, BMW branded smart charger. It lives under the bonnet, under the passenger side cowling.

Still running the OEM battery, but it may be time to get a new one, been 6+ years now.

Mark

 

Since I haven't actually seen a post stating where to get one, let me recommend Griots Garage. I bought one two years ago for my Classic Mini that only gets use on the weekends, and have found it to be exceptional value for the money.

You can use it several ways as well. Temporary hook up with aligator clips (like a battery booster), permanent, mount it to a fender well or as in my case, inside the boot, etc.

Check it out before you commit to anything, theres lots of choices out there, unfortunately, theres lots of crap as well.

 

My dad uses one to charge his Lamborghini. Works great, and garauntees it will start after sitting for a long period of time. I beleive he bought it at Harbor Freight.

 

I find something rather comical about this, maybe it's the image of a guy pulling up outside a Harbor Freight store in a Lamborghini.
"After this we'll hit the McD drive-thru and then off to Dollar General."