Trickle Charger

Your friends need an *automatic* trickle charger, such as this one that I use on my motorcycles.

Once the battery is fully charged, this device will keep it that way indefinitely.

Dave

The Battery Tender is a great product, you can find them and others also at a Marine Outlet as they are used by a lot of boaters.

Ron

I recently bought a 6-volt Battery Tender Jr. and it has not operated the way the sheet says it should. The blinkity light did its thing the first time I connected it up, but the tender had shut itself down next time I looked a couple hours later. No light on. Battery was drained.

Tried again after fully charging the battery somewhere else, and now there's no more blinkity initialization mode like it did the first time, like it's supposed to do. It did go right into "float" mode, so I guess it's okay on a battery that is already strong. That's not good enough, I lost confidence in it.

The warranty isn't all that valuable. Got to ship it back to Florida and include $9.95 for warranty evaluation and handling and return shipping. It only cost $31 retail! Is it worth it? For the more expensive models, the charge is correspondingly more than $9.95

Deltran customer service seems good. Told me I could send it back to them for free replacement, no mention of the $9.95

Not sure yet what I'm going to do with it. I'll give Battery Tender a positive rating though for the company's attitude. Maybe I just got a dud.

Sounds to me like it's working properly. You were supposed to fully charge the battery, BEFORE hooking it up to the Battery Tender. That is why it's called a Tender and not a charger. Read the sheet, again.

Dave

Yeah, I know. The sheet is pretty sketchy, but it says the battery must produce at least 3 volts to get the ball rolling. It has a brain with software, and there are three modes: Red light blinks - initialization Red light steady - charge Green light steady - float

Red blinked for several seconds the very first time it was connected, then red remained on steady. Just like the sheets says. The ball was rolling. But about 2 hours later, no light on at all. That is not one of the modes.

If the battery was too weak to get the charge process started, it should have never gone into steady red charge mode.

When I discovered that the light went out, I disconnected and reconnected to try again. No blinking. Red lit steady for a moment, and then slowly faded out to nothing.

Now it goes steady red to green, and it might be floating the charged battery properly. It just won't blink any more, it skips that part. I wish the Tender had a USB port on it so I could reflash the software.

Of course the battery is dead after a few months! The car probably has a clock, that takes juice, probably an anti-theft system that takes juice and who knows what else. If they don't want the battery to be drained, disconnect it!! A trickle charger from Sears or Wal-Mart will do the job but it pays to read the specs before you buy, or have someone who knows what they are talking about explain the best one to buy. Normally, they are pretty fool proof, but ---.

Also, I hope they put fuel stabilizer in the gas tank or chances are it won't start or run well anyway. I leave my truck and tractor for months at a time, after disconnecting the battery and with "Stabil" in the gas and they have not failed to start for years. I do keep a charger available, however, and may hook it up for short while just to "top off" the battery when I get back.

Save your money. The dirty little secret is that, in terms of self-discharge, batteries love cold. All you need to do it make sure it is fully charged in the fall, disconnect the negative cable, and LEAVE IT ALONE! This can be confirmed at any of the knowledgable battery sites, such as batteryfaq.org, batterystuff.org, and others.

Why should you trust me (aside from the links mentioned above)? I have a

1998 Ford Ranger pickup that stays in Maine. I drive it during the summer, when we are there. In October, I put it in the garage, disconnect the battery, and LEAVE IT ALONE as mentioned above, while we go to Arizona. In May, we go back to Maine, I reconnect the negative cable - and it has never failed to start the engine instantly. By the way, this is still the OEM battery, now 10 years old.

Yes, cars have "phantom loads" or "parasitic loads" that will kill your battery if you leave it connected. So disconnect it.

Bill