6 volt trickle charger

I use Battery Tender, but GM says to use the cheap one from WalMart. I already had mine before he gave the info.
 
I have two of the Schumacher 6V/12V 1.5A Battery Maintainers that I bought at Tractor Supply for ~ $20.00 ea. I also have a Battery Tender Plus, 6V 1.25A, that I bought from the Antique Battery Co. for ~ $60.00. They all work great but IMHO I would recommend the Schumaher since it works just as well as the Battery Tender and is 1/3 the cost. J.M.
 
I also use Battery Tender. I bought mine on line. It allows you to set it up with a plug in connector for a quick hook up.
 
Got mine from Batteries Plus....leave it hooked up full time when the car is parked.
 

Attachments

  • DSCN5862.jpg
    DSCN5862.jpg
    24.4 KB · Views: 18
You don't want a trickle charger that will boil the water out of the battery. What you want is an automatic charger. The one at Wal-Marts is 6 and 12 volts and cost about $20.00. They come with a plug in wire that can be left on the battery and a plug in set of clip leads to use on other batteries. On 12 volts they charge to 14.3 and shut off, when the battery voltage drops to 13.3 it starts to charge again never over charging like a trickle charger does. On 6 volts it charges to 7.4 and comes back on at 6.4. They also have 3 LED lights that tell when charging, charged or a battery problem. I have a bunch of them and leave them on all the time. I can walk around and see the green lights and know the batteries are OK and fully charged. G.M.
 
A word of caution. The Walmart battery tender is set up for Negative ground cars. On 6 volt positive ground fords, the little exposed *** on the plug will be hot and short if accidentally touched to any metal. I cured this by reversing the charger wires. Be sure and put a notice on the unit that it is for pos ground cars.
 
What is the diffrence between the Walmart charger and the Deltran "Battery Tender" brand? I have always used the Deltran "Battery Tender" and never had a proublem with over charging, as they are fully automatic.
 
There is a difference in trickle chargers. They are basically categorized into three groups:
maintainer (trickle charger only)
charger/maintainer
conditioner/maintainer.

The maintainer simply trickles a small amount of current to maintain the charge in a fully charged battery, while the charger/maintainer is able to charge a battery and then maintain the charge. The conditioner has the ability to reduce sulfate deposits, restore a batteries charge holding ability, and keep it that way. They use various techniques, depending on the brand. Basically a high frequency reverse polarity pulse, targeted at the resonant frequency of the deposits is used to break up the deposits. A battery that is inactive tends to form these deposits so a a trickle charger may, in fact help to make the deposits.

A couple makers of conditioners are listed here.

 BatteryMINDer: Approx. $50 www.batteryminders.com
Available in 6 volts (model 12106) or 12 volts (model 12117)
RediPulse: Approx. $60 www.pulsetech.net
Available as a 6 and 12 volt model (RP-6-12)


NOTE: BatteryTender will NOT condition, desulfurize, or restore a battery.
 
If I get the cheapy Wal-Mart charger, can it be left connected all winter while the car is in storage...with out drying up the battery?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top