Batter Tender

tomcarman

tomcarman

Well-known member
I'm interested in how many use a battery tender. I have a Cheapo and am scared that it will fail somehow and cause a fire. I've researched them and price wise they're all over the map. I'd hate to lose an original 32 5 window and the entire garage over a few more $. Question is, from personal experience do you use them and if so what brand? 6V is all I need but I find them with everything else option wise. Don't need all the option stuff, just 6V and safe. Thanks for your response.
 
Tomcarman, I use a Deltran 8v battery tender for my 34 roadster for the last year and seems to work well.


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I have a few Battery Tenders to keep my various car and other batteries including a 6 volt battery up to snuff when not in use.
They have done what they are supposed to do without any issues.
 
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Tom, I have 2, one automatically senses whether it is connected to a 6 or 12 volt battery, the other (older one) has a switch on the front you select 6v or 12v. I have been using these several years, the oldest one about 4 years. I have never had a battery that wasn't kept fully charged. Also, if you have an Optima, if it gets run down, you need to charge it slowly or you will kill the battery. The jell mat is wrapped tightly and if you give it too many amps it will cause warpage and shorting out internally. I am pretty sure all the new ones have the ability to sense full charge and then "float" until the charge drops and it will begin to charge again. They charge at such a low rate, I don't think they could cause a fire, if they shorted out it would trip the breaker in the circuit.
 
I've never seen any need for a battery tender on older vehicles and machinery. Newer stuff does drain a battery while parked for weeks or months but the old ones don't. I leave batteries on the farm equipment year round sitting all winter in our severe weather. The batteries hold their charge and their life span is exceptionally good in my opinion.
 
if you are concerned about it, dont use one. i park my cars in the fall, dont even unhook the battery and still get the normal 4-6 year life out of them. they usually start up in the spring, and to charge i put on a smile and go for a drive. you could just put a charger on once or twice during the winter for an hour or so when its convenient, and use about 1/100th of the electricity.
 
Thanks for the input. BTW, I'm a bit embarrased about the thread title. Should have been Battery Tender, not Batter. Duh. Mike, you've seen what we have and I'm just concerned about leaving the unit attached while I'm working and not have to worry, especially when we get the 3 window in there. It's just been my experience lately that these new tools etc. made in everyone knows where are prone to failure, usually sooner rather than later. Having a dead battery is one thing, but a short or an overcharge resulting in who knows what is another.
 
Tom, if the power to the building is on a breaker or even an older fuse, any short or large current draw on the AC side of the charger would cut the power, and 1.5 amps at 6v on the DC side of the charger isn't going to set anything on fire. If you are really worried about it, you could remove the batteries from the cars and put them in a vented metal container like a truck bed tool box with the charger and if either failed they would be contained.
I understand your concerns, you can never be too careful but the wiring in the building might be a larger threat then a battery tender, depending on who wired it and the quality of the wire and outlets and switches.
 
never used one, always have good battery life with what I do now---nothing
when I asked what a battery tender would do for me at the booth selling them i was told it would double my battery life ---at the time my battery was 15 years old --so I said wow, 30 years --they said-No, that it would double the life to 5-7 years
 
I have two 12v Battery Tenders and one 6v, which I've had for 25+ years. The 12v ones are only about 15-years old. All are working fine.
 
I've never used a battery tender. I've just never liked the concept. Every few months I hook my batteries up to a smart charger and to observe how long it takes to top them off. It's almost always less than an hour. Oftentimes it's less than 30 minutes.
 
My cars are in northern Minnesota and I go to Florida for the winter. I hate to leave them completely unattended all winter in an unheated building, so I have battery tenders on all of them. I too, was kinda spooked by having power to the battery tenders 24/7. Also, I had one go bad a few years ago, and it boiled the battery and ruined it. Because of these concerns, I purchased one of those cheap timers that you can get just about anywhere (WalMart, etc.). After experimenting, I have found the 30 minutes a day is enough to keep the batteries up. I have the timer plugged into the wall, and extension cords routed to all of my tenders.

It's probably unnecessary, but it works for me,
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm likely over paranoid but nonetheless I'm concerned. The cheapo (HF) tender has worked fine but my concern still exists. Mike, the garage as of now is wired to a single 20A circuit from the house, hence the lack of 220V. Dad never got to it. It's on my list. Mainly I was interested if there are better or worse Tenders on the market (brand wise) or if it even matters.
 
tubman said:
My cars are in northern Minnesota and I go to Florida for the winter. I hate to leave them completely unattended all winter in an unheated building, so I have battery tenders on all of them. I too, was kinda spooked by having power to the battery tenders 24/7. Also, I had one go bad a few years ago, and it boiled the battery and ruined it. Because of these concerns, I purchased one of those cheap timers that you can get just about anywhere (WalMart, etc.). After experimenting, I have found the 30 minutes a day is enough to keep the batteries up. I have the timer plugged into the wall, and extension cords routed to all of my tenders.

It's probably unnecessary, but it works for me,
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Good idea. Though I'm not gone for that amount of time I have a thing in my mind about not being home if something goes awry. I do work 10 hour shifts so I'm away about 12 hours each day including travel time. Not including taking the wife out for dinner.
 
I remove the positive ground ******** the 6v Optima battery and reconnect in the Spring.
No tender or maintenance charger. No problems.
 
I have used Yuasa and Battery Tender for 20+ years. The 6 volt in my 34 is now 7 years old (non-Optima). Motorcycle batteries are normally short lived. The last 2 that I replaced in my Harley were 8 or 9 years old and I only changed them as I felt it was time. They had not shown any sign of weakness.
 
Any battery will go bad just sitting there...... hooked up or not...... current draw or not. That's the nature of the beast. I worked for Douglas Battery and Delco (Delphi). Wrote warranty and did plenty of battery autopsies. You hear a lot of stuff about batteries, that for sure.
On two cars that are literally never driven, I have maintainers. A Genius G750 on one car and a Battery Tender (not sure which) on the other.
The argument would be that the cars should actually be driven but with 5 others in constant rotation, we have plenty of wheels for the two drivers in the house.
 
The best battery charger and maintainer I have ever found is the Solar Pro Logix charger. It will do 6 & 12 volt, 10/6/2 amp charges, standard/gel/agm batteries. Plus when it's done it automatically goes into a maintenance mode and will eventually turn itself off if need be. I am really pleased with it's performance. It runs about $60-$70.
 
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