Have any of you had a issue with battery tenders over charging after letting it hooked up to the battery in your car for several months Here in Mn.A friend of mine who stores classic cars for people,when the people come back to get their cars it is apparent that a few the batteries were overcharged , one assumes its suppose to be automatic as stated on the tender Have any of you experienced this ? gene in Mn
It’s supposed to turn off and have a charge curve programmed into the board . but like anything electronic, “stuff” happens . see it alot at work with automatic chargers they either don’t come on or stay on or don’t charge correctly . more prone to the small 110v plug in chargers . Seems to be the more robust industrial chargers don’t suffer the same fate .
I put mine on a small plug-in timer ,1 hour a day and works fine for me, even when the temps drop down.
Yeah, while I've never had that problem, I have had a few just stop working ! But yeah, never an overcharge problem. Are you (your friend) sure it wasn't a battery iself problem of some sort ? Like was said, anything can quit or possibly do things that it may not have been supposed to be able to do. Like me, I have a small Optima charger that when it gets to full charge and shuts off...it never comes back on as the voltage drops over time. I need to unplug it, then plug it back in to bring it back up to full charge. A sort of a pain, but not enough to sent it back for replacement ! Mike
i never trusted them. just disconnected the battery in the fall, tested it in the spring and put a trickle charge on it if needed. the battery in my 46 lasted 12 years, i don't know if having a battery tender on it would have made it last any longer
I put my over-winter batteries on a timer controlled maintainer. So it is only on for about 1.5 hours per day. Even that should be overkill if the battery is good, especially on older cars that don't have the parasitic small drains while sitting.
The less expensive the charger, the more likely it is to fail in my opinion. I started using Battery Tender brand maybe 20 years ago. I worked for a truck manufacture and we had 6-8 trucks at each of our training centers. Depending on classes, any one truck might sit for a couple of weeks, some times more, without being run. Also, someone would get in a truck and leave a courtesy light on somewhere. We were using regular small output battery chargers and did experience overcharging from time to time. Also, each training center sourced their own small chargers so we had a variety of combinations. I contacted Battery Tender and told them what I needed and asked if their product would do the job. They were a bit hesitant since our vehicles had 2 - 4 batteries and their charge rate is very low. I outfitted all training centers with Battery Tender chargers and all our battery problems from chargers went away. They make an excellent product and I have no problem leaving them on for extended periods.
Never...I think I have 4 of these chargers.I use them on my bikes and cars, 6 or 12 volt. Shortest time use to be 7month,the one that I used for the longest time is 4 years and counting!
I like the "timer" idea. I may go that way myself. Because I'm retired and my wife has her own vehicle that we use for 'date night', etc., even my OT daily driver may sit for a couple of weeks at a time. I have one 'maintainer' that I'll hook up to the ol' rod or the daily when I figure either has sat "long enough". I live in one of those areas where we get the occasional power spikes and 'brown outs'. I notice that this plays holy hell with my irrigation and landscape timers. I might need a surge protector for car duty, too. If I were providing vehicle storage space, I might consider providing just the power outlets (Maybe with industrial style surge protection, maybe not.) and strongly suggesting that my "renters" provide whatever they want downstream from there.
I always just disconnect my battery when storing my car for the winter. Springtime hook it back up and it works just fine. IMO any good battery should do the same. And I live in Wisconsin. My car is stored in an unheated area.
What brand and type maintainer? What happened to the batteries? A "float" charger provides a continuous low voltage charge to keep a stored or inactive battery from self-discharging over time. The specific voltage supplied varies depending on who you talk to, something like 13.10 volts, say. It is just barely enough voltage to prevent the natural self-discharge, though not enough to cause outgassing or loss of electrolyte. The DelTran Battery Tender does this. They do work really well to keep a battery from sulfating up in the off season. A discharged or partially discharged battery will also freeze in subzero temperatures.
My buddy Walt had one burn his house down. I don't use them and generally find they're not needed. Like already stated I'll throw a charger on the Batts for a sec if needed in the spring, but almost never have to do that even. I have a lot of winter storage batteries. Hot rod, two Batts for each boat, swim raft batt that powers the water slide, and my kids mini tugboat battery. They all do just fine sitting in the heated garage....
I wonder if some issue folks have when using them is not starting with a proper charge in the battery or trying to save an old battery? I only say this because I once forgot to shut my charger off (was on trickle charge) overnight and the battery was bubbling/out gassing and hot as all get out. That said, never used a tender before.
Multiple Deltran (est. 1965) Battery Tenders on my vehicles for many years......never an issue. Multiple batteries have lasted in excess of 10 years. My volunteer org. uses them on all of our equipment's batteries - which absolutely must work when needed. Not a charger, will not start on a dead battery or any that are below 3 volts.
That's all you need...... A 0.8 amp C-Tek for battery maintenance. Ferrari use these as an OEM battery tender [they put a Ferrari Logo on it and charge $700] The other option for cycling a Battery is to use a Deltran solar battery tender. and a 30w solar panel. The solar panel cycles off at night I purchased a C-Tek extension cord and cut 1 end off it and hard wire connected it to the solar controller. The other end that was cut off, was soldered to a Cigarette Lighter plug It can now be used between cars with all the C-Tec battery adaptors [ also using the Ferrari adaptor plug as well]
I have a new-ish Diehard charger with a maintain circuit that works real well. If you charge one and leave it on it automatically rolls over into a 2 amp tend mode. Or on a hot battery you can start in tend mode. It works real well. You do have to be careful with common battery tenders. It does not pay to cheap out for sure. These days most of them are manufactured off shore. hopefully that will change.
I had a Battery Tender brand charger that boiled my car's battery dry over the winter. Maybe mine was defective, but that was the last time I used it. In my experience, if the battery is fully charged and in good condition, you can just disconnect it in the fall and leave it until spring and it will still have a charge on it. If they're disconnected they actually discharge more slowly in cold weather.
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