Battery Tenders for Garage Queens

[aggie97]

So our 87 Grand National has always had a draw that kills the battery as it will sit for 2 months at a time. I thought I fixed it when I found that the alternator had a dead short in it as the car could sit for 2 weeks at a time and start instead of 45 minutes.

Well, it still has a draw so I bought a Battery Tender Junior to keep a trickle charge on the battery. Battery was dead at around 3.4 volts. Put the Tender on for about 6 hours and the voltage DROPPED to 2.4 volts. WTF?

So I told a racing buddy of mine and he said that he thinks his Battery Tender has cost him 2 or 3 batteries in his race car over the last couple of years.

I'd like to see if any of you use these things and what your experiences with them has been for stored cars. I am going to put a full charge on the battery and try it again unless I find any info on the interweb about how crappy these things might be.

Thanks!

[Vertnut]

So our 87 Grand National has always had a draw that kills the battery as it will sit for 2 months at a time. I thought I fixed it when I found that the alternator had a dead short in it as the car could sit for 2 weeks at a time and start instead of 45 minutes.

Well, it still has a draw so I bought a Battery Tender Junior to keep a trickle charge on the battery. Battery was dead at around 3.4 volts. Put the Tender on for about 6 hours and the voltage DROPPED to 2.4 volts. WTF?

So I told a racing buddy of mine and he said that he thinks his Battery Tender has cost him 2 or 3 batteries in his race car over the last couple of years.

I'd like to see if any of you use these things and what your experiences with them has been for stored cars. I am going to put a full charge on the battery and try it again unless I find any info on the interweb about how crappy these things might be.

Thanks!

For what it's worth, I rebuilt a mans home that burnt to the ground and it was blamed on a battery "tender". I didn't know the details, but they came to that conclusion after a full arson investigation.

[ELVIS]

i have on the vert. i have not had any troubles. maybe about a year of use.

god bless.

[War Machine]

Just unhook the battery

[kingjason]

Mine boiled all the water out of my HD battery and took a 4 wheeler battery that was working decent and screwed it up. Now that being said I bought a Wally World one and that may be my problem. I think they sometimes do not stop at full charge. Now if I use it I just put it on for several hours and pull it off.

[projectPONY]

damn, I really didn't need to read this! I was thinking about getting one for my car.

[bird_dog0347]

I use one on my bikes, just works best if you unhook the battery, give it a full charge, then let the tender "tend" to the battery instead of trying to use it like a charge from dead charger.

[kingjason]

damn, I really didn't need to read this! I was thinking about getting one for my car.

I bet the quality ones would be great. I think the Battery Tender brands are good and I may buy one and try it. I went cheap to charge my new battery for my HD for the first start and it worked great for that. It's the tender part that f'ed it up.

[Reefer Rae]

Look on the Harley davidson forums this stuff has been beaten to death over there . There are good ones , I'm just too lazy to look right now .

[lowthreeohz]

I use a 1amp tender on all my boats, the buggy, and truck when parked for extended times. Never had a problem

[mustangguy289]

No problems here. I have used them on our ATV's and on my Mustang. I don't have it plugged in all the time.... just when I think about it. It was sure nice not having a dead battery after weeks of sitting.

[shumpertdavid]

I use 4 different ones, 3 are used constantly (walmart brand at least 4 years, and 2 oreilly's units 1-2 years old, Occasional use of Moose brand), never had any issues with mine what so ever. My GSXR stays on one continuously as it will drain a battery in a couple weeks of sitting (the battery in it is at least 3 years old and always been on a maintainer), my boat stays plugged in all through the summer boating season or it drains the battery in about 2 weeks with no use, and my mustang sits on one when not in use.

IMPORTANT TO NOTICE, the charger MUST be a maintenance\maintainer Charger and not just a trickle charger. If you get a trickle charger it will always charge at a constant rate, usually 1 amp. Over time that will kill a battery by boiling the acid out and burning it up.

[dewayne6243]

So our 87 Grand National has always had a draw that kills the battery as it will sit for 2 months at a time. I thought I fixed it when I found that the alternator had a dead short in it as the car could sit for 2 weeks at a time and start instead of 45 minutes.

Well, it still has a draw so I bought a Battery Tender Junior to keep a trickle charge on the battery. Battery was dead at around 3.4 volts. Put the Tender on for about 6 hours and the voltage DROPPED to 2.4 volts. WTF?

So I told a racing buddy of mine and he said that he thinks his Battery Tender has cost him 2 or 3 batteries in his race car over the last couple of years.

I'd like to see if any of you use these things and what your experiences with them has been for stored cars. I am going to put a full charge on the battery and try it again unless I find any info on the interweb about how crappy these things might be.

Thanks!

Trickle charger and maintainer are 2 different units. Trickle charger must be turned off. Maintainer can stay hooked up all the time.

[aggie97]

The one I have is the Battery Tender Junior. It says that it automatically switches between charging and "float". Max charge is 750 mA. This should just be a "trickle" charger that then "maintains" it after full charge is achieved. Just have to get the battery fully charged by my other charger.


I understand the differences, I was mostly looking for validation about cooking battery claims due to the constant charging.


I have an "RV" type disconnect on the negative terminal at the battery and used it for a while till I found the Alternator was shorted. We tested by leaving the disconnect on for 3 weeks. car started right up. It's been a couple months and I found the battery at 3.4 volts again. I've removed the dome light system and the cigarette lighter as they are known draws in G-bodies but there is something else drawing the battery down. I'm tired of looking for it so I'll try the battery tender for now. if it fries the battery, it goes back to Autozone on warranty.....then we are selling the car!

Thanks all for the input.

[kingjason]

I use 4 different ones, 3 are used constantly (walmart brand at least 4 years, and 2 oreilly's units 1-2 years old, Occasional use of Moose brand), never had any issues with mine what so ever. My GSXR stays on one continuously as it will drain a battery in a couple weeks of sitting (the battery in it is at least 3 years old and always been on a maintainer), my boat stays plugged in all through the summer boating season or it drains the battery in about 2 weeks with no use, and my mustang sits on one when not in use.

IMPORTANT TO NOTICE, the charger MUST be a maintenance\maintainer Charger and not just a trickle charger. If you get a trickle charger it will always charge at a constant rate, usually 1 amp. Over time that will kill a battery by boiling the acid out and burning it up.

Mine is a Schumacher battery tender from Walley. It will switch on and off usually but at some point it must have boiled out the water in my Yuasa. I caught it before it ruined the battery so we will see how it does now. The HD was in a barn at my friends house while we where moving. The battery was about seven months old and bone dry.

I did a little research today and they where not sold on the Battery Tender brand either so who knows. I was reading up on a couple of different brands and may try one of them at some point. One was a optimate and one was actually made by Yuasa.