Opinion wanted on Battery Tender

[johnny1]

I haven’t ever had to hook up a car to a tender. Motorcycles yes, cars/trucks never.
This spring I’m going to be busy with a project and won’t be driving for 3-4 weeks.
This is a great price…what say yous?

When I had my 16 and then 17 Shelby GT 350 thats the exact one I used on them every winter. I hard wired them to the battery so all I had to do was unplug the pigtail when not using and leave pigtail connected to battery. Only difference was mine was the rectangular metal box they sold back then. Worked flawlessly in winter when not driving car. That's a good price for the 4.5 amp I paid over 50 bucks for mine way back then.

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[FreePenguin]

battery tenders are awesome. honestly, ive been using battery tender jr for like 10 years, its kept my batteries alive up to like 8 years on motorcycles. using it on them over winters, and period breaks in summer, I used them on mowers, and cars. etc. I had a dozen of the single chargers that ive given out to friends and family.

now I have a 100watt solar panel on my shed, with a battery tender 12v charge controller maintaining my mower battery all summer/winter. its legit. enjoy it a lot. no more mower in garage over winter.

I bought a 4 bank battery tender myself, it is worth it for me, (multiple applications, motorcycles, cars, spare batteries or charging friends batteries). I have extended leashes on all of my things and some spares in the drawers incase I need to go all way out into my driveway. I could probably go 100 feet if I wanted with extensions.

I have 3 leads running left along the wall on floor, and I have 1 lead going to right of my table, zip tied to the back of it to keep out of way. I use that 1 for when I park my car in garage.

I bought this 4 bank, like 6-7 years ago. still working perfect. I have never turned it off once.

I highly recommend putting pigtails like above on everything, its real nice. I even have little additional battery tender attachments that will measure battery outputs or charge usb's etc off batteries and such. nifty little set up.


I kept my mustang EcoBoost on it as well, just hardwire the pigtails to the battery and ground spot that way it accurately records the measurements of battery level to not confuse the computer.

 

[galaxy]

So no new tech in any Battery Tenders?
Come on man

Agreed. Nothing wrong with BatteryTender. They are all smart, multi-phase chargers. Ideal. And the higher (5amp) type chargers have the same maintenance capability plus being able to fully and properly charge a dead or new battery.

Both cars stay plugged in all the time, regardless of how long they’re gonna sit.

 

[SL8888]

Hey 63 year old Fred, 63 year old Ray here. My Ford dealer “threw”in this baby as it was with the car when it was on the show room floor when I bought my Shelby. It was on the show room floor and they got tired of the battery being dead when someone wanted to look inside. It’s worked fine for me, car had like 4 miles on it when I bought it.

 

[Bitten in '69]

Ray, That one is a Ford branded C-tek.

 

[SL8888]

Ray, That one is a Ford branded C-tek.

Thanks Fred, as I didn't get any instructions with it. I should be able to look something up now.

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

You can buy them thru Ford racing. Look it up on their site, you can probably find the instructions in a pdf file

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

I looked and found it, but no instructions. But they did have a video.

 

[32Ford]

As I type, I have two Battery Tender brand chargers and one CTek charger running 24/7. When my Shelby comes home it will run on a CTek as I'm changing over to that brand as I need more chargers. I won't throw out my Battery Tender brand chargers as they have been reliable for a zillion years. You can't go wrong with either brand.

 

[TonyNJ]

As I type, I have two Battery Tender brand chargers and one CTek charger running 24/7. When my Shelby comes home it will run on a CTek as I'm changing over to that brand as I need more chargers. I won't throw out my Battery Tender brand chargers as they have been reliable for a zillion years. You can't go wrong with either brand.

I just got a couple of CTEKs. It's safe to just leave it hooked up all the time when the car isn't in use? I worry about "overcharging" or whatever. The model didn't come with detailed instructions. Just vague explanations in 30 different languages.

 

[Strokerswild]

The difference between the two is just a preference. Kinda like arguing amsoil is better oil.

This.

I've burned through many battery maintainers over 20+ years, the brand hasn't seemed to matter (current favorite are Die Hard branded units). They do make a huge difference in battery life, especially here in MN where the off season is long. I've had a car battery last over 20 years and a motorcycle unit last 15, and I highly doubt they would have without being stored without a maintainer. I have eight batteries to contend with beyond daily drivers, so anything that will extend their lives is a no-brainer.

 

[Cobra Jet]

I’m using this exact one:
https://www.batteryminders.com/1510-12-volt-maintenance-charger-desfulator-with-warranty

Put it this way, I use it on my 94 Cobra 24/7/365… I posted another thread here a while back that the original Optima battery I had purchased for my Cobra lasted 15 years and it was maintained by that Battery Minder device.

If you don’t use a vehicle or battery for quite some time, you can’t go wrong with a “tender” or “minder” device. They are completely safe to leave on long term. If the battery is in a vehicle, you disconnect the vehicle’s battery cables and attach the tender/milder cables to the battery terminals. Both a Tender and Minder state to remove the battery from the vehicle, but I’ve always left the battery in and never had any issues.

These aren’t considered “chargers”, they actually maintain the battery, they don’t “charge it” like a standard battery charger that can literally cook a battery.

 

[WD Pro]

I just got a couple of CTEKs. It's safe to just leave it hooked up all the time when the car isn't in use? I worry about "overcharging" or whatever. The model didn't come with detailed instructions. Just vague explanations in 30 different languages.

Yes, it will click over into maintenance mode (unless the battery is bad, then it will show an error)

WD

 

[460Fred]

Thanks for resurrecting this.
My experience with what I bought at Costco, see #1 post, is it gave my battery a boost that it probably needed from the beginning.
Let me explain….It‘s pretty rare I don’t drive the car at least weekly. If that happened, in the past I’d get a notice that things were shutting down to save the battery, or something like that.
After my trip where the car was connected to the Battery Tender for four weeks, the battery has never been stronger. Meaning, I went ten days without starting it up and no battery alert. Coincidental? I’m thinking not.
I learned long ago with buying motorcycles, the “first” charge of a battery is pretty important when it comes to longevity. I always delayed delivery of a new bike to make sure the battery was on a charger at least overnight instead of the hour or so during a usual prep.
In other words, maybe give yours a boost, it’ll like it
BTW, we put my wife’s Subaru Forester XL in storage for those four weeks w/o a tender, fired right up like it was driven yesterday.

 

[Bitten in '69]

Tony,
No need to worry about either the Deltran Battery Tender, or the Ctek. Both are float chargers. They turn on when the voltage drops to ~11 volts, and turn off when the battery is fully charged.
Completely different than the old 'trickle' chargers that were on as long as they were plugged in and would cook a battery dry.
The reason I have been moving to the Ctek is that they will charge a dead battery, the Deltran will not, it needs to see a specific voltage. But, I still have and use both.

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