Northern owners- what battery tender do you use for winter?

[galaxy]

Oh, and it doesn't have to be a northern thing...I use my battery tenders year round. I have three vehicles so something is sitting. If it's gonna sit out of rotation for more than a few days, it gets plugged in. Knock on wood, the optima battery in my truck is so old, I have zero recollection of when I got it and it's still strong as a horse. The tender isn't life support either. It can go forever without being plugged in and still runs trouble free. I attribute this to the charger. My $0.02, they're just good maintenance for anything that has to sit; doesn't have to be cold weather/storage related.

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[MikeMM]

Oh, and it doesn't have to be a northern thing...I use my battery tenders year round. I have three vehicles so something is sitting. If it's gonna sit out of rotation for more than a few days, it gets plugged in. Knock on wood, the optima battery in my truck is so old, I have zero recollection of when I got it and it's still strong as a horse. The tender isn't life support either. It can go forever without being plugged in and still runs trouble free. I attribute this to the charger. My $0.02, they're just good maintenance for anything that has to sit; doesn't have to be cold weather/storage related.

Yeah I hear you. My Shelby is going to be sitting for a solid 6 months, so in my case it is long term cold storage.

 

[Strokerswild]

I've had a pile of these types of chargers after using them for winter storage for my bikes and cars for a couple of decades, and I have to say I've had the best luck overall with the cheap Schumacher unit I bought at WalMart many years ago for not much over $20.

Regardless of make, these things are gold for prolonging battery life. I just swapped out a finally-dying Motorcraft battery that was in one of my old cars since the late 1990s (yes, really) and a '06 Harley of mine still has the OEM battery in it. Everything sees a bi-monthly day on one of these chargers during the winter (and occasionally at other times of disuse) and it seems to be working.....

 

[Tank]

I'm going on my third winter with the CTEK 3300. Comes with all you need to hardwire it. Works as advertised, absolutely no issues with it.

 

[torque124]

CTEK forever.

 

[aleccolin]

BatteryMINDer, specifically for the desulphation capability. I have a Model 1510 that I use to tend 4 bikes all winter and a Model 12248 that I use to tend two cars or for conditioning of individual batteries. I've brought a couple batteries back from the brink with it, and most of the people I know with small aircraft use them since they're all AGM.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q3CM2QY/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_1_w

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JFLSL6/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_11_w

Model 12248 (and some others) also has a thermocouple to hook up so the charger will adjust it's program depending on the temperature of the battery.

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