PCA Forums

anyone use a storage battery charger on their vehicle(s)? i picked up a "battery tender plus" at CostCo this weekend. good price ($39.99) and was happy to see it at CostCo after reading reviews on Amazon about it.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-02 ... ender+plus

they will keep a battery charged . just don't try to recharge a fully de charged battery . or try and start /jump a car using one that's not going to happen .like the name says there tender's just for maintaining a battery at full voltage !

I have trickle chargers on my mower, gator utility vehicle, and RV. I use the Black and Decker Battery maintainer - $20 at Home Depot.

It comes with 3 wire harneses: alligator clamps, hard wire kit that bolts directly to the battery terminals, and a cigarette lighter plug.

I have them hard wired into the mower and gator. I use the cigarette lighter plug on the RV and just plug it into one of the inside electrical outlets in the RV since my RV is hooked up to electric while it's parked here.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-BM3B ... B0051D3MP6

I have a separate heavy duty digital battery charger for re-charging a dead battery or kick-starting a weak one. After a lot of disappointing experiences with older design analog units I bought this one:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/schumacher ... /195254.ip

I own two that sears use to sell . these were battery tenders and 2amp 12 volt battery chargers .they will recharge a good battery. but it take hours to do that. I use one for my riding lawn tractor year round .and the other one I use for my deep cycle marine battery for my boat .its used from the first day in fall I pull the boat out of the lake. to the first day in the spring. when I put the boat back into the lake for the season. I let them run 24/7 never off except if we loose home electrical power. I know battery tender brand make one that will work on keeping up to 6 - 12 volt batterys charged using just one unit friend said he thought about buy it but I have no spec. or more knowledge about it .

I used to use a solar one on my bike during riding season, and a beefier ac one for winter store. In Montana we used to use them as well as block heaters for winter to keep up the cold cranking amperage so the cars will start

I used them on my motorcyles over the winter. they keep the battery from fully discharging which prolongs battery life.

i've found myself wondering what the average charge level is for a daily driver vehicle. obviously it depends on the age and type of use, but while charging up all of the vehicles i have access to, it seems like they are all at 50% or lower. one has been sitting for a few weeks (and 5 yr old battery) and is parked for the winter. another is a new vehicle with ~200 miles total on it (but sat on the dealer lot for 6 months). another w/ a 3 yr old battery and was very low.

i know...no good answer for this, but dare i say the average battery rolling around out there is only around 50-60% charged at any given time under normal operation? how about alternators...my understanding is that they don't fully charge a battery, even on long trips. ?

They sell battery float chargers at Harbor Freight for a reasonable price ($9.99 regular, but always on sale for $6.99). I've used it on my lawnmower battery & a couple cars that aren't used just fine.

All it is is a 15v 600ma wall wart with some minor protection circuitry built into the cord.

A car battery really should never discharge more than 10%. If the alternator is working properly, the battery's only use to the vehicle is to start it. After that, the alternator is providing all the energy along with maintaining the battery.