Battery Tender advice

parm · 01-23-2011, 08:51 AM

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to store my battery this winter. My battery tender toasted my battery last night. I picked up a new battery and now not sure what to do put the tender on 2 to 3 days a month and leave it off the rest of the month or any other suggestions. I know I will get good advice on Max!

Parm

parm · 01-23-2011, 06:28 PM

This what I figured,

If using a trickle charger make sure you turn it off after a 2 or 3 days. Let car sit for 4 week then repeat, or get the trickle charger with maintain mode, it will turn on and off automatically, I toasted a battery by forgetting to do this and all the water dried/evaporated out of the battery from constant charging.

Steve30 · 01-23-2011, 06:48 PM

I use a schumacher charger that I picked up from wal-mart for about 40 bucks. It's great, I left it on all last winter and doing the same this winter. You need to make sure that you use a tender instead of a trickle charger which constantly feeds a charge. That's what most likely killed your battery. The type of charger I use has a chip in it which constantly monitors the battery voltage and shuts itself off.

Oyster · 01-23-2011, 07:35 PM

why not just disconnect the battery and trickle charge it before you need to use the car?

Steve30 · 01-23-2011, 08:00 PM

My buddy disconnected his battery for a winter and the alarm went all wacky so its probably best to just leave it in the car.

damameke · 01-23-2011, 08:01 PM

schumacher is a good battery tender, as is Deltran..check out the Deltran battery, I use the Deltran and when the battery is charging the RED light will blink and when it is fully charged green light stays constant and it just maintain the charge...

Check with mike from Maranello, he is selling Deltran battery tender under BMW name

damameke · 01-23-2011, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve30

My buddy disconnected his battery for a winter and the alarm went all wacky so its probably best to just leave it in the car.

you also dont have to do the radio code using a tender...

Steve30 · 01-23-2011, 08:13 PM

[quote=damameke;1476900]you also dont have to do the radio code using a tender...[/QUOTE

yeah, it also resets the adaptation on the dme so your car will have to "relearn"

parm · 01-24-2011, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve30

I use a schumacher charger that I picked up from wal-mart for about 40 bucks. It's great, I left it on all last winter and doing the same this winter. You need to make sure that you use a tender instead of a trickle charger which constantly feeds a charge. That's what most likely killed your battery. The type of charger I use has a chip in it which constantly monitors the battery voltage and shuts itself off.

I have the same Tender, you think I could leave it running outside in the cold?

Steve30 · 01-24-2011, 03:36 PM

You mean on your driveway or something? The only thing I would worry about would be snow/rain shorting the charger. Right now mine is in the garage where its about 5-10 degrees warmer than the outside temp and its working fine.

MLue1 · 01-24-2011, 09:20 PM

The CTEK MULTI US 3300 is THE BEST and it is available at Canadian Tire. It is the same unit as the "Porsche Charge-O-Mat II Battery Charger" that goes for around $120USD but w/o the cig lighter socket adapter. I picked mine up on sale at CT for $53.99, down from the regular price of $89.99.

CTEK MULTI US 3300

This is a smart multi-stage charger with some nifty features that will handle 12V motorcycle and car batteries. It is a charger-maintainer...connect it...forget it.

Features (user selectable):
- 0.8 or 3.3 amp charging rate.
- 14.4V or 14.7V cutoff, the latter is used for special batteries such as the Optimate and also for charging in colder temperatures.
- good for FLA (traditional wet) or MF batteries (AGM, GEL, Lead-Calcium).
- connector lock and are watertight.

parm · 01-28-2011, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve30

You mean on your driveway or something? The only thing I would worry about would be snow/rain shorting the charger. Right now mine is in the garage where its about 5-10 degrees warmer than the outside temp and its working fine.

Its shelterd, does your have a small fan that always running?

Steve30 · 01-28-2011, 07:31 PM

Yeah it does. If it's sheltered I don't really see a problem. The manual does say to use it in a well ventilated area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by parm

Its shelterd, does your have a small fan that always running?

Romaz · 01-29-2011, 03:01 PM

I bought a CTEK 7002 from this place:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CTEK-...#ht_3747wt_939
I ended up getting if for $120 shipped. Its a excellent unit!

parm · 01-29-2011, 05:27 PM

Roman, How ya Doing ?