If I was to buy a trickle charger which one?

I'll sum your post in one word:

FALSE

 

Me too ! Works well!

 

Battery tender shuts off when battery is fully charged .

 

I have a Noco for charging my dual battery setup. Had a couple people recommend it. Prolly don't need something this HD, but I love that it's waterproof and such. Was originally going to mount permanently under the hood, but ended up mounting it in the bed of the truck.

Fellow SAR member bought a smaller version for the unit truck, after some autoparts store branded one made a brand new battery look like a balloon about ready to burst. That tender was very well weathered under the hood. Not dissing on it, just on it's LONG TERM reliability. It did not look well sealed.

 

False

 

Yes it does !!!!

 

The CTEK seems to be the Cadillac of the bunch, I was leaning towards the CTEK 4.3
I like the cold weather mode and that it can tell if a battery can except a charge plus recondition.


The MUS 4.3 (Part No. 56-864) is a charger that offers state of the art technology that was previously only found in CTEK’s professional product range. The charger can solve a broad range of battery-related problems and is the perfect charger for those with high demands. The MUS 4.3 offers features such as battery diagnosis that shows if a battery can receive and retain a charge, a special reconditioning function that restores stratified and deeply discharged batteries, unique maintenance charging, a mode for optimized charging during cold winter days and the charging of demanding AGM batteries (i.e. Optima). The unique display allows the user to follow the entire charging process.

 

Done deal. This is the one I chose. Today on eBay its 15% off. I got it for $54.

Thanks everyone!

 

Sweet. Deals can often be had....

 

I need a charger suitable for the dual group 65's in my f250 but man the 20A ctek's are /expensive/

 

I thought that also about the price. But after a good bit of research of different brands and what I really wanted a charger too do, my gut said get the CTEK. I tend to follow my conclusions and get a quality product. I tend to research and compare until I’m about half crazy. At that point I’m comfortable with what I need and just buy it.

 

I own several BatteryMINDer chargers. I started with this brand when looking for a maintainer for my 24V aircraft battery (those batteries can run $500, and generally don't have very long life due to vibration when in use and long periods of inactivity between uses). Researched the heck out of it, and ended up with one of their aviation-specific models for my Cessna 172. I used to replace batteries every 4 years, I'm now on my 8th year with the same battery.

I've ended up with several models of BatteryMinder chargers for my various vehicles and "toys".

All of their models have desulfation, which can greatly extend battery life and often rejuvenate batteries which are having trouble holding a charge. Many people do not realize that the optimum charging and float voltage for batteries varies with temperature (the hotter the temp, the lower the voltage should be used). Chargers which do not have temperature compensation will overcharge batteries in hot weather, shortening their life. In cold weather, batteries will be slightly undercharged. All of their models except model 12117 (largely discontinued and now sold only through Northern Tool) have temperature compensation. All of their models can be left connected continuously without damage to the battery (though I would not leave the 12117 connected in summer time, due to its lack of temperature compensation).

The BatteryMinder models 1500 and 1510 are electrically identical: 1.5 amp maintenance charger/desulfator. The 1510 just comes with nicer battery clips, a ring terminal assembly, and a 10 year warranty (instead of the 5 year warranty with the 1510). The more expensive model 128CEC1 is a 2/4/8 amp charger with selectable Gel, flooded/wet/AGM, and specialty AGM charging profiles optimized for the respective battery types.

I own the 12117 (13 years old and still going strong), 1500 (5 or 6 years old), and the 128CEC1 (2 years old?), plus my original 24V aviation charger. All have been excellent chargers. I've recovered a couple of ailing batteries for myself and for some friends over the years by leaving them on and desulfating them for a week or so.

 

Very interesting. "So", I just called Battery Tender Tech Support. According to them, their tenders charge at the rate the particular tender is rated at, 1 amp, 1 1/2 amp, 4.5 amp 750 ma, etc. until the battery is fully charged, then they switch to float, or maintain, mode. She said it continuously maintained the charge with an appx. 0.2 amp charge rate. I asked her if it ever turned completely off? She said no, it never turns completely off, but the 0.2 amp rate should not hurt a battery. Take it as you want to, but that's what the Battery Tender folks told me.

 

+1. I've run a

$178 CTEK (56-353) MULTI US 7002 12-Volt Battery Charger,Black

CTEK (56-353) MULTI US 7002 12-Volt Battery Charger for years. Works great on a variety of battery types. Adding a

$16 CTEK (56-382) Comfort Indicator Eyelet for M8 Top Post Batteries , Black

CTEK Comfort Connect Indicator Eyelet to each vehicle made it a snap to see battery status and move the charger around.

After seeing pics of a car that went up in smoke, along with part of the owner's garage, because of battery charging gone wrong, I decided to stick with a high-quality unit. (I don't know if the problem was charger or operator related, but the "investment" in a quality charger pales in comparison to other potential outcomes.)

Nice!

+1 to all of this.

 

thats not exactly what their techical stuff on their website says...




nd that closely follows what I saw with my volt meter when testing my BatteryTender Plus on a 20AH AGM motorcycle battery.

 

Sheeeez, I wish I could understand all that reading & red & blue & black lines & stuff. Heck, It'd take a left coast nerd to understand all that stuff. Best I can figure this shows a 1.3 amp charger & at it's lowest charge rate it charges appx. 0.1 amp. with no time limit, that should mean it will just keeps charging forever at that rate. I didn't ask the tech, I talked with, about what exact charger we were talking about, 5.0amp, 2.0amp, 0.75amp, I just said their chargers. I figure he just gave me a rough estimate of their entire line, from the 750ma to the 5.0 amp, I'm not sure. But the one thing I'm sure he said was it "NEVER QUIT" charging completely, just dropped to a low enough charge rate, that it shouldn't hurt a battery. Unlike my on board charger & my shop charger, that turns itself completely off when battery is fully charged & doesn't restart charging until the battery loses a slight amount, then it turns itself back on.

 

the red line is current, the blue line is voltage, and the horizontal axis is time.

the graph shows the charger progresses through a bulk charge stage, an absorption stage, optionally an equalization stage (skipped if the absorption phase completes in a timely fashion), then settles into float/maintenance where the voltage is kept to 13.5V or so which will never overcharge a 12V battery, but will keep it from self-discharging.

 

I have 2 of these for my motorcycles. Never an issue keeps batteries topped off and healthy. Would have no issue using one on my truck if it was going to sit for any length of time.

If you need to do full charges of batteries a proper charger is much better. My RC Car battery charger handles all sorts of battery types including Lead acid / agm etc and I use that to do full charges of everything with great success.