Battery Tender
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Racer
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 279
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Battery Tender
Hello All-I need to add a bettery tender to my shark, anyone have any recomendations. Due to the location of the battery I was thinking of one of the tenders that plugs into cigarette lighter. Any experience with this type? TIA for an 1985.
Jim
Jim
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: Southport, NC
A company called Deltran makes a Battery tender thats about 5" x 3" x2" and rated at 1.25A. Its small enough to fit in the battery space and be hard wired to the battery ( through a fuse of course!) . I think I got it a West Marine, and its rated for continuous use on a boat, so its rugged.
Manufacture is in Deland Florida, 904.736.7900
Neil
Manufacture is in Deland Florida, 904.736.7900
Neil
Race Car
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Alabama
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,724
Likes: 319
From: Warrenton, VA
If you have a Harbor Freight near you, their float chargers work great. Battery Maintainer They call them a 'float charger' but they are maintainers. They aren't good for charging a weak battery.
That said, they work great and you can't beat the price. A side note: anything that's on sale on H.F. website is not necessarily on sale in their stores. They will honor the online price if you provide a printout of the online ad.
I've had mine for a couple of years now (actually I have 4 for all 12v batteries, including boat batteries).
They're so cheap that you can't afford not to buy a few.
Mark's absolutely right. The lighter is an open circuit with the ignition off. Even if it weren't, I'm not too crazy about running power backwards through such an indirect route to the battery...but that's just me.
Here's a good way to set up the maintainer as a permanent plug n' go invisible fixture:
Replace the alligator clips with connector eyelets and attach directly to the battery.
Splice a quick connect plug into the power supply about 6" to 1' from the little black box.
The coiled cord and black box fits behind your tool panel with the plug peeking out.
When you park, you lift your hatch and plug in.
That said, they work great and you can't beat the price. A side note: anything that's on sale on H.F. website is not necessarily on sale in their stores. They will honor the online price if you provide a printout of the online ad.
I've had mine for a couple of years now (actually I have 4 for all 12v batteries, including boat batteries).
They're so cheap that you can't afford not to buy a few.
Mark's absolutely right. The lighter is an open circuit with the ignition off. Even if it weren't, I'm not too crazy about running power backwards through such an indirect route to the battery...but that's just me.
Here's a good way to set up the maintainer as a permanent plug n' go invisible fixture:
Replace the alligator clips with connector eyelets and attach directly to the battery.
Splice a quick connect plug into the power supply about 6" to 1' from the little black box.
The coiled cord and black box fits behind your tool panel with the plug peeking out.
When you park, you lift your hatch and plug in.
Last edited by JPTL; Jan 31, 2007 at 06:00 PM.
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From: Seattle - it's not Hell, but you can see it from here!
Originally Posted by Mark
The cig lighter trick won't work on most of our cars. That circuit is closed when the key is off.
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: Southport, NC
Originally Posted by JPTL
If you have a Harbor Freight near you, their float chargers work great.
They are exactly that, chargers, not tenders or minders. A good unit will cost you more like a $100, and will monitor the charge and reduce it when the battery is at 100%, then maintain a trickle charge of a 100ma or so, so it doesn't overcharge the battery.
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,724
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From: Warrenton, VA
Neil, these units are designed not to overcharge; i.e. maintain. I'm always skeptical about HF stuff, but these maintainers do what they're supposed to. They will shut down to a trickle and not overcharge. Since they're not capable of charging a 'dead' battery, they should be hooked up to a healthy battery with a full charge. What I like about them is that aside from being cheap, they're compact, unlike a high end charger/maintainer.
I've actually had a high end charger/maintainer overcharge my battery to the point of boiling the acid.
I learned that with any sophisticated charger/maintainer it is necessary to connect them directly to the battery as opposed to hooking them up through some convenient pigtail connection. If the gauge of the wire used in a pigtail is less than that of the charger connectors, the charger will get a false reading (resistance?) thinking that the battery has not fully charged. It will continue to put a charge on a fully charged battery.
I've actually had a high end charger/maintainer overcharge my battery to the point of boiling the acid.
I learned that with any sophisticated charger/maintainer it is necessary to connect them directly to the battery as opposed to hooking them up through some convenient pigtail connection. If the gauge of the wire used in a pigtail is less than that of the charger connectors, the charger will get a false reading (resistance?) thinking that the battery has not fully charged. It will continue to put a charge on a fully charged battery.
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,602
Likes: 9
From: Southport, NC
Originally Posted by JPTL
I learned that with any sophisticated charger/maintainer it is necessary to connect them directly to the battery as opposed to hooking them up through some convenient pigtail connection. If the gauge of the wire used in a pigtail is less than that of the charger connectors, the charger will get a false reading (resistance?) thinking that the battery has not fully charged. It will continue to put a charge on a fully charged battery.
small enough to fit in the battery space and be hard wired to the battery ( through a fuse of course!)