Thank you. Do you not recommend the one that switches modes between Li and AGM? Since it may give me the flexibility to charge the other battery too.

 

I have had great results with the Battery Tender that has the ability to charge all types of batteries. I have 3 of them.

Battery Tender 4.5 Amp SuperSmart Battery Charger & Maintainer | Costco

 

Deltran makes a multiple charger version of its Battery Tender which is just the thing for multiple vehicles in the same storage. Most motorcycle shops have these and use it on multiple bikes at once. This obviates the need for multiple chargers and is less expensive and time consuming. Just attach the Deltran quick connects to the battery terminals for each vehicle and the entire system becomes plug and play. I personally do not like charging my battery through the vehicle wiring harness (cigarette lighter) but that is just my personal preference. Others feel different about it.

 

I do not - for a simple reason.

The dual mode trickle chargers, if you have a power outage, the charger will go into "neutral" meaning, you would have to select the battery type to resume charging (AGM or LiPo). With the individual purpose trickle chargers if the power goes out, it will resume as it is specific purpose and no selection needed.

So I like the individual ones, so they can be unattended...

 

I second this recommendation.
You can also get a two-pack of microprocessor battery charger/maintainers from Costco, Duracell brand, for $80 that will also work fine. They include the pigtails. I run my pigtail just out the upper trim panel in the trunk and charge with the front hood just set down on the latch.
No issues in a year.

There seem to be as many charger threads on this forum as oil threads.

 

I run the pigtail up by the windshield wiper (there is a gap coming out of the frunk trim. And it is hidden in the alcove where the wipers recess, that way I do not have to worry about the frunk being open, etc.

 

I imagine that most cars sit for a while during transport to Emden, or at the port, or while on a ship to their next destination. Sometimes this is for 3-4 weeks. It seems logical that none of those cars are on chargers.

And yet it would seem also unlikely that there are a high percentage of cars that drain their batteries during that time?

 

This has been mentioned countless times.

Whatever you believe is right is what you should do re. trickle charger or not. To debate endlessly as to its usefulness is what is it is. Unlikely or not, the manual clearly recommends so many miles per month etc. and if not place on a charger. YMMV

siberian

 

I managed to get the CTEK installed. Once connected it went into mode 3.

Is that the proper mode for storage?



CTEK trickle charge mode 3

 

See below. Helpful to read the manual that comes with the charger. I presume you have an AGM battery, then the charging mode should be AGM.

 

As stated above,

I don't see AGM selected as I don't see the light on and assume you don't have a lithium battery. It should eventually go to number 7 and 8 if you selected recondition.

siberian

 

Am I missing something about keeping the battery permanently connected? I was under the assumption that if you had the correct CTEK charger for your battery type you could just keep it connected while the car is in storage. I thought the charger would go into a maintenance mode and just charge the battery after it discharged a small amount and then repeat.

 

Well the jury is still out on that. Personally I don't feel that a battery (irrespective of the type) should be connected (trickle or not) permanently. IMHO it needs to be able to discharge to be able to recharge fully. I tend to leave it connected if I'm not driving my car for over 4 days, after that I don't connect it (assuming a good 40 mile drive - I'm 20 miles from town) for another few days. That's just my take on it and I apply that to Olga (my skid steer), my Touareg where I triple the length as I don't have all the gizmos and the wife's 2020 Macan S

siberian

 

I did read the manual, but it wasn't clear. It doesn't tell me if I need Float vs say Bulk for storage.

 

First you need to determine what kind of battery you have. What you show is for a wet cell battery. If you have a gel AGM then you need to select that kind. If you have a Lithium one you have the wrong charger. Float will be fine, with my humble opinion above caveats.

siberian