polver

I finally bought an automatic battery charger. I went with an inexpensive DieHard 1.5 Amp charger. Before I "permanently" attached a quick-disconnect connector, I used the clamps to test the charger. Sure enough, after a few minutes of charging, I get a trouble light on the charger. This apparantly implies an overload condition. I don't seem to have this problem with my much larger truck battery, hooked up in the same manner.

I had just driven the car most of the day, so the battery should have been in pretty good shape. I even disconnected the hood lamp, in case that was drawing too much current.

This isn't rocket science, but am I missing something? The obvious seems to be the battery is bad, but I have had no problems. The car started fine after sitting for 4 weeks without a charge.

Dave

Tom W

I also have the little Diehard trickle charger. From my experience: You will get the trouble light if the batter is really bad or if it has a low charge to start. This is especially true with Optima batteries as they take high amperage to actually charge. I also have one of the nice Diehard chargers that allows you to select the amperage and the battery type. I has built in diagnostics to tell you if your battery is defective. I use it if the battery really needs a charge and the trickle for maintaining it.

the_buch

I really like the Porsche Maintainer that operates through the cig lighter socket ... it is very mild and includes an auto shut-off circuit ... I plug it in every time I am not going to be using the car for a few days and it seems to keep the battery right up to the top of it's charge performance ... obviously this device is not useful for situations requiring any significant amount of charging.

Pete Lech

In doing some research on Battery maintainers recently, I found that some models are not suitable for gel cell batteries due to their high current draw. Perhaps this is the case with the Sears unit.

flyenby

I have had the sears maintainer on my red top optima..........for 2 years and no problems

polver

Well, I tried it again. I noticed that the red light seemed only faintly lit. It almost looked like bleed over, even though there is another (green) LED in between the red and amber. Since the amber charging light stayed on, I figured there was no overload. Eventually, battery voltage climbed high enough, and the unit switched into low (<0.5amp) charge. Green light on, no red light.

Perhaps the battery voltage was just so low that a borderline overload due to high current was occuring. In any case, things seem to be going ok. We will see at the end of the season if my $30 bargain is a bargain or not.

Tom W

IIRC the instructions with the Sears unit say that the "fault" light is if the batter is drawing more than the 1.5 amps (which would indicate it needs a charge instead of a maintenance trickle). Once it detects a full charge it adjusts to trickle as required. I might have to go dig out the manual to check, but it does have the sensor/electronics to adjust output and detect problems.

I've used mine with a red top for about a year.