Battery Maintainer

[Renegade1LI]

I needed a few more battery tenders as a couple died, while shopping I found these from Schumacher. I liked they are 2 amp and were a little cheaper than the one amp tenders. Found them at home depot in a two pack, figured I would give them a try, cables are compatible with the battery tender ones and comes with clamps as well.

 

[Criss]

I needed a few more battery tenders as a couple died, while shopping I found these from Schumacher. I liked they are 2 amp and were a little cheaper than the one amp tenders. Found them at home depot in a two pack, figured I would give them a try, cables are compatible with the battery tender ones and comes with clamps as well.

How do you like them? I had a battery tender junior die that was only 2 years old. Thinking another brand might be a better choice.

 

[swsman]

Have two Battery Tender Plus units, they were purchased in 2018 I think, so far so good.

On this forum Ctek and Noco seem to be better liked overall, vs BT that is.

Jay Leno uses Ctek on all his cars IIRC.

 

[Rinspeed]

I have three Battery Tenders and a Noco and they all work fine. Oldest Battery Tender is probably over 15 years old now, still works good. I do have way too many toys but I had to buy a couple new maintainers because the KTMs and the Husky have Lithium-Ion batteries.

 

[cannuck]

I have some NOCO brand name charger/tenders and some off brand chinese ones. They all live a very hard life and they all work exactly as advertised. For bulk use, I would just go with the cheapest and right off the odd failure.

 

[PhantomEB]

I need to hook up my NOCO today before heading out.

 

[exmaxima1]

Have two Battery Tender Plus units, they were purchased in 2018 I think, so far so good.

On this forum Ctek and Noco seem to be better liked overall, vs BT that is.

Jay Leno uses Ctek on all his cars IIRC.

I got a CTEK charger years ago at the SEMA show in Vegas and it still works perfectly. I consider it much "smarter" than the Battery Tender models.

 

[Higgins]

Have two Battery Tender Plus units, they were purchased in 2018 I think, so far so good.

On this forum Ctek and Noco seem to be better liked overall, vs BT that is.

Jay Leno uses Ctek on all his cars IIRC.

You will never go wrong with Crek. Have them on our entire fleet for yrs…

 

[Skyman]

I have a half-dozen maintenance chargers, some of which I've had for a long time. All but one of them are Schumacher branded, and they've never let me down. The other one is store-branded, from either Autozone or Advance, can't remember which. It's also still performing well. Both of my standard chargers are also Schumacher, both are decades old, and both still deliver the goods.

 

[mires]

I have 2 that look just like that but only 1.5A. One has been in service year round for 1 year and the other about 2 years and they are still going strong.

 

[Wiz02]

While it's just anecdotal, the Ctek sulfated the battery of my vette. Never had a problem with Battery Tender. I have 3 tenders, one is ancient, one is well over 5 years old but same design, and the newest one is a couple of years old and is a new design.

I bought the Ctek because of the comments here on GJ, but like the Knipex pliers wrench, I have no love for the product.

 

[danielbuck]

Schumacher and Battery Tender are the brands I have. All of them are at least 6-12 years old, and my large Schumacher is probably 30-40 years old. keep them out of the rain, and they seem to last forever. Don't know how these brands are today, seems like old reliable brands seem to get bought up and made more cheaply. :-\

 

[Rinspeed]

I bought the Ctek because of the comments here on GJ, but like the Knipex pliers wrench, I have no love for the product.

That's funny about the Knipex pliers. Here and on one of the other forums people rave about how great they are. I have a pair of Cobra and think they are good pliers but not all that. I installed two clothes washers the other day and grabbed my Craftsman pliers that were made 25 years ago, the Knipex were sitting right next to them. My dad was a master plumber and he always called them water pump pliers so that's what I call them.

 

[minke]

I bought a Weego 1 amp charger/maintainer ( https://myweego.com/products/trickle-charger )
at the end of last year. My truck battery consistently measured ~12.3 volts when it was unused
for a few hours (ignoring parasitic loads). Now, weeks after a few days and nights of
charging/maintaining I find ~12.6 volts. That is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[WWheeler]

I've used the $15 (less on sale) Harbor Freight solar battery maintainers on my mower and my pickup that only gets started/used less than once a month, both for 4-5 years now.

I added a wire extension to the panel mounted to the side of my garage so it can reach the mower. Only needs a morning sun every day to keep it charged though the fall/winter when it's not used except a few times for leaves. Beats disconnecting it and having to reconnect it every time.

The solar panel in the truck sits on the dash 24/7 in front of a sun shade. It stays plugged into an 'always on' accessory outlet. Takes but about 6 seconds to take it down and slide it behind the seat or vice versa to put it back when parking it, less time than it does to do the same with the sun shade.

I like the solar option a LOT better than dealing with a plug in maintainer for most cases. Only time I use one of those is when I'm actually working on a car all day and I don't want to run the battery down. For that I use a Clore Automotive PL2320 20-Amp Battery Charger / Maintainer which is also rebadged and sold as a MAC MT6340B. I went with it after seeing Eric O. use his for that in almost every video he posts for several years now.

 

[Torque&Recoil]

I really like the Battery Tender units that are in the metal case. On the other hand, the Battery Tender Jr "wall wart" units are not so reliable. I have had several of those fail. If you check the warranties, you will see that the wall wart ones have a shorter warranty than the metal cased units. Apparently for a good reason.

 

[GTO]

I have used the Battery MINDer brand for my AGM Battery for years with no problems.

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[Snip's]

I have 2 Ctek units working on my car and JD garden tractors, through the winter months, when they aren't being used...
They are probably 10YO and work flawlessly...

 

[PhantomEB]

Need to source out a seperate plug for my NOCO genius so I can cut off the clips and hardwire it to the bronco. I learned from my buddy who pulled up to the starting beams and car died due to not fully charged battery. Nothing ***** when ready to play but equipment fails to let you do so.

same thing goes for missing work because I can’t maintain my stuff! Boss looks at me….car may not start or snow Is too deep….you got a diesel with bigger tires….if that don’t work, I know you got a Ford with bigger tires than anyone in town!