Battery Tender versus CTEK

[dkroth]

I've had a Deltran Battery Tender for almost 10 years. This past weekend I connected it to my truck and "it let the smoke out." So it's time for a new one.

Before buying I thought I'd check out alternatives. The main competitor to Battery Tender seems to be CTEK. Anyone have any experience with CTEK? How does it compare to Battery Tender?

 

[Teken]

If this Battery Tender is in fact under 10 years old. It is still covered by the manufacturer I would give them a shout on that first.

Worst case they say no, but based on past experience they will help you out. In the future I will be buying the top model of the CTEK just to have as back up.

 

[mrholeshot]

I have a Schumacher I keep on my motorcycle.It's about 4 years old. I've had to replce my battery tenders after 2-3 years. I bought another one for the race car. Sometimes it sits up for months and those Optima batteries are expensive. These keep the batteries toped off nicely. My battery tenders use to get pretty warm. These stay pretty cool

 

[ImportTuner]

I have two Battery Tenders .. been very reliable for me

You can't beat the 10 Year Warranty ...

 

[dkroth]

If this Battery Tender is in fact under 10 years old. It is still covered by the manufacturer I would give them a shout on that first.

FAWK! The garbage went out this morning. Grrr.

Well, now that I think about it I'm sure it was MORE than 10 years old. Yeah, definately. It was ELEVEN years old. I'm sure of it. Yup.

 

[mrholeshot]

I have two Battery Tenders .. been very reliable for me

The problem with mine wasn't in the battery tender but in an unisulated steel building things deteriate at an alarming rate. The wood building I keep my mowers and things in I have not had trouble with my battery tender for my mower.

 

[scottmlew]

I have multiple CTEK's -- they are the best option available imho. fwiw, it's the OEM for Porsche, MB, Ferrari, Bentley, and others...

 

[Paco Pena]

I have a Yuasa 900ma smart charger. Its been keeping my 6 year old motorcycle battery in fine shape all these years.

Paco

 

[rockchucker]

I have a few Battery Tenders. The only way I have had them go out is when I hooked one up to a completely dead Car Battery. After a few Hours the Battery Tender was very hot to the touch and the Power Pack started to bulge from the heat. It still works but for how long I do not know.

Just don't try to fully charge a completely dead Car Battery with the Battery Tender Jr.! It says on their site that it is OK to perform this task of charging a fully dead Battery but I do think they are mostly talking about smaller Motorcycle Batteries. Not sure though as to why my BTJr. decided to get hot if it is OK to perform this task.


Warranty...


http://batterytender.com/includes/languages/english/resources/Warranty_BT_Plus.pdf

 

[mrholeshot]

I became a beleiver in battery tenders (and other float chargers) after the battery in my wifes BMW R1200 went bad in 3 months. I installed a new battery and it's gone 6 years on the same battery. Thats a long time for a motorcycle battery. I use to have to put a new battery in my Goldwing once a year but with a float charger about every three years on average. Each time I park it in the garage I plug it in. If something happens and I don't ride in 2-3 weeks the clock and alarm will kill the battery. I want one of the battery tenders that can keep up 5 things in one unit.

 

[Torq'er]

The only way I have had them go out is when I hooked one up to a completely dead Car Battery

Ditto - never seen one fail unless it was a junk battery/dead short.

 

[dkroth]

Ditto - never seen one fail unless it was a junk battery/dead short.

My battery was\is definately not completely dead.

Voltmeter in the cab showed 12V. There was enough juice to heat the glowplugs (yes, it's a diesel). When I hit the starter I got a solid click/clunk but the engine would not turn over. Voltage dropped to 7-8V while trying to start.

I connnected the Battery Tender and got the correct light indicating charge mode (I forget which one it actually was). Checked my connections again, closed the hood and locked the cab. When walking back to the house I heard something "cooking". I quickly unlocked the cab, popped the hood and yanked the terminals off the battery. My first thought was my truck's wiring somehow getting fryed ($$$). By then smoke started coming out of the Battery Tender. Stinky smoke. Game over.

I did not check the voltmeter when the BT was connected. Not sure if that would have told me anything....

 

[Teken]

Garbage has been picked up already no hope at all in retrieving it?

 

[strnjss]

I have a the exact same Schumacher shown in mrholeshot's pic. I also have a Battery Tender jr.

The Battery Tender has been hooked up to my grandfathers old car sitting in a garage for over 3 years now. It has never been shut off or anything, and is still going fine.

I have not used the Schumacher to the same extent, but it still sees plenty of duty. I usually use it to charge up dead, dying batteries in the winter time. It does a decent job, and is pretty quick. It's only failed to charge one battery, and that was because the battery was really shot. It tried, but 24 hrs later, it just was blinking "check or replace battery".

When charging batteries though, both do get hot. I haven't noticed a heat difference really in either.

 

[anyheck]

Batteries are often discarded because non-conductive lead sulfate crystals form on the plates when a battery sits below about 12V and do not readily return to the electrolyte solution.

Beyond just using the float charger, a desulfator will prevent/reverse the accumulation of sulfate crystals. It works by sending pulses at the natural resonant frequency of the sulfate crystals into the battery which breaks them up, so to speak.

Check out these good DIY instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Desulfator-for-12V-Car-Batteries-in-an-Altoids-Ti/
and
http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt201263/desulfator/desulf.htm

There are also commercial versions out there but I have no experience to speak to what's good or not.

They are generally used in conjunction with a trickle charger as the desulfator circuit consumes power when in use and it can take a long time to dissolve heavy sulfation.

 

[strnjss]

Batteries are often discarded because non-conductive lead sulfate crystals form on the plates when a battery sits below about 12V and do not readily return to the electrolyte solution.

Beyond just using the float charger, a desulfator will prevent/reverse the accumulation of sulfate crystals. It works by sending pulses at the natural resonant frequency of the sulfate crystals into the battery which breaks them up, so to speak.

Check out these good DIY instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Desulfator-for-12V-Car-Batteries-in-an-Altoids-Ti/
and
http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt201263/desulfator/desulf.htm

There are also commercial versions out there but I have no experience to speak to what's good or not.

They are generally used in conjunction with a trickle charger as the desulfator circuit consumes power when in use and it can take a long time to dissolve heavy sulfation.

The Schumacher that I have has a special desulfating mode where it supposedly detects the sulfated state of the battery, and does some special charge mode to try and fix it.

 

[HOTFR8]

I have sold both Deltrans Battery Tenders and the C-Teks. Of all the Deltrans units I have only had one as faulty after it look like a Cat did its business on it.
C-Teks are fully sealed so this will never be a problem with them. I have both Deltrans and C-Teks in use here and they have never missed a beat and still going strong.

My choice would be a C-Tek simply because they are a sealed unit.

 

[scottmlew]

Batteries are often discarded because non-conductive lead sulfate crystals form on the plates when a battery sits below about 12V and do not readily return to the electrolyte solution.

Beyond just using the float charger, a desulfator will prevent/reverse the accumulation of sulfate crystals. It works by sending pulses at the natural resonant frequency of the sulfate crystals into the battery which breaks them up, so to speak.

My CTEK's have a desulfation mode...another plus for CTEK

 

[ImportTuner]

I have sold both Deltrans Battery Tenders and the C-Teks. Of all the Deltrans units I have only had one as faulty after it look like a Cat did its business on it.
C-Teks are fully sealed so this will never be a problem with them. I have both Deltrans and C-Teks in use here and they have never missed a beat and still going strong.

My choice would be a C-Tek simply because they are a sealed unit.

Having a seal unit is nice but I not sure about cooling since they all get pretty warm .. C-Tek has either a 2 year or 5 year warranty depending on the model ..

 

[HOTFR8]

Having a seal unit is nice but I not sure about cooling since they all get pretty warm .. C-Tek has either a 2 year or 5 year warranty depending on the model ..

I have to date only seen one faulty C-Tek that was a fault from the factory

 

[Torq'er]

My battery was\is definately not completely dead.

Voltmeter in the cab showed 12V. There was enough juice to heat the glowplugs (yes, it's a diesel). When I hit the starter I got a solid click/clunk but the engine would not turn over. Voltage dropped to 7-8V while trying to start.

I connnected the Battery Tender and got the correct light indicating charge mode (I forget which one it actually was). Checked my connections again, closed the hood and locked the cab. When walking back to the house I heard something "cooking". I quickly unlocked the cab, popped the hood and yanked the terminals off the battery. My first thought was my truck's wiring somehow getting fryed ($$$). By then smoke started coming out of the Battery Tender. Stinky smoke. Game over.

I did not check the voltmeter when the BT was connected. Not sure if that would have told me anything....

Have you been able to charge the battery since the Battery Tender fired - using another charger?

I ask because a bad battery can still show 12v or more without a load, and wont necessarily drop to zero under load - the battery reps called it "surface charge".
We used to see it a lot at the Motorcycle shop.

Hopefully it was just in the charger, but now would be a good time to have the battery(s) load tested just to be sure.

 

[Cruiser]

I've been using four Battery Tenders for ten years, so far so good no problems. Guessing there mostly all the same.

CRUISER