Automotive Battery Chargers

[Blaine]

Except for a couple Battery Tenders for motorcycles, and boats I've never had a battery charger.
What's a good one in the 50-60 dollar range (can you even get a decent one for that much?), and what's with this desulphation cycle they are talking about?
The Mustang battery was DOA, and three days on a Battery Tender is doing nothing to bring it back.

[sore shoulder]

desulfation is for deep cycle. It's a hot charge that boils the batteries and removes scale from the plates. I do it once a month or so for the batteries that run my house. You don't need it for an auto. The trickle charger won't make a dent. Barring having left the door open with light on or headlights on, if your battery is dead from just sitting you probably need a new one. As far as chargers go it just depends what you need, mine has several levels including a jump start mode that puts out some serious amps, but its large and has wheels. More amps = faster charge.

[Larkbill]

That's about what I paid for my copper wound Schumacher at Wally World. About 10 years ago. So probably more now. I had an aluminum one for a while but it overheated a couple times and crapped out. It has trickle, 15 amp, and 150 amp jump. You want at least a 15 amp standard charge, maintenance free batteries need over 10 amps to start charging. 20 is even better. The battery "reconditioning" feature seems to be mostly hype. I've never had it save a bad battery. My Dad took one apart to see how it worked, have a high frequency signal generator that appeared to be somewhere above 18-20 volts that it pulsed on and off. Presumably to do about what soreshoulder talked about. Dad has a GEM electric car he drives around his town and being a retired phone man can't resist "exploring" electrical devices. He doesn't have true deep cycles in his GEM, rather has combo type marine batteries.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Automotive batterys are not designed to be deep cycled. Once they have been they usually don't last long even if you do get them to take a full charge again.

[piller]

Battery tenders have worked for me on riding lawn mower batteries. Never tried them on anything else.

[GunnyMack]

I bought a 5w solar trickle charger from Northern. I keep my quad and tractor hooked up. It keeps em charged through the year.

Best tool for checking batteries is a load tester. Charge the battery, hook tester up and push the button. If it's bad it'll show it.

[Blaine]

Ok, I went out to WallyWorld and got a Schumacher 80 amp Start/20 amp Boost/6-2 maintenance charge. Looks like I'll hook it up tomorrow. It's dark, and I like to have plenty of light when I catch my vehicles on fire....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Harbor Freight sells an inexpensive load tester that works great. I have had mine for about 20 years.
Don't charge a battery at more than 10% of its cold cranking amp rating. Boiling it destroys the plates eventually. And they CAN simply explode ! Don't ask my how I know this !

[Sixgun]

The one thing about battery chargers is that there are auto and the kind you have to shut off. The kind you have to shut off have a gauge that shows when the battery is fully charged...then shut it off. The auto jobs do it on their own. ------6

[hayabusa]

Ok, I went out to WallyWorld and got a Schumacher 80 amp Start/20 amp Boost/6-2 maintenance charge. Looks like I'll hook it up tomorrow. It's dark, and I like to have plenty of light when I catch my vehicles on fire....

Blaine, the autos I have observed on fire look so much more spetacular after dark.

hayabusa

[Chuck 100 yd]

Ok, I went out to WallyWorld and got a Schumacher 80 amp Start/20 amp Boost/6-2 maintenance charge. Looks like I'll hook it up tomorrow. It's dark, and I like to have plenty of light when I catch my vehicles on fire....

Blaine, the autos I have observed on fire look so much more spetacular after dark.

hayabusa

A few jugs of gas will make it real exciting in the neighborhood. With all the red and blue lights it will be just like Christmas again !

[sore shoulder]

If it's not on fire, you're doing it wrong. My wife would disagree.

[Old Ironsights]

I've found the Stanley Fat Max 8amp chargers to work quite well.

I have this one: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Stanley-FatM ... e/38243757
which is the previous version of this one:
http://www.stanleytools.com/products/au ... ainer/bc8s

I like the older one better because it does 6v & 12v.

[mikld]

I used to push as much as the charger would produce for about an hour (automotive/HD equipment starting batteries, fleet situation). Then drop the charge to 8-10 amps and allow the battery to charge for a few hours. Worked well for lead acid and saturated mat batteries. Deep cycle batteries like the "coil" plate Optima batteries needed a heavier charge from the beginning. The department tried trickle chargers/battery tenders, but gave up on them after a couple years. I did once install a solar panel (6 amp) on an emergency transformer trailer that had battery powered landing gear, to keep the batteries up (4, 12v deep cycle).....

[gcs]

I have a cheap, 25 year old, at least, Harbor Freight charger that has never failed to charge my batteries, it lives in the shed, is rusty, and the clamps are stuff. Darn thing just works.