Russ, Battery Maintainer, Temp. Compensation

Russ, you asked why I brought up Temperature Compensation. I had some older Model 12117 Batteryminders (I got from Northerntool years ago.) that were not temperature compensated. I had used them on three tractors that sat for 2-3 years and the batteries all dried out. There was no fluid visible above the plates. Now I understand that anytime a lead acid battery charges it looses H2O. These were all JD Strongbox batteries and when parked were not having issues. I did not have good records on age. I had expected the Batteryminders to just keep them up and De-sulfonate them. I was disappointed.

I called Batteryminder, they felt I should have checked them for electrolyte periodically but did point out that the maintainer I used was an old one, 12117, without temperature compensation. That may have contributed to the electrolyte leaving or being boiled off. They later came out with a model 12117TC, Temperature Compensated. They suggested I used their model 1510. It is their lower price point but now has temperature compensation.

Also, I learned another earlier model 1500 I had would time out early, 20 hrs, looking for the battery to reach a threshold voltage. See the timing diagram in the back of the manual. It would indicate a reversed polarity on the indicator light. That was really confusing. I had this problem for years and never understood it. It showed up mostly when I was charging two batteries in parallel in the tractor. That makes sense since two batteries in parallel are going to take longer to charge to a threshold. I was told I should just reset my model 1500's if the reverse polarity light comes on. They since have lengthened the time out in the 1510 to 100 hours.

So, because of my confusion with the model 1500, I tended to use my 12117's for long term charging because they didn't time out. I cannot tell you what contributed most to my batteries drying out, lack of temperature compensation or my lack of adding water periodically. I just know they dried out.

So, what to use? There are many offerings out there now. The local BatteryMart uses Batterytender. The local Batteries Plus sells a Duracell product and another product I cannot recall.

Here is what ProCar recommends:



Here is the URL with information on each of the recommendations.

https://procarreviews.com/best-battery-maintainers/

I noticed on Amazon the NOCO Genius has many models as due many of these manufacturers depending on price point.

I plan to try some of those on the ProCar list. BatteryMinder convinced me Temperature Compensation is important.

If anyone can add or even feels I did not get something right feel free to chime in. This has been a frequently asked about area on YTMag.

Paul

Thanks for the update, I was wondering about that. I never leave a charger/maintainer connected for more than a day or 2, I have never found it to be necessary. Our truck (15 Silverado) will drain a battery in less than a month, so when it sits in the garage for the 3-4 months that we are down south I just disconnect one cable, that has worked fine for me. Same thing in the boat, just disconnect one cable. Our motorcycles do not have ABS so there seems to be no need to disconnect, that is good, they are very hard to get to. When we get home I hook a small charger to each one for a day each and they are all good to go, hope to take the MC"S out next week! I had a JD strongbox last over 13 years, never had a charger/maintainer hooked to it!

Russ,
My batteryminder has temperature probe. This winter, 6 degrees, it wouldn't charge.

It takes mine more than 2 days to desulfate.

I use Ac volt meter. During desulfate cycle it measures around 30 vac .

I wait until I can't measure ACV