Battery Maintainers

How many of you use battery maintainers on some of your batteries?
A man I work with used one last winter on his motorcycle and he said it burned up his charging system and voltage regulator.
I have a 10 amp trickle charger and always use it with a timer especially on smaller batteries. The smaller the battery I set the timer to come on less and never had a problem yet.

I have several battery maintainers, never affected any of my charging systems.

Check this link:

http://www.batteryminders.com/content/1500_12117_comparison_chart.pdf

These are the two I use on my tractors, no issues. It is great to go to start up a tractor that sat all winter or years for that matter and it starts right up.

Paul

10 amps thats too much

I only Use Solar Maintainers , From Northern I think they are 1.8 MA and Work Flawlessly... it's ready when You are... I have Vehicles that set for a Month and fire right off..Larry

My friend has one on every old car or truck that he has. Over 15 of them, and they are on 24/7/365. Have been for years.

I have 10 tractors a combine, grain truck, lawn mowers, and if they have a good battery in the fall they all start in the spring with no maintainers after setting for 5 months.

Only two tractors get run through the winter.

Why fix what ain't broke.

Gary

Hogwash! I've got over 20 battery maintainers in use and have had them running all winter, every winter for the past 6-7 years. Who the heck comes up with these STOOPID stories?

All of mine, by the way have been the Harbor Freight "on-board" hardwired 2 amp models, Duracell 1.5 amp, or Schumacher 1.5 amp "Speedy Charge" as sold by walmart.

All lead-acid batteries go dead over time, even when hooked to nothing. A maintainer prevents them from meeting early deaths from sitting too long discharged.

I use them on three tractors that sit all winter, and have never had a problem with them or the charging system. Nice to have them fire right off in the spring, or even when it is -20 in the winter and I have to pull someone out of the snow with one of them.

Mechanic/technician who does my auto electric work has a collection of about 15 unique cars. Has the $10 Harbor Freight maintainers on each one. Runs some for several years on some of them. I've taken to using them on all my batteries that don't see regular use such as summer tractors & truck that may go days to weeks between uses. So far so good. Batteries haven't suffered lack of use/storage failures. Plus they're fully charged when needed.

1.8 milliamps?? That's like two-thousandths of one amp. Not enough to shock a baby mousquito. 200-300 milliamps I could understand.

You DO understand that all lead-acid batteries lose charge as they sit -even when hooked to nothing. It's called the "self discharge rate." Runs between 3% to 20% per month depending on age, temp, and amount of antimony inside the battery case. 5 months with no use or charge means your batteries get run down 15% to 100%. All lead-acid batteries get their useful lives shortened when left sitting in less the fully-charge states. Obviously your batteries after sitting for 5 months have degraded. Whether they still have enough power to start the engines is not the issue. It's longevity. If you don't care - I assume no one else does either about your batteries. Some feel differently about their own. Especially now with battery prices so high.

Having farmed and been in the used truck and tractor business and had more batteries then I could count, I can say this from experience.

True, I've had good charged batteries (with no tractor or vehicle parasitic loads) sit over say several winter months and still start the tractor in the spring.

HOWEVER a) Due to the fact that even a new perfectly good battery self discharges just sitting there (due to chemical reaction); and b) Its more harmful to a battery if it sits in a lower state of charge versus it were fully charged, its my engineers opinion to extend battery life its best if when it sits over a long period (especially winter) TO KEEP IT CHARGED...

That may be by using a small trickle charger so called Battery Tender or dragging your charger out there every so often and top it off or using a small solar charger or how you choose.

I'm NOT opening a can of worms about what brand n type n make n model you choose (I've heard good stories about some brands and horror stories of some cheap units that caught on fire)

IM ONLY SAYING ITS BEST FOR A BATTERY (lifetime and performance) IF ITS KEPT AT LEAST SOMEWHAT CHARGED.

That's my story n Ima stickin to it, no warranty however and do as you please

John T

Since the genny doesn't charge on my tractor I bought a battery charger/maintainer from wally world last year. Got the one that automatically chooses between 6 and 12 volts. Didn't have to drag out charger and extention cord at all since. Hard wired to battery with quick disconnect just in case I forget to unplug it. First time I used tractor after install I did just that. Drove over wire and it unplugged itself.

Have 11 of them working 24/7/365. When I want something to start it does. Never any problems.