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Battery Storage

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BIBBER

BIBBER

Jedi Knight
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Well it's fall and that dreaded time of the year arriving for winter storage...what kind of experience has anyone had with the battery trickle devices. While I have a charger and religously used the opporutnity to vivist my cars in the snow by moving it from car to car each month in the garage I'm considering buying one for each of my rides....this ebay add appears to be reasonably priced??

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...0148611841&rd=1
 
That looks to be the same unit sold by Harbor Freight (for less money).
https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292
I tried three of them before deciding they were unredeemable junk. Might be OK if you were careful to be certain the battery was fully charged to begin with ... but it turned out the battery I was trying to 'maintain' had a dead cell. And being connected to it ruined the charger !

Turns out there is no current limit in the circuit, except the relatively high resistance of the wall wart. So, if the battery takes more than a few hundred ma @ 14v, the wall wart overheats and fails. With the last unit, I replaced the wall wart with one off an old Hayes modem (same voltage but rated at a full amp) ... which melted down the brain box.

Which is not to say the better units don't work well. From what I've read, what you really want is a "3 stage" charger. First stage is constant current until the battery reaches a voltage threshold, then it should hold a constant voltage until the current drops to a threshold, then (the important part) shut off the current (or drop it to a very low value) and let the voltage drop back. When the voltage drops below some threshold, repeat the cycle.

But since winter is prime LBC weather around here, I don't have any experience with smart chargers.
 
that's what I needed to here....my charger is a very good unit and maintains my batteries well...just the process of moving it from car to car...not willing to pay the price of a charger for each one...thanks
 
I have five vehicles I store during the winter. All I ever do is disconnect the batteries. Although I do ensure the batteries are in good shape {no shorted or weak cells} and are fully charged. The Motorhome I have has five batteries, four Deepcycle for the coach and one regular for the engine. I store it at a campsite on the mountain that has NO electricity, making connecting any type of charger to it impossible, it also gets well below freezing up there. I have found that by making sure the batteries are in good condition before storeage and disconnecting them to ensure there is no drain, they are in a charged condition in the spring when I begin to use the coach again. When I begin to have battery problems {No charge after sitting all winter} I know it is time for replacement. Having good reliable batteries is essential in this situation. It is quite a distance to go for replacements.
 
AweMan said:
I store it at a campsite on the mountain that has NO electricity, making connecting any type of charger to it impossible,
Click to expand...
Just curious, have you looked into those solar cell chargers ? They didn't seem useful when I looked at them, but that was quite a few years ago and I hear solar technology has advanced quite a bit since then.
 
As with anything, you get what you pay for.

About ten years ago now, I bought a Deltran Battery Tender. Cost about $50, even with my being able to buy it at cost (I was sales manager at a motorcycle store) but that thing has never missed a beat since. I just attach it to the battery when I put the car away for the winter, and just leave it there all winter, knowing that the battery will be 100% when I come back to it in the spring.

It is not designed to charge up a flat battery, but it will slowly bring a discharged one back to a full charge and maintain that charge without ever over-charging it.

I have no interest in this product other than as a very satisfied customer. I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

Since then they have added more products of a similar nature. Here's a link to their website:-

https://batterytender.com/default.php?cPath=11&osCsid=9d659cd948618e8366b1214977931eb5
 
Deltran’s “Battery Tender” series of chargers are designed for long-term battery storage and maintenance. They’re well reviewed in automotive and motorcycle enthusiast circles.

They have models from “wall wart” sized to high-powered multi battery commercial units.

Some of their more popular models are commonly available through auto parts stores, online auto accessory vendors, many gearhead suppliers and specialty dealers. (I got mine from Aircraft Spruce.)


PC.



Oops, Steve beat me to the punch!
 
Hi BIBBER, take a look at VDC Electronics and their "Battery Minder" this unit will maintain the battery and also desulfate it if required. Trickle chargers are not satisfactory for long term battery maintenance.--Fwiw--Keoke
 
I've been using a Schumacher 1.5 amp battery maintainer on our camper battery over winter, and it works fine. About $30 at Wal-Mart, but I think I've seen them at the part stores too. It actually has some smarts in it to avoid overcharging the battery.
 
The little motorcycle trickle charger I put on my Norton commando flat killed a fully charged battery over the winter - & it was dry as a bone also!

What I want is something where I can hook up multiple batteries & it'll keep them all charged...I don't mind taking them out of the cars & putting them on a shelf to do it either.
 
resurrecting the idea of solar mentioned earlier ...

I like to drive my TR in winter as well as summer, but in winter there can be a week or two between drives. As my car's winter palace (er ... shed) has no electricity, I'd like to use a solar trickle charger, mounted on the south facing wall, connecting directly to the battery posts. Something like:

https://www.batterystuff.com/solar-chargers/SE-2.html

Has anyone used one, or something similar? Praise, questions, or caveats?

thanks.
Tom
PS - Tony, as a charger needs to "read" the battery and adjust to what it finds, I wonder if it's even possible to hook one up to multiple batteries? Unless there's a separate charging/analysis unit for each connection.
 
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