Battery mainting/trickle charging

[Enigma]

So simple question for you smrt people, can I use my Motomoaster Eliminator digital "Inteliigent" battery charger to maintain the charge on my 81?
After sitting for a week it usually is quite slow to initially start, parasitic problems I guess and I'll get at it one day......

The unit is rated as 2amp trickle charge, 12 and 8 rapid charge. I've long since lost/misplaced the manual.

 

[canucksafari]

Simple answer is YES. But check your battery health and check for parasitic draw if the battery is okay. PA has these cool little amp meters that you can plug into a fuse slot. Makes it easy to find which circuit has a parasitic draw.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I have this cteck battery maintainer its made to just keep batteries topped up and healthy. I put it on my trick when i take it off the road over the winter.

 

[ForealBoreal]

ctek
they kick ass

 

[Rugy]

ctek gets a big thumbs up

 

[canucksafari]

Both of mine are CTEK. Not only do they do a good job at charging or keeping a charge, they also can bring an otherwise dead battery back to life. The battery in the Camry sat for 2 years and appeared to be very dead. Put the CTEK on it and came back 3 days later to a fully charged battery that likely was quite sulfated. I picked mine up at Crappy Tire when they were 60% off.

 

[Enigma]

So for a dual battery system that the hdj81 has, what model of Ctek?

 

[Blue77FJ40]

Battery Tender hands down

 

[Land Cruiser Rob]

I use my PulseTech Xtreme Battery Maintenance Charger on the 60 when the truck is parked for months at a time.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Other options
There is also dual station 12 volt smart battery chargers– charge two batteries together, which are monitored separately.
For example ...
http://www.chargingchargers.com/pulsetech/x2.html


For my 24 volt charge/float setup I charge two 12 volt batteries in series ...
http://www.chargingchargers.com/chargers/24volt/1-10amps/jac0724.html

 

[toynut]

Why not put a battery switch on it ? Other than resetting the stereo it works perfectly !


We have http://www.colehersee.com/home/item/cat/220/24505/ on our machines at work

 

[Enigma]

Canadian Tire doesn't seem to list the Cteks anymore, they now carry the Noco Genius series.
I like this style (and the Ctek) as they are small. I can mount it in the bay and just plug in as needed. What I don't know is if they will charge a parallel system. I have an email in to their tech tho.

I've got my Eliminator currently hooked up right now in 2amp mode to one battery (the left one when standing in front looking at the engine bay), and was just now reading some old posts on charging, one from some dude named "Sailor"...

"I would connect the + lead of the charger to the + post of one battery and the - lead of the charger to the - post of the other battery. Guarantees an even charge. Don't crank the engine with the charger attached in this configuration. I don't know if cranking and engaging the 12/24 start relay will hurt the charger."

I'm going to try it out, seems to make sense given the parallel configuration.

 

[hybric4x4diesel]

i would try charging individual at 5-10 amp for 24 hrs that should be full charge normally,with out any hydrometer check.

 

[Enigma]

Yeah, but I'm reeeeeaaaaallly lazy and don't want to disconnect cables.

I'm the "plug and play" generation

 

[pbgbottle]

bump

just picked up a Deltran battery tender plus at costco bellingham for $39.99
on a whim . is this a decent charger ?
i thought i would ask u guys first
now i am off to do some more reading .i hope it is good .
i want to keep it plugged into a battery for my boat over the winter.

http://batterytender.com/battery-tender-plus-12v-at-1-25a.html

weird thing on the box it says not for sale in California and that it will
properly charge agm and gel batteries and on deltrans website they list another model of the plus chargers for the same price which is Optimized for GEL batteries and not for sale in california ,why the difference on there site but yet the one i bought says it will charge gel batteries fine also , just curious.
costco is the regualr model .not the tender plus GEL





.............

 

[Enigma]

No idea Jake, but since you reminded me, I need to get the Genius model I did end up buying awhile ago back from a relative I loaned it to.

 

[markthemenace]

bump

just picked up a Deltran battery tender plus at costco bellingham for $39.99
on a whim . is this a decent charger ?
i thought i would ask u guys first
now i am off to do some more reading .i hope it is good .
i want to keep it plugged into a battery for my boat over the winter.

http://batterytender.com/battery-tender-plus-12v-at-1-25a.html

weird thing on the box it says not for sale in California and that it will
properly charge agm and gel batteries and on deltrans website they list another model of the plus chargers for the same price which is Optimized for GEL batteries and not for sale in california ,why the difference on there site but yet the one i bought says it will charge gel batteries fine also , just curious.
costco is the regualr model .not the tender plus GEL

That model should be good for hooking up to your boat fulltime Jake. I have something similar, but its called Battery Minder. The new model on their website states that it has temperature compensator, which does help as batteries don't charge as well in the cold. The model I have doesn't have that as its a pretty old one.

The desulphator feature is something to consider too. I had a dead battery (Group 93) on my Merc one day. Found a used Grp 93 on craigslist and paid $50 for the guy to deliver it to my house. Well, I took the "dead" battery and hooked it up to the Battery Minder that I had, and before I knew it, I had a spare battery! I usually just hook it up and leave it inside the house (where its warmer) and over a period of a few months, it worked that battery up to serviceable status.

So now, just for fun, I will rotate my batteries, from the old $50 battery to the "revived" old battery.

IMO, if you're not using it, just plug it in. The new type of chargers can't overcharge your battery.

 

[jcolvin]

CTEK 7002 is a great charger (has a good recondition function, maintain and AGM modes as well) and this is a good price:

http://www.amazon.ca/Multi-12-Volt-Smart-Battery-Charger/dp/B000FRLO9Y/?tag=ihco03-20

 

[Greg_B]

I've got a couple of these older ones which do not have temperature compensation http://batteryminders.com/details.php?prod=12117 (new ones do) and a couple Extreme Chargers (one won at a Cruiser Days raffle IIRC) http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-restoration/12-volt/XC100-P.html

Been happy with both, and pros/cons to both.

The batteryminder does not mind having batteries in parallel hooked up, which is great winter float maintenance of the two batteries from my 24V trucks. But it always seems just shy of 13.2V. Again, this is with the older 2 generation ago model. The new ones might not allow parallel and might be better controlled. EDIT...the new one looks pretty good as a maintainer, and up to 4 batteries at once: http://batteryminders.com/forms/1500_12117_comparison_chart.pdf

The Extreme has brought back a couple batteries, and is always at a straight 13.2V when finished it's cycle and float charging. However in the literature it says only hook up to one battery. They do make chargers which can do a number of batteries at once.

The CTEK looks good, and real world reviews seem positive.

hth's

gb

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I use a CTEK and it works well to maintain my two batteries, its also got a Jell cell charge option but I have never used it. I have brought a flat battery back to life with it as well.