Saving more with the battery Tender

[knitetrain05]

Every little saving adds up. With the Camaro put away for the winter. I put a battery Tender plus on it, And on the Battery tender, I put a timer. My car is charged for 8 hours every night then, the tender is shut off for 16 hours. Battery's don't need to be on a constant charge even if its on a trickle charge. Your battery will thank you, The less use on the charger will thank you, Your electric bill ( Very small amount) Will thank you. This is just a little tip and what I do. I'm sure everybody has their own opinion. That's just me. For what its worth........

[angryv6]

I do the same thing, no need to have it 24 hours straight.

[flyinlow]

If its the actual Battery Tender brand, you don't need to put a timer on it. It runs through a program of charge/discharge. Granted it will use a little more electricity than if you turn the power off, but its very small. In fact, the whole thing only uses about $4 a month of electricity.

[KaBoom1701]

Thanks for the tip...but no need in SoCal!

Here's a pic of our SoCal winters.

[DARK AGE 53]

I have no data to prove my point but here's my take on using a timer, first I'm talking about the Deltran Battery Tender. The Battery Tender goes into a float mode once the battery is charged, by putting it on a timer for 16 hours and then turning it back on I believe the battery tender will start charging the battery all over again for probably the whole 8 hours.

I probably didn't explain myself very but I hope some of you got the idea. BTW, I've been using the Deltran Battery Tenders on several vehicles for six to seven months at a time with no problems.

[Rocky1974]

Originally Posted by knitetrain05

Every little saving adds up. With the Camaro put away for the winter. I put a battery Tender plus on it, And on the Battery tender, I put a timer. My car is charged for 8 hours every night then, the tender is shut off for 16 hours. Battery's don't need to be on a constant charge even if its on a trickle charge. Your battery will thank you, The less use on the charger will thank you, Your electric bill ( Very small amount) Will thank you. This is just a little tip and what I do. I'm sure everybody has their own opinion. That's just me. For what its worth........

You don't have a clue how a battery tender works do you? The whole point of a battery tender is so you don't have to this. Your battery will not thank you for this. It will wonder what your problem is.

[MLL67RSSS]

Higher power Battery Tenders will actually drain the battery a little when connected and not powered, sort of defeats the purpose.

http://batterytender.com/resources/why-battery-tender/

"Zero to Minimal Current Draw from Batteries: When the AC power is disconnected, most Battery Tender® battery chargers draw zero current from the battery. A few of the higher power models draw less than 1 milliamp from the battery."

http://batterytender.com/resources/f...ked-questions/

How is the Battery Tender® Plus battery charger different from a trickle charger?

"The BatteryTender® Plus (BT Plus) battery charger has microprocessor controlled power electronic circuitry which enables it to preform and safely control a number of sophisticated charging functions, well beyond the capability of inexpensive trickle chargers.

After connecting the BT Plus to a battery and then applying AC power, it first conducts a number of checks during Initialization Mode to ensure that the battery functioning normally. Then it will deliver its full charge at a constant rate of 1.25 amperes. This is called the Bulk Charge Mode. The battery voltage will rise and when it reaches a predetermined level the BT Plus will hold the battery charge voltage constant at that level, allowing the charge current amplitude to drop. This is the Absorption Charge Mode. The Absorption Charge Mode is complete when the battery charge current drops below a very low value, usually below ¼ ampere. Some BT Plus models have timers to limit the duration of the Absorption Charge Mode.

After the current drops or the allotted time expires (typically several hours), the BT Plus automatically switches to a Float / Maintenance Charge Mode. The purpose of the Float / Maintenance Charge Mode is to maintain the battery voltage just slightly (typically between 1/10 and ½ volt) above where it would be if it were fully charged and sitting at rest. This keeps the battery topped off at voltages well below the gassing voltage of a lead acid battery.

So if you are using a higher powered model you're actually slightly draining the battery for 16 hours and when the power comes on it has to re-charge the battery to full again. That will use more power than the BT being powered all the time in Float/Maintenence mode while the battery sits fully charged."

[Rock-It Man]

Originally Posted by MLL67RSSS

Higher power Battery Tenders will actually drain the battery a little when connected and not powered, sort of defeats the purpose.

http://batterytender.com/resources/why-battery-tender/

"Zero to Minimal Current Draw from Batteries: When the AC power is disconnected, most Battery Tender® battery chargers draw zero current from the battery. A few of the higher power models draw less than 1 milliamp from the battery."

http://batterytender.com/resources/f...ked-questions/

How is the Battery Tender® Plus battery charger different from a trickle charger?

"The BatteryTender® Plus (BT Plus) battery charger has microprocessor controlled power electronic circuitry which enables it to preform and safely control a number of sophisticated charging functions, well beyond the capability of inexpensive trickle chargers.

After connecting the BT Plus to a battery and then applying AC power, it first conducts a number of checks during Initialization Mode to ensure that the battery functioning normally. Then it will deliver its full charge at a constant rate of 1.25 amperes. This is called the Bulk Charge Mode. The battery voltage will rise and when it reaches a predetermined level the BT Plus will hold the battery charge voltage constant at that level, allowing the charge current amplitude to drop. This is the Absorption Charge Mode. The Absorption Charge Mode is complete when the battery charge current drops below a very low value, usually below ¼ ampere. Some BT Plus models have timers to limit the duration of the Absorption Charge Mode.

After the current drops or the allotted time expires (typically several hours), the BT Plus automatically switches to a Float / Maintenance Charge Mode. The purpose of the Float / Maintenance Charge Mode is to maintain the battery voltage just slightly (typically between 1/10 and ½ volt) above where it would be if it were fully charged and sitting at rest. This keeps the battery topped off at voltages well below the gassing voltage of a lead acid battery.

So if you are using a higher powered model you're actually slightly draining the battery for 16 hours and when the power comes on it has to re-charge the battery to full again. That will use more power than the BT being powered all the time in Float/Maintenence mode while the battery sits fully charged."

This.

If you have a real battery tender, it makes no sense to turn it off and on.

[Wuiquen]

So is it really necessary to have the battery connected to a tender or charger while in storage??

[DARK AGE 53]

Originally Posted by Wuiquen

So is it really necessary to have the battery connected to a tender or charger while in storage??

Kinda depends on on how long the cars in storage, the colder the area also plays into whether you should have a battery tender connected to the battery. Also, I would avoid using a battery charger for long periods at times. JMO

[strych9]

Originally Posted by Wuiquen

So is it really necessary to have the battery connected to a tender or charger while in storage??

If you're going to be stored 4 mos or less, you don't need it. My garage is not heated, never had an issue.

[Wuiquen]

I see.. welll I am asking because last deployment I sat the car for 7 months with the battery with no tender at all. all I did was unplug negative cable. when I got back.. reinstall the cable and the car was fine

[ZED SLED]

A quality battery tender will be high frequency, fully automatic and have a float mode. I have a Battery Sentinel I've used for 8 years.

[Est.July.4.1776]

Originally Posted by KaBoom1701

Thanks for the tip...but no need in SoCal!

Here's a pic of our SoCal winters.

Lemme post a picture of my emissions test... oh wait...

ETA: Is the BT Plus worth the extra dough?