Battery Tender

[ABADZL1]

Originally Posted by 608RS

same here, very happy with it

That same one almost burnt my house down. It was attached to my motorcycle. I got home just in time. Garage full of smoke the box almost completely melted and the power cord was on fire almost to the wall. Caught it just in time. I will never use anything Deltran again.....

[d454brisson]

I think most feel a tender will extend the life of a battery. Vipers are notorious for drains and mine has been on its same battery years past its oem usable life.

I have 2 deltrans one on the zl1 one on the viper but may try the noco if they are more efficient and have more info on batt


Scratch that the Amazon reviews are awful for the small ones

[Silveradoss573]

I've had good results with my 6+ year old Craftsman trickle charger.

[jvervoren]

I went with a battery tender jr for now. Going to see how that works out and go from there. Thanks as always for the great input!!

[BMR Sales]

my Battery Tender Junior works great

[chef-beavis]

Originally Posted by acammer

Do you guys really kill batteries without the tenders? I store my car from November 1 - March 31 in a cold cold barn in Upstate NY. Every spring, after sitting all season, I hit the key, and it comes right to life like I was just driving it yesterday. 2011 car, original battery.

My 2010 would kill a battery stone dead in 3-4 weeks, even during the Summer months. Stone stock.

My 2013 was a little better, but not much. It has something to do with XM and/or Onstar trying to ping for a signal. Seems to vary from car to car.

OP - I have had good luck over the years with whatever brand Farm & Fleet sells. You can grab them on sale for $10-15 once a year or so. I think they may be Shumacher? I even accidentally ran one over last year and exploded the plastic case. Still works. Been using them for about 15 years.

I got 9 years out of my first Harley battery, even with compression bumped to 10:1.

[acammer]

Originally Posted by chef-beavis

My 2010 would kill a battery stone dead in 3-4 weeks, even during the Summer months. Stone stock.

My 2013 was a little better, but not much. It has something to do with XM and/or Onstar trying to ping for a signal. Seems to vary from car to car.

That's wild. I definitely see that a lot of people seem to need them, I guess I just got lucky that mine seems to shut all the way off.

[0stones0]

Originally Posted by acammer

That's wild. I definitely see that a lot of people seem to need them, I guess I just got lucky that mine seems to shut all the way off.

In my case, it’s not my DD. About as good of an explanation as I can give.

[0stones0]

Originally Posted by chef-beavis

...

I got 9 years out of my first Harley battery, even with compression bumped to 10:1.

Hehe, ditto on my ‘05 ultra. Did have compression release put on both jugs. Major help.

[silversleeper]

Originally Posted by ABADZL1

That same one almost burnt my house down. It was attached to my motorcycle. I got home just in time. Garage full of smoke the box almost completely melted and the power cord was on fire almost to the wall. Caught it just in time. I will never use anything Deltran again.....

Reading amazon reviews seems like the old ones match the reviews in this thread, people saying many years old and still going strong. The newer ones have many complaints.
This is in reference to the full size one, not the "Jr" model.

[chef-beavis]

Originally Posted by 0stones0

Hehe, ditto on my ‘05 ultra. Did have compression release put on both jugs. Major help.

Yup. Have to run compression releases.

[lbls1]

I've been using Deltran's Battery Tender for about 12 years. Its a great product, as it can prolong the life of your battery.

However, just keep in mind that:
1. In general, they are not really heavy duty chargers, so if you have serious parasitic drain issues, you should see about getting it fixed first.
2. It prolongs the battery life, not make the batteries invincible. Your battery will die eventually. The tender extended the life on my TrailBlazer's OEM battery to 9 years, which is a record for me.
3. My '02 is hard on batteries. That car must have a tender on it, or it will eat a battery within 3-4 weeks. That car probably has a parasitic drain, but I attribute that to its aftermarket subwoofer and amp, and that car's natural tendency to drain batteries.
4. So far, so good with the truck and ZL. Its important to watch all of your cars, however. The tenders are an aid that will help batteries; They are not meant to be bullet proof vests.