Battery Maintainer vs Battery Charger vs Battery Tender

[GolfVenture]

I've been hearing about these three for sometime now and, some use a battery tender, some use a battery maintainer and some use a battery charger.

 

What is the difference.

 

Spock: "A Difference That Make No Difference Is No Difference"

[jlh3rd]

in my definitions, a battery maintainer and a battery tender are one and the same...they bring a battery up to a full charge and keep it there without over charging...and they also ,when charging a battery, monitor the charge rate so as not to damage the battery by using too fast of a rate

a charger simply throws a charging rate into the battery until you turn the charger off...possibly damaging the battery by over charging...

[Yammer Dan]

I have a charger that does all this as needed. When it gets battery to where it should be it stops til battery needs to be brought back up to full charge. Also it will handle Glass Matt Batteries. For some reason you can ruin these with a regular charger.

[Condor]

Tenders and maintainers are cheap and do not charge. Good smart chargers cost more and will do it all...

[Yammer Dan]

Jack is right. Mine is a Black&Decker "Smart" charger. about 60 bucks on sale but does it all. Also has desulfating cycle which breaks up the crud that starts to form in your battery and will kill it. Also gives reading as to output of battery, has boost starting cycle, float cycle and a 4-10-20 and 40 amp charging cycle. Chargers just ain't what they used to be.

[bongobobny]

Yah! They are also sometimes referred to as a Float Charger and can be had for $10 - $20. When plugged in, they monitor the output voltage of the battery and if it dips below a certain level they cycle on and bring the voltage up to the proper level then turn off.

 

I have a nice Sears charger that allows you to select the charge rate and type of battery and does shut off when it reaches a full charge, but I found out the hard way it is too over high tech for my Deka battery. If the Deka gets waaay too low, the charger eventually gives up and says the battery is no good when it is fine. Put an old fashioned simple charger on it and it eventually charges it up...

[jlh3rd]

" each and every deltran Battery Tender will , regardless of it's size , charge a battery and maintain it"

the battery tender i have will charge a battery........

i guess there are just maintainers out there...that will not charge

[spke]

I would stay away from "float" chargers. They do not have the intelligence to properly "maintain" a battery. I use the "tender" from batteryminder, it stops charging and waits until it needs to charge again based on the battery voltage as it drops over time. It also does desulphation, which will ruin a battery that has had too many charging cycles from almost drained condition to fully charged. Can be had for $35-40 on sale at numerous outlets.

 

I only use the tender when the bike will sit for weeks or more. I have yet to have a battery go bad within 5-6 years. I buy a new battery around that timeframe, needed or not.

 

 

I've been hearing about these three for sometime now and, some use a battery tender, some use a battery maintainer and some use a battery charger.

 

What is the difference.

 

Spock: "A Difference That Make No Difference Is No Difference"

[Yammer Dan]

My Black&Decker claims to have a "Float" cycle that works great.

[dynodon]

BAttery Tender is a name brand, and is a "smart" charger that will determine a batteries level and charge it to proper levels and then go into a float mode and if the battery falls below a certain level it will bring it back up again.

 

I have used them for decades and they are the original and I think still the best. These are NOT intended to bring a dead battery back from zero. They are not good for batteries that are on their last breath. they keep a good battery in good shape.

 

I have a 2-10-50 charger for heavy duty use, but for just keeping a good battery healthy and ready, the Battery Tender brand is good, and I just buy the "Jr." version which does everything you will need for a low price. There are other good ones out there, but I just stick with the original. There are also some junk units that may do more harm than good.

[MikeWa]

A tender or maintainer provides automatic operation and less than a trickle charge. So it would take a very very long time to bring a very low battery back to full capacity. It may not even be able to do it at all. It is designed to keep a good battery at it's peak. It uses very little current. This is needed today because of parasitic drains such as keep alive circuits on modern vehicles.

 

A battery charger is capable of higher current outputs. Some chargers may incorporate the features of a maintainer while others may not. Most chargers will have several selectable features which you have to decide if they meet your needs.

Mike

[autopilot]

Check my post/thread 64070 from 9/26/2011 titled "Battery tender" for additional info.

[Geobob]

This a little off topic but I think this was a better place to post rather than starting a new thread.

 

I have an AGM ETX12 battery in one of my bikes. 2002 vz800 maurader and it lost its charge. The auto parts store manager pointed out something I was unaware of and wanted some more opinions on the subject.

 

He said the maintanece free batteries can fully discharge and then will take up to 48 hours or more of trickle charging to get them back up to full charge. He said the bikes alternator puts out so little current that it will not charge the battery after an hour or even much much longer.

 

I had the battery on the charge over night and it was not dead to start with but it was only up to 70%. It was a cheap trickle charger from Harbor Frieght. I put it on a 2 amp charger with a shut off. We will see how it does. It is one of the 55 amp starter, 10 amp charger and 2 amp trickle charger.

 

He was right about it not charging while the bike was running. We jumped the bike then ran it for an hour and it had no more charge after riding than it did when we jumped it. We push started the bike and it ran ok on the way home.

 

We had this problem before where once it is drained down, it wont take enough charge from the bike to fire it back up. I have never seen this before on a bike. Is it just the nature of the new maintance free batteries. I think I have seen my venture with a low battery many many times and after running the bike for a while, the battery takes enough charge to start the bike. I have always had wet batteries in the venture.

 

I'm kind of thinking I like the wet battery technology better based on this charging issue.

 

What is everyone elses opinion on this matter.

 

By the way, I suspect my cheap chargers from Harbor Frieght were the type discussed for just maintaning a fully charged battery. They will put a charge in but I do think it would take days. I had it on the charger for several days last week then put it in the bike. It started right up. I checked the bike and it was putting out 13.68 or something volts. We rode for about 15 - 20 mins then parked the bike for a few days. When I tried to start it yesterday it did not have enough juice to turn over the motor.

 

I guess this leads me to believe the cheap charger really never fully charged the battery and the bike is not charging it either.

[Snaggletooth]

I've been running the DEKA ETX18L for going on 5 years. I've never needed to use a Tender on it at all. Even sitting for a couple months the base charge barely drops 2/10th of a volt. AGM batteries are extremely slow to discharge.

 

That said, I ride almost daily with a modified charging system that puts out no less than 14.3 volts at running speed.

 

Now, playing with my Tender Jr. it does charge the AGM at about 14.4 volts then shuts down to about 13.1 volts when the battery is fully charged.

 

Not familiar with what the HF tenders will do.

 

A Tender or HF will take a long time to bring a deeply discharged battery even close to topped off and more than likely it never will. It's not designed for that.

 

But with standard charger the 2 amp setting should show the battery getting at least 14.2 - 14.5 volts during the process.

 

But if the bike is charging at 13.8 or so you are still in good shape. But a 20 minute ride isn't going to be enough to bring the AGM back to fully charged from 70%.

 

If the AGM is dropping volts that fast there are two things to consider. A massive drain on the system when shut off, or the battery is faulty.

 

Go for an over night charge with 2 amps and see how it pans out and let us know.

 

But from my experince with the AGMs, they are a huge improvement over wet cells. More cranking amps, more reliable, and tough as nails, DEKA is one of the best on the market.

 

If it has been that deeply discharged it will take a while to bring it back up, and that is a chance it may not come back to full power.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Snaggletooth

[abusive throttle cranker]

This a little off topic but I think this was a better place to post rather than starting a new thread.

 

I have an AGM ETX12 battery in one of my bikes. 2002 vz800 maurader and it lost its charge. The auto parts store manager pointed out something I was unaware of and wanted some more opinions on the subject.

 

He said the maintanece free batteries can fully discharge and then will take up to 48 hours or more of trickle charging to get them back up to full charge. He said the bikes alternator puts out so little current that it will not charge the battery after an hour or even much much longer.

 

I had the battery on the charge over night and it was not dead to start with but it was only up to 70%. It was a cheap trickle charger from Harbor Frieght. I put it on a 2 amp charger with a shut off. We will see how it does. It is one of the 55 amp starter, 10 amp charger and 2 amp trickle charger.

 

He was right about it not charging while the bike was running. We jumped the bike then ran it for an hour and it had no more charge after riding than it did when we jumped it. We push started the bike and it ran ok on the way home.

 

We had this problem before where once it is drained down, it wont take enough charge from the bike to fire it back up. I have never seen this before on a bike. Is it just the nature of the new maintance free batteries. I think I have seen my venture with a low battery many many times and after running the bike for a while, the battery takes enough charge to start the bike. I have always had wet batteries in the venture.

 

I'm kind of thinking I like the wet battery technology better based on this charging issue.

 

What is everyone elses opinion on this matter.

 

By the way, I suspect my cheap chargers from Harbor Frieght were the type discussed for just maintaning a fully charged battery. They will put a charge in but I do think it would take days. I had it on the charger for several days last week then put it in the bike. It started right up. I checked the bike and it was putting out 13.68 or something volts. We rode for about 15 - 20 mins then parked the bike for a few days. When I tried to start it yesterday it did not have enough juice to turn over the motor.

 

I guess this leads me to believe the cheap charger really never fully charged the battery and the bike is not charging it either.

 

Your bike's charging system should keep your battery charged. If it isn't doing so something is wrong with it. Keep in mind however that a typical system doesn't provide juice below 2000 rpm usually. It must be spinning enough to work. Below that point you are operating off the battery.

[Geobob]

I put the battery on the bigger 55-10-2 amp charger and within a few hours it said fully charged. This is after it had been on the cheap trickle charger all night and the Autozone manager told me it tested good but only 70% charged an hour earlier. Did it take 30% charge in a few hours on a 2 amp charger?

 

We put the battery in the bike and road for about 5 hours with stops at about every hour or so. It started every time as one would expect. Brought the bike home and put it on the battery tender that I just purchased and in about 3 hours it went from charging (red) to fully charged (green). I'm going to let or it will site for a couple of days while I'm out of town. I'll bring it in again and have it load tested and see what happens.

 

One thing I think I did learn today is that a good full sleave electric jacket/linner is probably way too much for this bikes alternator. When I told this to the shop owner where we were today, he smiled and said that bikes alternator has no where near the out put needed to run that jacket and the bike.

 

I believe him. I have not checked the specs on this maurader but as dissapointing as it is, I do believe it.

 

I swaped out a honda CBX alternator for a newer one off a zx10 or something and it is way better but I think it would be a different story on this bike. Maybe not.

 

I think we are headed for the new Suzukie 1300 with the batwing fairing and sound system. She can get her feet on the ground and I think she do just fine on it. The shop owner said (do I believe him?) that bike had an alternator that should handle electric clothing.

 

Funny thing about all this is that I'm still looking for that bike that meet or lives up to the 88 venture I been riding for the last 20 years. I had my girlfriend sit on it today just so I could fantisize about her being about to comfortably handle it. She would be so happy if only her legs were a few (well maybe 6) inches longer. Funny she says that about me too. LOL

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm learning more all the time from these groups. Does anyone remember what it was like before the internet.

 

We actually had to go to rallies to learn all this stuff. God I need more time off.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Most of the 'smart chargers' measure the voltage of any battery you hook up, and if its very low, say below about 8 or 9 volts, the charger/maintainer gives up.

 

This is to protect the charger and the battery, in case you have hooked up a battery with a shorted cell or two, or something like a 6 volt battery.

 

There are some smart chargers that will try to bring up the voltage slowly, and periodically, stop charging, waits a few moments, then measures the battery again....and if it cant see any improvement, it gives up.

 

In this case, try a 'dumb charger'...like the old ones we used to use...set it for 2 amps (on a motorcycle battery)...and let it work for several hours..about 6 hours should be enough.

 

Then hook the smart charger to the battery, and let it try again.

 

You might have to do this a few times, but unless the battery is actually damaged, has shorted cells, or simply old and worn out, this might get you going again.

 

If not, time for a new battery.

 

 

[Snaggletooth]

Does anyone remember what it was like before the internet.

 

 

Yeah. It was so primitive. We'd leave a note on a friends bike with a place and time on it. We'd do the same other friends bikes.

 

We would show up and have a bonfire, drink some beers and BS all night about bikes.

 

We tried the new technology by calling on the phone but usually there was no answer. They were out riding.

 

Technology was so unreliable back then.

 

But wait,,,,,,, we still do the same thing only use the Internet to let everybody know where to be.

 

We still burn wood, drink beers and BS all night.

 

Oh yeah, we are modern men.

[saddlebum]

One thing that has not been mentioned here is that when counting on the bike alternator to recharge a battery, the more electrical stuff you connect to the bike. the more the battery has to share with eeeevvvvrrreeyboddyyyyyy.