What size extension cord do I need...
 

I need to order a battery charger, trickle charger and extension cord for my son, while he's at school.

He rarely drives (2005 Tahoe) and the battery goes dead. The garage is detached, no power in it and probably 50-75 feet from the house. The house is downtown New Haven, there is no garage door, so theft is a concern.

What advice do you have on chargers and trickle chargers? I've got a 35 year old Schumacher that has served me well.

Would this be a good charger?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009IBJCQ/ref=psdc_15707061_t1_B01KF9P5DM#Ask

Would this be a good trickle charger?
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-022-0185G-dl-wh-Charger-Maintainer/dp/B00DJ5KEEA/ref=pd_sbs_263_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BMQAE MKEDWE5VMJVTTS8


What gauge extension cord do I need? 16/2 or 12/3?

Secondary. All the step up is done inside the charger.

I would go with the 12 gauge as you may run a power saw with it.

I know 3 people that have burnt their house down with a battery charger/extension cord. One is an Ass't Fire Chief....

I have a lot of vehicles that sit in the off-season. Using caution, I charge each once per month, during the daytime when I'm around.......Their stories scare me...

This might sound a bit nuts but if he rarely drives it, why not pull the battery and charge it indoors? That or buy him a new battery?
BTW, yes on the battery tender. You could mount that one under the hood with the plug end sticking out the front somewhere and just plug in with an extension cord. I'd look at the breaker size for the plugs you're plugging into and size your cord accordingly. If you under size the extension cord you can melt the wires before the breaker pops. I'd say a 14 ga would be sufficient but a good 12 ga cord is handy for running power saws and other tools as well. Just something to consider.

Have ground fault on my garage sockets.

Still use the bigger cords and not typical lamp cords.

+1 I like those.

Side note:

My 1978 vintage Shumacher has a trip when excess amperage is pulled.

It works fine but it's 40 years old. What LakeCleElum says has merit. I would never walk away from that relic.

I do have a new big roller Schumacher that I will only set on six amps if I leave it overnight. It has 40 amp with a timer but I don't trust that much juice when I am sawing logs.

Battery tender - low draw and sophisticated shut down if required.

Yep. Twelve guage cords aren't that expensive. May as well use them. The newer maintainers are better at keeping a battery alive - so I'm told. I have three of these.

SC1272 - Schumacher Electric

How about : Battery cutoff https://www.amazon.com/Swan-Type-Battery-Cut-Off-Switch/dp/B001JE32H4 so it doesn't discharge

And a jumper pack pack for emergencies?

They self discharge. You don't need to have them connected to anything for them to go flat.

Okay, first, how long is "he rarely drives it"? I can let my 2010 sit for months and the battery has enough juice to start it. Same with the 2000 Ford it replaced. Both had remote locks, etc, the Chevy has remote start and it's not much of a draw.

Second, why not a solar battery maintainer? Better than running a cord all the time, save that for when you really need the charger.

If son can memorize radio re-enable code, if applicable, I like this too.

There may be the need for a root cause analysis. Parasitic amp draw or tired battery. This ten dollar upgrade will buy some time.

A good battery will maintain a charge for months. A not so good one - weeks. The temperature has a lot to do with it. Without the maintainer the marginal battery in my mower will crank it only if it's over 30 degrees. It will crank at 20 if I keep it on the maintainer.

Solar maintainer doesn't do much good if the vehicle is garaged.

I just noticed Costco has the 3A Battery Tender for $30. I've had two of those on my tractors for almost eight years now with perfect service. That's on a 75 foot extension cord. It's not particularly heavy duty - somewhere in between. I did use one of those solar chargers for awhile, & it worked great. In my case, it was on the front of my tractor shelter. The wind moved the cord around, and it finally fatigued & broke.

I'm guessing he drives it every few weeks. Probably more, but not very far. A trickle charger would be good here.

We got a new battery the summer of 2016, but it has randomly died sitting in the driveway at home. There must be a small draw that drains it every so often

He parks in the garage, so no solar power devices.

He has no tools, but could buy them. He's just not mechanically minded like his dad.

It's an old house. I'll have to ask him about the breakers.

There will be no power tools used.

The box , think outside..

Get a solar trickle charger.. put the panel on the roof of the garage such that the panel get the best lights exposure...

Extend the wires from the solar panel to the car....

For the love of God. A lamp extension cord will do if a three prong with a modern charger.

Why not get an eight gauge extension cord?

The chargers have internal breakers.

Ever see a 110/220 mig welder video? They don't draw squat. It's the welder that steps up the amperage.

A battery maintainer draws a tiny amount of current, a wet string would probably power it. You can use a cheap lamp cord and it will work fine if the run 12 or 15 feet, or spring for a good 12 ga cord if it's longer (I'm assuming they don't make long lamp cords). Any 15 amp fuse or breaker is more than an adequate power supply.

[QUOTE=wdfifteen;9812390]or spring for a good 12 ga cord if it's longer/QUOTE]

+1

Alternate uses down the road. They are expensive. $30-70 for good kit depending on length but the risk question is over.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm electrically impaired, but can do everything else on a car or the house.

I build all my extension cords (called "stingers" in the biz) except for the ones I swipe from the grips and the gaffers. 3 wire 12g in 10, 20 and 50' lengths with Hubbel connectors on either end. Pieces of parachute cord electrical taped to the male end to tie off the rolled up cord. Works great.

Just print this out and hang it from your mirror.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1510540610.jpg

Add a battery kill switch under the hood for him, that way all he has to do is open the hood, turn the kill switch back on and fire it up. He'd have to put up with lost radio channels though.
And yeah, if he's draining a relatively new battery in a few weeks, he's got a BIG draw.

My 928 GTS had an underhood kill switch on it when I got it. It was causing more problems than it was worth. So removed it and fixed the current draw problems and haven't looked back.

Pull the battery -

The Harbor Freight battery tender works quite well. They go on sale all the time, $4.99.

And this is a pretty good charger:

https://www.harborfreight.com/10250-amp-12v-manual-charger-with-engine-start-60653.html

Nothing above needs a special extension cord.

I would never go to the effort totake my battery out, a trickle charger takes two minutes to connect (or leave it connected and just plug it in). Do you really want to reprogram your radio each time?

Find out where the drain is coming from.
Pretty easy to do.
Disconnect the battery negative cable then put a multimeter in "amp" mode between the batt and batt cable.
That will tell you if there's a drain.
If so, reconnect the ground to the batt.
Then pull one fuse at a time and replace with the multimeter still in amp mode.
Whichever gives you a reading is the circuit that has the parasitic draw.

Remote car starter or alarm system or combination of the two.
Usually they are the top two for draw down on the battery.
You might as well get 12 gauge extension cords. Less voltage drop to the end and you can used them for other high draw uses.

The car is 13 hours away and he doesn't bring it home until next June after graduation.

We'll just have to get him by until then.

A battery maintainer and a decent extension cord is the simplest solution.

The plot thickens! :D
Battery tender mounted under the hood with the plug out the front. It easily clips on or can be wired to the battery terminal bolt easily. Plug it in and call it a day.

Good Luck!