Trickle or float charger?

[MotoSook]

I AM NOT AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER. There! And I hated EE lab when I was in school...and don't get me all wound up talking about opt-amps and crap like that!

So! What's the difference between the various battery tenders out there and a simple float charger (min. amps at max. voltage)?

[Wil Ferch]

Not too sure I fully understand your question, but here goes...

A trickle charger is just that...it "trickles" a small amount of charge to "top-off" a good battery going into storage mode ( or a car not used very much).

A "chipped" battery tender does the same thing. but is smart enough to turn itself on/off repeatedly. The standard trickle charger won't do that. You need to keep an "eye" on it so that it won't overcharge your battery.

OK?

- Wil

[89911]

Trickle chargers are low voltage chargers that are generally cheaper then a full fledged higher output charger that can recharge a battery in a few hours from a dead charge. Most trickle chargers float the full charge when the battery reaches the desired voltage over 12 volts. When this voltage drops below this amount if kicks in again to reach this level. Trickle chargers are generally not used to charge a dead battery, you need a minimal amount of voltage to trip the float charge. A trickle charger that is not a floating type should not be used over a longer period of time on an unwatched car since it may overcharge the battery.

[MotoSook]

I think that answers it Wil. I bought a cheapo charger (float) that puts a constant 12.5volts to the battery at minimum amperage....so it's not smart enough to turn itself off. But it should work for waht i need it for....I walk by the batteries 2+ times a day.

Thanks.

[RickM]

Straight from Deltran corp, the makers of the Battetry Tender:

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

The Battery Tender Plus battery charger delivers 1.25 amperes during bulk charge mode, holds the battery charge voltage constant at 14.4 VDC during absorption charge mode until the battery charge current drops to 0.1 amperes at which time it then automatically switches to a float charge mode. During float charge mode, the output voltage of the Battery Tender Plus battery charger is 13.2 VDC, which is well below the gassing voltage of a lead acid battery. This keeps the battery topped off, while minimizing any detrimental effects to do gassing. The Battery Tender Plus battery charger is able to perform these complex switching functions because its electronic circuitry is controlled by an on board microprocessor.
Although they often appear to be a better economic choice for the typical consumer, trickle chargers do not have the advantage of sophisticated electronic control. Therefore, as they allow the value of charge current to trickle down to what appears to be safe levels, the output voltage of the charger rises well above 15 VDC, sometimes even going higher that 16 VDC depending on the charger type and the battery that is connected to it. Either voltage is well above the gassing voltage of a lead acid battery. If the battery remains connected to this high level of voltage for an extended period of time, even less than 1 day, extreme damage can be done to the battery. What appears to be a cost savings for the charger may actually cost several times the charger price in replacement batteries."

[Wil Ferch]

The "computer-chipped" battery tenders go for little money nowadays. Schumacher, Battery Tender are some brand names. I bought my Schumacher clone ( identical ! ) from Walmart for $28.

- Wil

[MotoSook]

LOL...you gotta love Harbor Freight. The box says 12.5 volts at minimum amps, and the instructions inside says 15.5 volts at minimum amps for the float charger I got for $5.00.

Oh well.

I do have a big charger that I use when I need to charge a battery say in a few hours or overnight. So the float charger is what I need..so it seems. With 5 or 6 vehicles hibernating for the winter, I can just line the batteries up on my work bench with both chargers near by so I can rotate them as need. That's my "smart" charger set up

[greglepore]

Souk-I kept the Duc on a HF float charger all of last winter-I have 3 of them on various cars, all of which had nada battery problems (other than the one where the HF transformer died and the battery discharged-check the little led when you walk by).

[RickM]

Souk, Battery Tender makes a unit that can charge several batteries at once. You can also maintain several similar batteries with a "one vehicle" unit if they are hooked up in parallel.

[MotoSook]

Cool. Thanks Greg.

[wcc]

Yes, I have 4 HF ones and one battery tender. There has never been any difference in battery performance between the two. The HF one I got it at the local store and it was on sale for about $5.00.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=42292

Ya Gotta Love HF!

[RoninLB]

john_cramer posted this site a few days ago. Scan the info.

http://batterytender.com/deltran_europe.php

[88 Club Sport]

I'm with you Souk..... I have four Harbor Freight chargers that I have plugged into a strip. Two for the 911's, two for the bikes.

To avoid overcharge, I turn power to the strip on and off during the the week. Since the memory fails me, I'll hit the timer on the oven for 6 hrs or so to remind me

[wcc]

If you get HF item number: 42292 all you need to do is plug it in and forget it. It has the auto shut off.

[MotoSook]

Originally posted by RickM
Souk, ...You can also maintain several similar batteries with a "one vehicle" unit if they are hooked up in parallel.

Oh no..lets not go there...me and electrons have been fueding since I rigged up a flashlight light bulb to a 120VAC outlet when I was 9 yrs old! I'm not going to venture into connecting batteries together

[MotoSook]

Originally posted by wcc
If you get HF item number: 42292 all you need to do is plug it in and forget it. It has the auto shut off.

Yep..that's what I have. I think I'll go by the local store and pick up a few more for the $4.99 price. I was in there before Xmas and they had hundreds of them on a table....

[RickM]

Originally posted by Souk
Oh no..lets not go there...me and electrons have been fueding since I rigged up a flashlight light bulb to a 120VAC outlet when I was 9 yrs old! I'm not going to venture into connecting batteries together

I beat you to it. At 5 I figured out how to defeat the turn-n-plug child proof outlets. All it took was a hair pin.

At nine I had the TV set apart....can you say devil child.

BTW, those HF maintainers are at a damn good price. Any electronics gurus want to do a side-by-side comparison?

[greglepore]

Quick tip- with mine, on the cars where the lighter works and is "hot" all of time, I put a Radio Shack lighter plug on the HF unit in place of the gator clips-much easier to install/remove. On the cars without (and the bikes) I used two leads w/ insulated spades set up in a polarized fashion (for me, female neg on vehicle side, so I can unplug and go.

[Grady Clay]

I did an engineering study about battery charging for GE when I was an undergrad. For a lead-acid battery (fork lift application) the best was a circuit that simply monitored the voltage and when it dropped below a certain threshold, the battery got a relatively high amp single pulse of current. The circuit then went back into its monitoring mode. This was in the early ‘60s and few consumer items had transistors, no one knew of ICs and a microprocessor was a dream.

I think I still have a prototype here somewhere.

We will have to put together a little EE lab for Souk. Hehe.

Best,
Grady

[MotoSook]

Rick...I forgot are you an EE? Ok you got me, but I think those electrons really have it out for me though.

Grady...you'll have to have a big pot of coffee waiting for me in class. Being around bread boards, resistors and capacitors makes me narcoleptic