Best battery tender for car

[bcgreen]

Originally Posted by Noah930

When I plug it back in, I don't have to push any buttons. It detects the type of battery, state of charge, and just does its thing. So no experience with power outages, but I would think that wouldn't be a problem.

Okay, that's what I need, thanks.

[fintstone]

All 6 of my CTEK 7002 units do that just fine. We lose power often.

[SCadaddle]

The little Viking 4 amp charger I have from the local Harbor Freight is about $39 and less if you catch it on sale and it remembers the last charge settings and automatically does it's job on a power up power down power up cycle.

[aigel]

Battery tender. Had this for the 993 for about 8 years after installing the odyssey battery. No issues with switching power on / off in an outage or otherwise. Simple and small. I have it plugged into the ceiling outlet and the wire comes down straight under the hood.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0123-Junior-Charger/dp/B000CITK8S/ref=asc_df_B000CITK8S/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198093653755&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18305099896239954961&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032032&hvtargid=pla-370669784302&psc=1

[look 171]

Originally Posted by aigel

Battery tender. Had this for the 993 for about 8 years after installing the odyssey battery. No issues with switching power on / off in an outage or otherwise. Simple and small. I have it plugged into the ceiling outlet and the wire comes down straight under the hood.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0123-Junior-Charger/dp/B000CITK8S/ref=asc_df_B000CITK8S/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198093653755&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18305099896239954961&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032032&hvtargid=pla-370669784302&psc=1

George, I hear those go bad from various people who own them. I have 4 and they seem to work flawlessly. My oldest one is about 15 years old. Hey man, if you drove that 993 more often, you wouldn't such device

[bcgreen]

Great choices

[aigel]

Originally Posted by look 171

George, I hear those go bad from various people who own them. I have 4 and they seem to work flawlessly. My oldest one is about 15 years old. Hey man, if you drove that 993 more often, you wouldn't such device

Haha! LOOK WHO IS TALKING! I have a new job and can drive in over lunch and back after traffic dies down, so I am driving it a lot more than I used to, actually, at least 1x / week, so the charger is mostly unplugged. I do like it with the odyssey which definitely doesn't have the same capacity as stock. You do not want to battery to go dead and reset the computer on a 993. It will take forever for the OBD2 codes to set.

Interesting to hear that others have poor reliability with the battery tenders??? They used to be the go-to brand. Checking the amazon review, it has a full 5 star total rating with 37k (!) reviewers and only 2% came back at 1 star. I'd challenge the Harbor Freight model against that kind of reputation.

[bcgreen]

Originally Posted by aigel

Haha! LOOK WHO IS TALKING! I have a new job and can drive in over lunch and back after traffic dies down, so I am driving it a lot more than I used to, actually, at least 1x / week, so the charger is mostly unplugged. I do like it with the odyssey which definitely doesn't have the same capacity as stock. You do not want to battery to go dead and reset the computer on a 993. It will take forever for the OBD2 codes to set.

Interesting to hear that others have poor reliability with the battery tenders??? They used to be the go-to brand. Checking the amazon review, it has a full 5 star total rating with 37k (!) reviewers and only 2% came back at 1 star. I'd challenge the Harbor Freight model against that kind of reputation.

So you'd take that the Battery Tender over the Viking from HF?

[aigel]

Yes … I have zero experience with the HF model. I have very good experience with the battery tender. (I also have it on my motorcycle for several years).

[KFC911]

I used three BT chargers on my bass boat's Blue Optimas for years with no problems. But Optimas aren't what they used to be either... so YMMV.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by bcgreen

So you'd take that the Battery Tender over the Viking from HF?

I say all day long, 9 days 'til Sunday. None of mine have issues.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by KC911

I used three BT chargers on my bass boat's Blue Optimas for years with no problems. But Optimas aren't what they used to be either... so YMMV.

I wouldn't buy that POS again. I have more then several Red and Yellow tops over the past 10 years. All went within 2 years. Some on tenders some on my daily.

Ended up with a Exide AGM in my 4 runner 6 years ago. I can hear slowing last when I cranked it up in cold. I am sure I can get another year out of it but decided to get a new one to avoid seeing my tow truck driver.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by aigel

Haha! LOOK WHO IS TALKING! I have a new job and can drive in over lunch and back after traffic dies down, so I am driving it a lot more than I used to, actually, at least 1x / week, so the charger is mostly unplugged. I do like it with the odyssey which definitely doesn't have the same capacity as stock. You do not want to battery to go dead and reset the computer on a 993. It will take forever for the OBD2 codes to set.

Interesting to hear that others have poor reliability with the battery tenders??? They used to be the go-to brand. Checking the amazon review, it has a full 5 star total rating with 37k (!) reviewers and only 2% came back at 1 star. I'd challenge the Harbor Freight model against that kind of reputation.

I drove ine exactly 3 times this year. I have a Cayman S as my daily beater. With PDK, that thing is fun and fast. Fast enough for me

[rfuerst911sc]

So I am needing to purchase a few battery chargers/maintainers for my fleet of vehicles . Four cars/trucks , a boat and a diesel garden tractor . I currently have an old Sears charger , a Schumacher charger and two Battery Tender brand .

The Sears and Schumacher are more big gun chargers for when batteries are dead . And the Schumacher seems to be very picky about when it wants to work ☹️ . I received a Amazon gift card for Christmas and would like to purchase there .

Searching their site they have tons of brands . Regardless of brand or price it seems they all have a decent share of 1 star reviews . Many saying they crapped out after a month or two . So any recommendations on a 1-2 amp trickle charger maintainer that you guys have been happy with ?

My Battery Tender chargers have been great for years but they have similar negative reviews . Maybe everyone's quality is hit or miss ? I mainly looking to keep batteries " topped off " . Thanks

[herr_oberst]

I have these on each of my cars. Like you said, there are so many chinesium brands now. I picked this one based on a Project Farm review of a similar product.

So far, so good.

[fintstone]

I use this CTEK. I have 6 of these in use (including one on my riding mower) and the two accessories for each below (it comes with other accessories). I have used these for many years and have never had one fail (nor had a battery go bad) since I have been using them. They are a little pricey. At first, I just used one but bought additional connectors for each car and rotated them, but over time, I added units when on sale or when someone gave me an Amazon Gift card or there was a really good deal on EBay. There are quite a few other accessories you can buy if wanted. They are the only ones I have tried.

[aschen]

I had a battery tender brand die in a year or two. Bought a couple really cheap black and decker battery maintainers They were 20$ at the time but I see they are 30 now. Anyways they have both worked fine in continual use for about 5 years.

They wont charge a super dead battery though, need an old school charger like you have, or a 12v power supply to get them up to a few volts state of charge.

[908/930]

I was looking into this a couple weeks ago to replace my old charger, ended up picking up a Noco 5A for home. I have a smaller Noco 2A on my boat and it has been on there for about 5 years.

[911 Rod]

I'd be a leery of a cheap one. It could either burn up or take out your battery.
I have a CTEK.

[hbueno]

I've been using BatteryMinder (http://batteryminders.com) for the last few years. It works as advertised, highly recommended.