battery tender/maintainer recommendations

sunliner

Original poster
Member
Mar 25, 2012
365
hey guys... my trailblazer is only being driven every few days for the last few months, and for probably the next 6 months or so until my son starts driving it full time. not enough to keep the battery charged up. looking at maintainers/tenders, I see a wide variety of types and prices. any recommendations? As usual...I don't want to spend more than I need to but don't want to buy junk either
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
Yup. Battery Tender is the best known and is probably the best. I have a Jr. that works well on my sled batteries in the off-season. Don't buy the cheap ones that don't regulate well as they will cook the battery, even at low amperage.

Or just disconnect the battery. That's what I do with my Caprice when I put it in storage all winter and and starts right up in the spring.
 

Reprise

Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Jul 22, 2015
2,724
I use a 'jr.' on my 2 x 6V batts that I use for my trailer. They're a 3-stage, AFAIK (the very best will be 4-stage (desulfation mode)) That said, 3-stage is fine for the Jr., for what I use it for, and prolly fine for you, too.

Just keep in mind that the jr charges at a lower rate (my 6v model is something like 500 milliamp, iirc). If your battery is low, you may be waiting 2-5 days for the light to go solid green (maintenance mode / trickle). But it'll get there...eventually. And when I checked the water level the other day after about a month, it was fine (which, at that low load, I'd expect, frankly!)

The 'Genius' chargers look promising (nice featureset), but they're spendy - and geared more toward quicker charging / starting.

I have a 4-stage Schumacher for my 12v. It'll act as a maintainer, and can handle my deep-cycle trailer batts, but it's a dedicated 12v. It also is acting goofy (mostly display, but I can't trust it to leave alone, long-term), and since it's an occasional use charger, I can't recommend them any longer. That's why I got the 6v Junior, instead of hooking up the trailer batts in series and letting the Schumacher handle them.

Now - with all of that said... if you fully charge the battery, and simply disconnect it, as Moose said - that might work for you. But - I'd put a charger back on it for an hour or so before using it to start the truck again, so as not to potentially tax the alternator.
 
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Redbeard

Member
Jan 26, 2013
3,466
As a side note you might like to add stabil to your gasoline. If you aren't keeping the engine running enough to keep a battery charged the gas can go stale. Stabil will keep your gasoline from gumming up both in the tank and injectors and causing high dollar problems. And after pouring some into your tank let the engine run a few minutes so the stabil can make it all through the fuel system.
just my 2¢
in over 30 years of using stabil I haven't needed, not even once, to clean or rebuild any carburetors on my lawn mowers or weed wackers .
 
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cornchip

Member
Jan 6, 2013
637
I have deep cycle, automotive and very small 12v motorcycle/lawn tractor batteries. The only charger that was smart enough to not cook the small ones and still be useful maintaining on the larger ones was made by NOCO. It's hands down my handiest charger and is reasonably inexpensive to boot.

NOCO-Genius-G3500-6V-12V-Ultrasafe-Smart-Battery-Charger-with-Integrated-eyelet-connector_1.jpg


LINK
 
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northcreek

Member
Jan 15, 2012
3,310
WNY
I have a bunch of these and they do a great job and unlike some are quiet. They come with many different pigtails/clips so you can cover all types of hook-ups.
s-l640.jpg

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Schumacher Battery Charger / Maintainer SP1286
 
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Chickenhawk

Member
Dec 6, 2011
779
I have the Noco g3500, and wasn't really a big fan at first. They need a certain voltage to start charging, so if the battery is really flat, you almost have to use an old school charger to get them going. There is a "cold battery" setting though, so that seemed to work okay. The other problem I had is that I left one on my wife's Trailblazer that went three weeks without running, and it would only charge to 50% even after three days on the charger. When I tested the voltage, it was 10.5 volts.

That told me that a cell was dead. I was ready to return the battery to the store because it was a year old, but I thought I would try to repair mode first. It's designed for sulfated batteries, but I thought it was worth a try. It took six days of charging, but it eventually reenergized the dead cell, and now it works perfectly. So now I am really liking this charger. Problem batteries will take a LOT of time, but it does seem to work and there is a maintainer function on them.

Obviously, the charger is smarter than I am ... which is not that unusual because my smart watch is smarter than me; my phone is smarter than me, and the Atari computer I had in the early 1980s is smarter than me.
 

TJBaker57

Member
Aug 16, 2015
2,897
Colorado
About 6 months ago I purchase both a Schumacher battery monitor (about $20) and a smart charger (about $60). Both devices connect to wifi and with an app I can connect and see the current (no pun intended) status. It would be a major improvement to the app if they would add a timestamp and history as well as alerts to the app. But I am a gadget guy and I like these toys anyway.
 

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