Battery tender problems?

[drrod]

There is a thread going on over on the Stromtrooper sight regarding problems with various "battery tenders".
http://www.stromtrooper.com/general-v-strom-discussion/78376-walmart-battery-boiler.html
I have both the Schumacher and Battery tender brands and have the bikes hooked up to them constantly during riding season as well as when they are stored over winter. I have not had any issues.
Reading the thread has kinda spooked me.
Have I just been lucky? Should I put them on a timer to only run a few hours per day? Or are these just rather isolated instances?


Thoughts from the electric gurus?

Rod

 

[T_C]

I have boiled cells in a battery even just using one of the little 150ma float chargers.

When it is time to go, it's the time to go.

Not to say you couldn't get a charger to run amuck, but I bet it's pretty few and far between.
Much better odds the tender will do more harm then good.

 

[st1300r]

LOL any time anybody posts I have a problem with x the most likely responses are crickets from the vast majority that don't have the issue or "me too" IOW it's tough to get a sense of the true failure rate.

Battery tender and jr. model are ok for agm batteries.
The ones that bulk charge, top off, and maintain can be left hooked up. You could leave it hooked up for a month. Unhook it for a few days then repeat for winter storage.

Car chargers 5 10 20 amps could be used to get you going if your dead in the water but ain't what you want for maintaining a battery.

Trickel or taper charges are another animal. I'd put a timer on them after I made sure they didn't put a load on the battery when they're unplugged.

 

[drrod]

The ones I use are the "maintainer" types. I have Battery Tender jr. and schumachers for my bikes and 3 larger ones for my cages. So far they seem to have worked as advertised. What got me wondering was the failure rate of some of the cheaper models (eg. Schumacher) of which I have 2. I guess it is like most things......you only hear of the bad ones which are in the very small minority. It has been a bad year for me and batteries. 1 bike and 2 cages so far, but I am pretty sure they were all due to age. Sooner spend my money on gas and tires.

Rod

 

[the_gr8t_waldo]

last winter i came home to find my BT in fault mode and hot to the touch!..of course the battery was shot, but more frightening was the fact that this was while i was away for weeks! i will have it on a timer next time!!

 

[T_C]

i will have it on a timer next time!!

yeah.. be careful with that. Like Carl mentions, some chargers will discharge a battery if left plugged in and un-powered.

 

[DeanR]

Two bikes on Battery Tender Jr. all the time, all year. Never a problem.

 

[T_C]

Turn the Yussa up side down and it says MADE IN CHINA.

Umm.. with a name like GS Yuasa Corporation (株式会社ジーエス・ユアサ コーポレーション Kabushiki-gaisha GS Yuasa Kōporēshon, were you thinking it was made in Canada?

 

[pops13]

Another post from the crickets-2 bikes on Battery Tender Jr. for 4+ years, no problems. dg

 

[the_gr8t_waldo]

tc, that's the battery tender on a timer! with a timer the power to the tb. is in effect connects the charger and after a reasonable amount of time (ramp up for internal diagonistics then maintance charging this would be about 30minuets or so)disconnects it for say two days or so. then back on for the 30m again. not fool proof but way better than simply plugging a tb and forgetting...don'tchthink?

 

[T_C]

So you are putting the timer on the connection between the Tender and the battery? Well that would solve the reverse flow problem when the Tender is un-powered. But if it's gonna boil the battery, it'll do it just as easy 1 day on and two days off as it will three days in a row. half an hour cycle? ehh... who knows. But I have had flooded cell batteries that will start boiling within minutes of being hooked up. Again, time to go is time to go.

Each to their own opinion. But I prefer to leave mine plugged in all the time. I have a multitude of chargers around the house for lead acid batteries. I don't hesitate to plug in any one of them and walk away for days. I figure if a tender will boil a battery, then it was time for the battery too go. Now the little 6 amphr battery on the push mower or the 8 amphr on the generator don't get hooked up for days on end. But I have left each on a float charger for a week or more at a time and no ill effects. The car, the riding mower and the deep cycle battery I take to the cabin all sit on a tender of one type or another, some even the Harbor Freight specials.

But as each of my lead batteries die.. it is getting replaced with LiFe. My weekend trips to the cabin I can either drag a 57 pound group 27 deep cycle, or 5 pounds of LiFe. I am praying for the deep-cycle to die, but I keep taking care of it and it's probably still got 5 more years of life. Arrgghhhh!
Now if I was headed out of town for months on end, I'd be disconnecting the batteries and getting them in the basement or somewhere the temperature stays above freezing.

 

[NorCalBusa]

Its fine to leave a Battery Tender plugged in all the time. Its a good product.

For about the same money, if you want the latest/greatest, get a Noco Genius Charger*. True charging and maintaining algorithms, settings for various types of batteries (AGM charges differently than flooded), true analysis of THAT battery to which it is connected.

* http://www.geniuschargers.com/

 

[BuddingGeezer]

Most maintainer/float chargers are designed to go into float mode somewhere around 13.1 or more volts. If the battery is a little weak and can not get it's voltage to where the battery charger will shut off, it boils the battery dry. Usually it's the battery that causes the charger to boil the battery, not the charger.