Trickle charger or Battery Tender

You want a battery tender. A trickle charger will give a continuous small charge to the battery...once fully charged it will overcharge and boil out the electrolyte. A battery tender will sense the full charge status, and stop charging...it goes into a "float mode" and will begin charging again, if the voltage drops below a predetermined amount. There are many brands and types of battery tenders, just find one that says "battery tender" or "microprocessor controlled" or "fully automatic". Something between 1 and 1.5 amps is sufficient (surprisingly, bigger is not necessarily better...I can put my fully automatic 2-15 amp charger on my battery and reach "full charge" indication pretty quickly, then attach my 1.5amp battery tender, and it will continue to charge it for another hour or two more to top it off). Walmart has a nice looking unit and only cost like $20 or $25...I forget the exact price, but it was very reasonable.

Many of us use the Deltran battery tender, they sell for $50 to $60 but can be purchased online here for cheap:
http://tinyurl.com/yb38px

Personally, I'd get the Walmart one...they all basically do the same thing. For convenience, I would recommend buying a cigarette lighter adapter from Radio Shack, and add another 8 feet of 18 ga cord on it...makes connecting it up easier through the cig lighter (just close your door on the cord, it is not a problem), than using the pigtail you attach directly to the battery then thread into the trunk. Because then you have to open the trunk each time to make up the connection. Also, using the cig lighter, you will never drive off with the thing connected.

 

My baby is on a Tender... works like magic.

 

Battery Tender, end of discussion. They do the job without any problems.

 

You can look at an Interstate unit also, Mike.

Local auto parts store will have it.

BTW, what are you going to "warm once a week"?

The battery tender or the car?

 

Battery Tender - got mine at Pep Boys.
It's a miracle cure for nearly all Mondial electrical weirdness

 

Simply unhook the battery until you need to start the car. Takes less time to disconnect the (-) cable than it does to mess with a trickle charger everytime.

In CA the battery wont freeze if left in the car and if it's actually in storage, why leave any power on and have potential for things to go wrong.

The battery wont go dead (unhooked) in a week or two and will get recharged if you drive it every other week or even bring the car up to temp periodically.

For storage in WI I pull the battery from the car throw it in the basment for 6 months & when I pull it out it still has the power to crank/start the car.

 

Could that be from all the cheese in Wisconsin?

You don't have happy cows, however!

 

One reason not to unhook the battery is that you then have to reset the clock and radio presets each time (and the clock function on the radio too).

 

You can also get some inline connectors (make sure they're rated for the current). That way, you can connect either the battery terminal clamps or the cig lighter plug to the tender.

Now if I could work out the docking system that connects up the tender as you pull into the garage ...

(I used to joke about getting those NASA LEM docking targets for putting three cars in an oversized single garage at the last condo. )

 

A bad side effect to disconnecting the battery will be that if the ECU for your vehicle does any 'learning' and stores engine data within the prom, all that memory will be lost. Each time you go for a drive it will take about 15 minutes for the car to 'relearn' for optimum performance. Here is a inexpensive battery tender that works well for my Lotus (and its quirky Lucas electronics):

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292

 

I beleive a Battery Tender is a trickle charger. It is just a brand name of a good company.

Here is the one I use:

http://batterytender.com/product_info.php?products_id=36

 

Battery Tender is both a brand and a description. I think the best way to differentiate the types is that "trickle chargers" are "dumb"...they give the battery a contant charge, even though small "a trickle..."...where as a "battery tender" is "smart" and knows when the battery has reached full charge and stops charging, until the voltage drops low enough to require charging again. Here is the relevant description from the Battery Tender sales literature:

"Coupled with a brain (IC chip), the charger will constantly monitor, charge, and then maintain your battery"

So Battery Tender, Microprocessor controlled or "smart charger" is good....."Trickle Charger" is BAD!

 

BTW, that one is pretty small (800 milliamps) and usually used for motorcycles and snow machines. Will work for a car battery, but could take a loooooooong time to top up a partially discharged car battery. For maintanence charging it should be just fine though.

 

Mine is a Battery Tender Junior, only 750 ma. but works fine.

 

It has more power then the Jr. and is total enclosed, meaning safer in wet environments. I don't need a full charger because I already own one. This is for keeping the battery in great condition, not recharging. Though I've used it to bring a battery back to full charge after jumping a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

I'd rather have a small unit like this on my car then a full charger.

Further, this is what Deltran recommended to me. It worked so well I bought two more.

 

The car battery also helps keep the charge in the alarm/security system so if your car gets stolen you may not have a working alarm or tracker system.

Once the insurance company hears your car was parked with no alarm system that can often stom them paying out to cover loss.

 

Your "baby" is one of the best 348's out there too! Sorry pap, I'm a sucker for a black car!

 

I have a Schumacher battery charger. http://store.schumachermart.com/sc-1200a.html I like it because is does both charge and maintain the battery. It has three different types of amp charging 2/8/12, so if you want to charge the battery fast it can. Also once the battery it at full charge it will stop, and then turn on if the voltage falls below 13.0, well that's what I have noticed anyway. I use it if I'm not gonna drive the car for a couple of days, because these stupid cars love to drain batteries. Now if I'm going to let the car sit for longer than a week then I just disconnect the battery altogether.