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Old 10-21-2020, 11:38 PM   #21
Kurt in NJ
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

I have a question for people that use battery tenders--how long do your batterys last?
When I passed the tent selling batterys and tenders I was told a tender would double my battery life.
My reply was really--it will make my battery last 30 years ? (at the time the optima was 15 years old)
---Oh no, it will double it to 5-7 years
So with regular batterys I got 7-9 years, the optima lasted 16, a 10 year old Mercedes battery that I cut in 1/2 to make it 6V lasted 4 more. I do have a high charge rate(14amps), drive a lot at night, have halogen bulbs, don't do anything even parked for 6 months ---so what do you think, will a battery tender double my battery life, make the car faster, start quicker, more reliable?
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Old 10-23-2020, 05:21 AM   #22
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ View Post
I have a question for people that use battery tenders--how long do your batterys last?
When I passed the tent selling batterys and tenders I was told a tender would double my battery life.
My reply was really--it will make my battery last 30 years ? (at the time the optima was 15 years old)
---Oh no, it will double it to 5-7 years
So with regular batterys I got 7-9 years, the optima lasted 16, a 10 year old Mercedes battery that I cut in 1/2 to make it 6V lasted 4 more. I do have a high charge rate(14amps), drive a lot at night, have halogen bulbs, don't do anything even parked for 6 months ---so what do you think, will a battery tender double my battery life, make the car faster, start quicker, more reliable?

Damn Kurt, that is some serious tender hate.


I don't know about batteries but tenders make my chicken taste better for sure.
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Old 10-23-2020, 07:36 AM   #23
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

I have a NOCO & an E-Tek......I love the NOCO as it has the ability to select both voltage and battery type. I bought the E-tek on a friends recomendation and it says it charges batteries 5V-12V. It is the charger/tender you get when you buy a new Ferrari. I hooked it to the 6V battery in my Merc and a day later I had some kind of weird symbol pop up SO I have to read up on what that meant.....BUT for now it works wonders on a 12V battery!!!! I'll keep you posted on 6V and what I find out
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Old 10-24-2020, 11:30 AM   #24
1948F-1Pickup
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

Gee, another battery tender thread. Imagine that. Seems like I just responded yesterday....

Anyway here's my generic response-
"Any battery will go bad just sitting there...... hooked up or not...... current draw or not. That's the nature of the beast. I worked for Douglas Battery and Delco (Delphi). Wrote warranty and did plenty of battery autopsies. You hear a lot of stuff about batteries, that's for sure.
On two cars that are literally never driven, I have maintainers. A Genius G750 on one car and a Battery Tender (not sure which model) on the other.
The argument would be that the cars should actually be driven but with 5 others in constant rotation, we have plenty of wheels for the two drivers in the house."

How long do my batteries last? Flooded style, in a car in use, seem to go about 7 years. Current day Optimas, about the same. In an un-driven car....
an Optima (not even hooked up) they seem to have a shelf life of 5 years until totally dead and not capable of being resuscitated.
The two cars that have the battery maintainers have only had them for a couple of years, so too early for any conclusions.

Last edited by 1948F-1Pickup; 10-24-2020 at 02:34 PM.
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Old 10-27-2020, 11:35 AM   #25
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

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Originally Posted by 50fordcoupeman View Post
Friends car was burned badly by a tender that went bad. Luckily a circuit breaker did its job before his shop caught on fire too, I need educated here-why does a person need a tender? I have seven batts and they have all been fine in the spring after a 4 or 5 month siesta.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ View Post
I have a question for people that use battery tenders--how long do your batterys last?
When I passed the tent selling batterys and tenders I was told a tender would double my battery life.
My reply was really--it will make my battery last 30 years ? (at the time the optima was 15 years old)
---Oh no, it will double it to 5-7 years
So with regular batterys I got 7-9 years, the optima lasted 16, a 10 year old Mercedes battery that I cut in 1/2 to make it 6V lasted 4 more. I do have a high charge rate(14amps), drive a lot at night, have halogen bulbs, don't do anything even parked for 6 months ---so what do you think, will a battery tender double my battery life, make the car faster, start quicker, more reliable?
I have a few cars with electric clocks, and after a month of sitting even in the summer the battery wouldn't crank the car. They would always take a charge and be fine, but that's why I started using battery tenders almost twenty years ago. Disconnecting the battery when I wasn't using it would help, but it would still lose a charge over the winter.

As for battery life, I had a battery I bought in October 2006 that needed to be replaced September 2017, and another I bought in March 2006 that I replaced in May 2019. That one still started the flathead just fine, but it failed a load test and I didn't want it to leave me stranded. I have an optima I purchased in 2009 that is still on a tender and going strong.

I don't know about you, but I never got well over eleven years out of all of my batteries before using the battery tenders. And I never have to wonder if my car will start when I want to take it out. If you don't see the value in that, don't buy one.
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Old 10-27-2020, 03:45 PM   #26
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I use NOCO Genuis chargers they are great
I bought this one from Chucks Trucks in CT . It works fast and well.
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Old 10-27-2020, 06:36 PM   #27
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

Second the positive NOCO review
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Old 10-27-2020, 06:44 PM   #28
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

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Originally Posted by Automotive Stud View Post
I have a few cars with electric clocks, and after a month of sitting even in the summer the battery wouldn't crank the car. They would always take a charge and be fine, but that's why I started using battery tenders almost twenty years ago. Disconnecting the battery when I wasn't using it would help, but it would still lose a charge over the winter.

As for battery life, I had a battery I bought in October 2006 that needed to be replaced September 2017, and another I bought in March 2006 that I replaced in May 2019. That one still started the flathead just fine, but it failed a load test and I didn't want it to leave me stranded. I have an optima I purchased in 2009 that is still on a tender and going strong.

I don't know about you, but I never got well over eleven years out of all of my batteries before using the battery tenders. And I never have to wonder if my car will start when I want to take it out. If you don't see the value in that, don't buy one.
Thank you for your reply. I was just asking is all. I use a battery shut off on all of my old stuff so running down a battery is not an issue. My only exp with a tender is my friends burned up car so was just asking. Nothing asked nothing learned!!
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Old 10-28-2020, 06:58 AM   #29
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Originally Posted by Jacques1960 View Post
I use a NOCO, expensive, but it has a 6v AGM setting
My favourite
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Old 10-29-2020, 08:37 AM   #30
Automotive Stud
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

Quote:
Originally Posted by 50fordcoupeman View Post
Thank you for your reply. I was just asking is all. I use a battery shut off on all of my old stuff so running down a battery is not an issue. My only exp with a tender is my friends burned up car so was just asking. Nothing asked nothing learned!!
No worries. I guess anything can happen, I have my battery tender plugged into a surge protector. I've had my building hit by lightning before and I have one of those big 4 gang tenders. Hopefully that will protect it and the cars if something happens.

Last edited by Automotive Stud; 10-29-2020 at 08:43 AM.
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Old 10-30-2020, 02:05 AM   #31
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

Just pulled both of my old 6v optima batteries out for another winter to be charged once and put on a shelf till spring when I will charge them once more for the summer. Going on 11 and 14 yrs. I disconnect the batteries in summer when not driving. Never tend them. But I use 30w oil too.

Last edited by Tinker; 10-30-2020 at 03:21 AM.
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Old 11-01-2020, 01:43 PM   #32
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

I take my regular batteries out for the winter and put them in my cellar(cool dry place), charge it full and leave it until Spring, I’ve had no issues with my 2-6 volt batteries or the riding lawn mowers 12 volt battery. The only Optima is in my wife’s daily driver so I can’t comment on it.
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Old 11-02-2020, 07:26 AM   #33
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Default Re: Battery Tenders

I have an old Chevy coupe that I redid and put on the road in 2004. I had put in a Costco battery and a green knob disconnect on the ground post. The car sits in an unheated garage over the winter. No charger, no tender, no nuthin. This spring, before I got the car out of storage, I went back to Costco and bought a new battery expecting that the old one would be dead but it roared to life on the old one. I'm thinking of putting the new one in before I put it in storage.
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