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Battery Tender not tending very well

  • Thread starter Thread starter brownford
  • Start date Start date
B

brownford

Guest
2 years ago I bought a new AGM battery for my newly acquired GK and a Deltran Battery Tender to keep it charged up during the off season. Last week when I found out my bike wasn't charging as it should I hooked the Deltran charger up and left it for a few days. I checked with a volt meter today with the charger hooked up then without and it was only showing 11.8 volts either way. I hook up my big charger and set it to 2 amps leave it for a couple hours and the battery by itself now shows 13 volts. I guess my brand new Battery Tender is junk or am I missing something?
 
Charging a battery to 13v constantly will eventually kill it. Maybe that tender is smart and is just gradually bringing it up and then depleting it a bit kind of like cycling it on and off. You could have caught it during an off cycle.

I have one that will charge to 14.4 and then allow the battery to drop to 13.5 and then kick in again, It does that for 3 hours and then it stops charging and allows the battery to drop to 12.7 and then starts making a high frequency clicking noise and maintains 12.7v indefinitly.


Just a thought.

Try it on another battery to see if it starts charging right away.
 
Cheap ones do !! Nothing more than a transformer, a diode and a few resistors.
High quality ones behave better. Not perfect mind you but at least don't boil out a battery slowly over time.
 
Battery Tender

Battery Tender

Here's the one I use...works Great!



Ed
 
Mekanix said:
http://batterytender.com/includes/languages/english/resources/Trouble_Shooting_BT_Plus.pdf
Click to expand...

Quote:
Note: After the battery becomes approximately 75% to 80% recharged, the Battery Tender Plus will go into the absorption mode.
At this time the GREEN LED FLASHES & RED LED remains ON SOLID. After a period of time, possibly as long as 8 hours, it will
go into float / maintenance, storage mode. The RED LED turns OFF & the GREEN LED stays ON SOLID

Obviously mine isn't working correctly as I have NEVER seen the green light on solid, it is always blinking. I guess I should have read the directions a couple of years ago. Too late to return it now.
 
I like the BATTERY COMPANION. Got mine many years ago from Meijers and its still going strong. Was like 25 or 30 bucks though. Slow trickle charge and automatically goes into cycle of charge and maintain once the battery is fully charged.
 
Or you could just charge them once or twice a winter and have them last for years and years and years.
 
You can't sell me one at any voltage, I don't use them. My batteries last much longer without any trickling.
 
Keeping them topped off and a trickler has always made mine last very long times. Had one on the 98 Honda Shadow go for 7 years till finally conking out.
 
Keeping them up by charging a few times each winter does it better.

Riding them every few days does too.
 
tkent02 said:
Or you could just charge them once or twice a winter and have them last for years and years and years.
Click to expand...

I won't argue that you can make a battery last years with diligence. My last one went about 8 years with nothing but the ancient Sears motorcycle charger. I would typically dial in a very low amperage (has a pot for ~.2 to 1.2 amps) and charge it at a very slow rate.

Still you're the only person I've ever heard claim that battery tenders tend to ruin batteries so I remain somewhat skeptical of the claim. I bought a Yuasa tender last year and used it all winter. Of course I'm using a different brand of battery this time but if I don't get at least 5 years out of it maybe you've got something.
 
I believe an AGM requires a charger specifically for AGM battery yes? No?
 
No, they are the same as regular lead acid batteries in that regard. They make AGM chargers but it's a scam.
 
tkent02 said:
You can't sell me one at any voltage, I don't use them. My batteries last much longer without any trickling.
Click to expand...
A home alarm system uses a backup battery (either sla or agm) and trickle charges it constantly with no problem.
 
tom203 said:
A home alarm system uses a backup battery (either sla or agm) and trickle charges it constantly with no problem.
Click to expand...


I'm playing around with my TD right now and part of that is installing the new battery I bought for it.

In the instructions for the new battery is says "Prolonged charging or use of a constant current charger could shorten battery life." FWIW.
 
More Tender Moments

More Tender Moments

Steel Toed Tank said:
I'm playing around with my TD right now and part of that is installing the new battery I bought for it.

In the instructions for the new battery is says "Prolonged charging or use of a constant current charger could shorten battery life." FWIW.
Click to expand...

No doubt it can...but I'm told, the amount of charge going into the battery is so low, it's not something that will hurt the battery...at least right away.

I've used mine for over 18 months now and it's worked fine. I thing Allie said you should get at least 5 years out of it...so far, so good.



Ed
 
I get five or more out of regular batteries with no tender. Always, unless I sell the bike first.
AGMs should go a lot longer with occasional charging.
 
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