Battery charger

[julmar]

My Stanley battery charger up & died on me. The Scamp is being purchased by new owners but no p/u until Feb. The new Escape won't need one because of solar. So....I just need an inexpensive charger with float capabilities for the short term to keep battery up to snuff until buyer pick up. Any advice? The operative word is inexpensive.
TIA
Julie

[wwig]

Hey Julie,
I purchased a Die Hard trickle charger 3+ years ago from Sears. The model # is 28.71219 I believe it was right around $30.00. It has done the job the past 3 winters with no problems. If your battery is dead and can be charged Sears will do it for free. (not sure that's their policy everywhere)Hope that helps. Peace

[Raspy]

Go to Walmart. Look in the battery or automotive section and you'll find a number of smart chargers from very cheap to quite powerful and more expensive. All you need is about 8 amps or so. If you are not using your battery, a battery tender would be fine. You can get very good ones at Costco for $30. or less.

[Triker]

Just got their holiday brochure and the Battery Tender at Costco is $40. There is a $10 off coupon for it that's good Nov. 18-28. It's a 3A battery charger and maintainer for both 12v and 6v.

[rainjer]

I have 2 of these I bought from Amazon. One in my teardrop and one in my Compact Jr. Both on Group 27 deep cycle batteries. They work great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Jeremy

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by Triker

Just got their holiday brochure and the Battery Tender at Costco is $40. There is a $10 off coupon for it that's good Nov. 18-28. It's a 3A battery charger and maintainer for both 12v and 6v.

I have six of these and really like them. Looks like Costco is about to raise the price.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by julmar

My Stanley battery charger up & died on me. The Scamp is being purchased by new owners but no p/u until Feb. ..

If I were the buyer I would prefer to have some input.. in fact I would be installing regular onboard converter (upgraded to a smart charger) and would have no need for the charger. So if you want to buy a charger for yourself, that's different, but the new owner might be fine with you doing nothing (and not having a charged battery in February), or perhaps just a few dollars taken off the price. How old is the battery? it might not have enough life it by February to worry about anyway.

Anyway, a good battery charger is multi-stage and preferable also has automatic temperature adjustment (with a sensor placed on the battery). There are so many its hard to suggest just one.

[Darwin Maring]

gordon2 I totally agree with gordon2.

[julmar]

Thank you for your input. Found a Stanley "Fatmax" 8 amp charger/maintainer @ Wally world for $21.00.

[john madill]

This talk of battery chargers reminded me of a cold winter day in Kalamazoo, Mi, in the mid-70's when my truck wouldn't start at home.

I walked a couple of miles to the nearest Sears store and carried this one home. It's been working for me ever since.

Probably not the smartest of chargers. I don't have a battery on my Compact Jr but do have a deep cycle battery to run my trolling motor on my row boat.

This charger is just about the same age as my Compact.

Just what is this oldie designed to do, trickle, maintain? Usually I just hook it up to my battery a day or two before going fishing.

[Civilguy]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger

This $26 one is said to be a favorite of discerning enthusiasts everywhere.

I haven't hooked mine up yet as the Casita's built-in converter/charger charges the battery. I understand that the Casita's panel it is not as kind to the battery as the little charger linked above, so I purchased it a while back and took immediate inaction, setting it aside until I find my round-tuit.

Good technology in these little units seems to come cheap anymore so I expect you'll probably do fine at $21.

[The Minimalist]

Those battery maintainers are great keeping a charged battery charged when not in use. However, at 750-800 MA you're going to be waiting a long time for a battery that is down.

That said, you have plenty of time until February. If the buyer doesn't want it, it's always nice to have a little maintenance charger around.

[steelypip]

I've got a Battery Tender Junior of about 10 years age that just keeps on doing the job - it stays plugged in all year and is generally sitting on one or another garden tractor battery. I need to pick up a couple more of the little beggars - they're so useful to have around.

A BT Junior will eventually charge up a car battery, but the charge time is measured in days. Rated output is .75 Amps, so to charge a 50% charged 60 AH battery is a theoretical minimum of 40 hours (assuming 100% efficiency - real world is about 60%).

If you are using a traditional flooded lead-acid (FLA) battery and it is sitting still for months, then you need the 'equalize' stage in the charging cycle to overcharge all the cells and generate a little gas to stir the electrolyte and prevent stratification once a month or so. This, in turn, means that your charger has to have enough amperage output to generate the desired gas, which a 0.75A charger on a big battery won't.

The BT Junior is actually meant for motorcycle and garden tractor batteries (which are in the 8-16 Amp Hour range). It will keep your big deep cycle battery from sulfating or freezing over winter, but won't keep it in optimum health and ready to go. Be sure to top up your battery with a big (5+ Amp) charger for 4-6 hours once or twice during the winter to keep it happy.

Another way to achieve this is to use a big charger-maintainer on a timer. I have a 10 amp 'ship and shore' Schauer charger with maintainer function that I put on a plug-in timer so that it only runs about 30 minutes a day - it's what keeps the deep cycle full. The timer ensures that when it turns on it hits the battery with 4 or so amps for a few minutes until it gets the battery back up to 14 volts and then goes into maintainer mode, which helps with the whole 'stirring the electrolyte' thing.

If you're going to buy just one charger and its purpose is to maintain your big deep-cycle camper battery, then buy a bigger one than the BT Junior.

Yet another good use of a BT junior is to put it on a car battery in a car overnight once in a while. It'll do a good job of leveling out the charge between the cells.

Note that all of this stuff is different with an AGM (Optima style) battery...

Why yes, I was a professional chemist for a decade and I did study a lot of solutions and electrochemistry in college. How did you know?

[Civilguy]

Fascinating. So, high voltage is not enough for anti-sulfating, we need the amps too?

I have been slow to act in connecting the BT Junior as I would need to isolate the battery from the Casita's Parallex converter. I have considered just biting the bullet and replacing the Parallex with a Progressive Dynamics PD4635 panel which has a good reputation for accomplishing the maintenance while also serving as a converter.

On the other hand, I figure I could just invest the $200 into earlier battery replacements. Oh what to (not) do...

Can you tell I'm well-practiced in the art of extended analysis and immediate inaction?

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by john madill

Just what is this oldie designed to do, trickle, maintain? Usually I just hook it up to my battery a day or two before going fishing.

Your charger is a ferroresonant charger. It's output tapers off to near zero as the battery is charged, but they don't ever really stop charging. So they will slowly cause a loss of water and ruin the battery if left on all the time. Or they will never quite get to full charge which allows the battery to sulfate. These chargers will charge a battery that is completely dead. They will also spark at the terminals, so be careful.

Most modern smart chargers must see some voltage in the battery before they will begin to charge. Then they do a multi-step process to bring the battery up quick, without boiling it. They feed the battery what it can accept. When fully charged, they drop the charging voltage to a maintenance voltage that will keep the battery charged and in good health regardless of the current draw. Many of these will also condition a battery if it detects a bad cell or a sulfated condition. These chargers can be left connected to a battery indefinitely. They will significantly extend a battery's life. They won't spark at the connectors because they look for voltage before they begin the charging process.

If your battery is too dead to charge with a smart charger, probably below about 6 or 8 volts for a 12 volt battery, you can jump the battery with jumper cables to a fully charged battery to get it up to the chargers threshold. Or you can pre-charge it a bit with a ferroresonant charger and then let the smart charger take over.

[stevebaz]

Might want to open up the chargers case and check for a fuse. Some chargers have a fuse inside. Check the fuse and its contacts and make sure there clean and corrosion free. Make sure the charger is unplugged from everything before you go probing around inside the case.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Civilguy

Fascinating. So, high voltage is not enough for anti-sulfating, we need the amps too?

I have been slow to act in connecting the BT Junior as I would need to isolate the battery from the Casita's Parallex converter. I have considered just biting the bullet and replacing the Parallex with a Progressive Dynamics PD4635 panel which has a good reputation for accomplishing the maintenance while also serving as a converter.

On the other hand, I figure I could just invest the $200 into earlier battery replacements. Oh what to (not) do...

Can you tell I'm well-practiced in the art of extended analysis and immediate inaction?

FYI There's no need to isolate from any other charging source. If the Battery Tender's current is too low to charge the higher current device will take over. If the higher current device has charged the battery to it's max capabilities the Battery Tender will take over and keep the battery charged.
The same thing goes for permanent solar panels and charging from the tow vehicle.
As with all charging and batteries you need to keep an eye on the liquid level in the battery and refill with distilled water when needed.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by julmar

My Stanley battery charger up & died on me. The Scamp is being purchased by new owners but no p/u until Feb. The new Escape won't need one because of solar. So....I just need an inexpensive charger with float capabilities for the short term to keep battery up to snuff until buyer pick up. Any advice? The operative word is inexpensive.
TIA
Julie

I'm not sure what quality battery Escape provides. My experience with two trailers purchased new was that the batteries included were not top shelf. So I purchased a better quality battery for my new trailer and put the one provided by the manufacturer on the one I was selling. The old one had trade in value. New owner gets a new battery, you get a better battery and the cost of a charger can go toward your new battery. Good luck with your new Escape. Raz

[Glenn Baglo]

Escape batteries are by Interstate.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by Raz

I'm not sure what quality battery Escape provides. Raz

Buying batteries these days it's hard to be sure you're getting the quality you expect or want. Brands don't mean as much as they used to and it seems a lot of them are made in the same factory and just have different labels. For instance, Johnson Controls is the largest manufacturer of automotive batteries. The trend for quite a while now is for a new manufacturer to come out with a fine battery and build their reputation. Then let the quality gradually slip until some other brand comes along and beats them. Exide, Motorcraft and Die Hard are good examples of this. Now Interstate seems to be going the same way. I have some 20 year old Delcos that are still hanging on, but I've also had them fail in less than a year.

So, reputation is good, but certainly not everything. Warrantees are good, so Costco and Walmart seem like good bets. Even better might be to simply buy the heaviest battery in a given class you are looking for (more lead).

Or buy a Trojan. Expensive, but very likely to be good.

Whatever you get, keep them on a battery tender or smart charger, when not in use.

Eventually we'll all be using lithium ion batteries and be much better off because of it.