Battery tenders
 

Thinking of getting some battery tenders to keep a few of my vehicles maintained in storage. I have some concern about the possible risk of fire as a result of an electrical malfunction. How safe are these devices?

Use them constantly on generators, cars and bikes in storage. Never had an issue with them. I order them in from Yamaha for our stock..

let me know if you want me to check on them

The Battery Tender brand is expensive at $60.00. I have (4) Schumacher battery maintainers that I bought at Meijers on sale for about $25.00 each. I use for boat, car, lawn tractor. They work great and easily pay for themselves becuase they extend the life of a battery.

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SEM...7783408&sr=8-1

Hi C.

I thought about this a lot because I have one in the mercedes while it is stored. Basically.... an AC to DC converter with a step down. If it is going to fail... it would most likely fail in a way that would result in an eventual open circuit. Even a short in the tender would imo cause an open. I don't see your battery coming in direct conact with the ac, no matter how it failed. I would say worst case scenario, if your tender fails, your battery fails. I can't drum up a case in my head in which your car or the building would burn.

I have had one for 20 years that I bought for a motorcyle. Maybe one amp or a half an amp.
It was like 15-20 bucks and it still works. Have used it on everything, and have even used it on the boat while the boat was at the dock.

Scott,

Already have one of Toledo's finest SWAT officers scheduled to drop by frequently.

Thanks.

Use it on my bike, and just ordered a 4 banger for boat batteries. I think they work great, they keep the bats from sulfating the plates. Just my .02

You're getting screwed at that price....

Walmart had,the last time I checked, Schumacher battery tenders for $17.43. Sears have the Schumacher with the Diehard sticker for $29.95. Same product, I keep 3 plugged in at all times for my toys. Gary

I just bought three BatteryMINDer chargers. I bought into their pitch about de-sulfization. Northern Tools has/had a sale on them.

I have the sears one, I think I paid $20 for it (on sale maybe?). I use it all the time, no problems.

I just saw them on a motocross site for $30.00. (6 or 12 volt)

Fred Henson Races superstock hemi cars, he lost a very expensive race car, and half a building because of a battery tender. I don't trust them at all. When i put something in storage, i pull the battery out, take it home, use a trickle charger to charge them up before they go in. I never use a trickle charger unless i am in the building. I might be paraniod, but better safe then the alternative.

I bought a bunch of the WalMart specials. The one servicing a pair of big batteries started clicking and after that it then did not keep the batteries charged. I replaced it with another but it did the same thing. Maybe too much battery for its capacity. Another boat has a starter battery and a deep cycle trolling motor battery. The deep cycle battery had the water boiled out three times over the winter and shot craps. The starter motor battery also had the water boiled out once over the winter. I had BatteryMinders on the two jet skis and the batteries stayed fully charged and no drop in water that I could detect after two winters.

I have scrapped all the WalMart specials and replaced them with BatteryMinders. A lot of money up front but for me it is worth it.

I have 2 of the cheap wally world specials and have had no problems with them. I used to have a ~$200 2 bank promariner charger/maintainer in my bass boat and it shorted out somehow
and actually would drain both batteries. :rolleyes:

A great product! I have several brands. They all work, some have more lights than the others. I use one on my car in storage, jet skis and boat.