[Shop-talk] What is the best trickle charger? (and Harbor Freight Go-Jacks followup)

[Karl Vacek]

I’ve used BatteryMinders for more than a dozen years and have experienced excellent battery life on every battery I’ve kept on them.  I own 6 of the small ones and one of the large models.

 

My airplane battery is on the large one whenever I’m not flying it.  Most aircraft batteries die in 2-3 years, and cost $250-$300.  Mine is 9 years old now and still starting the plane just fine.

 

My lawn mower battery, lawn tractor battery, the car battery used for a 12V winch, and the battery in Jill’s MG Midget all stay on the little BatteryMinders whenever not in use, and all are at least 7-8 years old now.  I use the other two BatteryMinders here and there on other batteries as needed.

 

Without BatteryMinder protection, our regular car batteries last 2-3 years (Costco batteries - they now sell Interstate). I’ve used Costco’s warrantee many times, and keep buying them because of the warrantee.

 

A BatteryMinder requires battery voltage over some threshold before it will function.  Bought a Vector charger a few years ago and it died – it also required some threshold voltage before it would charge a battery.  I have a 1975 Schumacher charger on its third and I hope last set of diodes, used for emergencies – it’ll start a completely dead car with a couple of minutes’ boost charge.

 

I’m convinced that BatteryMinder is the way to go.

 

Karl

 

 

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 12:46 PM, <eric at megageek.com> wrote:

Friends, I hope this doesn't turn into a "synthetic or conventional oil" type debate. 

What is currently the best trickle charger on the market?  I'm tried of ones that break or don't seem to work properly.  I currently use Shumakers, but they don't seem to be doing the job.  (Maybe I just need a different model of theirs?) 

Price isn't a huge issue, (under $200 a piece I would guess.)  But I want something that will work.  I use them, all the time, on a forklift, motorcycles, ATV, Generator and a few other items. 

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