What's Your Favorite Battery Charger & Maintainer?

[DonTom]

After 3 days without a recharge, when I plugged the coach in at Mt Laguna the converter went straight to Boost mode for a couple of hours before it dropped back to Normal.

Yep! Just as it would if you had a new fully charged battery as I had.

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[DonTom]

I think you've made a mistake somewhere but it's not anyone else's job to find it.

Perhaps PD made a mistake somewhere. Why does their own chart mention time at all if it really works by voltage?

Seems to me they are going by assumptions of what voltage you will have after so much charge at so much current for so much time.

If it totally works by voltage there would be no times mentioned. And it would not re-set to the boost mode for hours after unplugged for a few seconds.

FWIW, I am not saying anything is wrong with their design. The PD design works well even if it is little more than timers for the different charge currents. Both my RVs use PD converters and I have never had any issue with them, regardless of how they work.

But make the experiment yourself. Have a fully charged new battery, plugged in for a day or longer. Then unplug for a minute. Plug in and time your hours of boost mode.

I have already done such there in Barstow.

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[JayArr]

It's not timers Don, you just don't understand or you've made a mistake but that's on you to figure out.

If you choose to believe that everyone else but you is wrong then that's OK too, it's a free world.

 

[DonTom]

If you choose to believe that everyone else but you is wrong then that's OK too, it's a free world.

I simply believe what I saw with my own eyes and is backed up with what PD showed in their own info. No need to mention time when it works by voltage, but they show time. And that is exactly what mine did. Put it in boost mode for four full hours when it was already fully charged all the way to storage mode. And with a new fully charged battery after being disconnected for perhaps 3 minutes.

"Facts are facts and will not change because of your likes"
-Jawaharlal Nehru

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[DonTom]

If you choose to believe that everyone else but you is wrong then that's OK too, it's a free world.

It will not be the first time where many said I was wrong and I had to prove otherwise with actually doing an experiment with the equipment.

And that is what I did here. But this experiment i did by accident. If you have a PD converter, why don't you make the same experiment, assuming you have a way to measure your charge current and then you may explain why a fully charged new battery will spend exactly four hours in boost mode if disconnected from the converter for a few minutes.

instead of explaining how it works, please do your own experiment and then explain what you see with your own eyes.

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[JayArr]

I'm not going to spend that much time and effort to convince you Don, I don't care about you that much.

If you want to believe it's a timer then go ahead.

 

[DonTom]

If you want to believe it's a timer then go ahead.

I always prefer to believe whatever the truth really is. Even if I don't like it.

But with this, I couldn't care less which way it works. But I found out how the old PD converter works in my old RV purely by accident. And I see no evidence of it working any differently than what I saw with my own eyes. Even PD's own spec sheet shows time. How do you explain that?

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[JayArr]

You keep asking me to explain it but I'm done. I think now that no matter what I say you won't believe it so it's easier to let you believe what you want to believe Don.

If you think it's just on a timer that's fine with me.

 

[DonTom]

You keep asking me to explain

If you explained why a fully charged new battery will START in the boost mode and stay there for four hours, I must have missed it!

-Don- ABQ, NM

 

[JayArr]

Instead of me explaining why you saw what you saw...

Tell me why everyone else is not seeing or experiencing the same thing you did?


If it was just timers as you claim, then all PD converters would act the same right?

I don't hear anyone else saying their Progressive Dynamics converter puts their battery into boost for four hours every time.

Maybe the converter unit you had was defective.

Explain why only you seem to have this result.

 

[Ksouers]

Battery Tender brand. Be careful with some of the cheapies.
I have a track toy, a Mazda MX-5, that is track prepped with racing suspension and supercharger. Loads of fun. I installed a new battery at the end of track season and I got what I thought was a "smart" trickle charger from AutoZone. But it only charged to a full charge once then shutdown, never checked the voltage again and never provided any more power to the battery. Next spring I had a new, very dead battery.

After that I picked up a Battery Tender brand off Amazon and it's been great, it monitors the charge and trickle charges as needed. I've since bought a couple more for the tractor and any other incidental battery that may need a charge or vehicle that only gets minor use.

Kevin

 

[Charlie 5320]

I'm hoping Santa brings me this. A bit more than a maintainer only, but I have several things I want to use it on throughout the year.
CTEK-40

I own a couple CTEK-3300. They do work good, BUT when it gets cool out they are hard to get the mode ya want. I just bought a couple

MOTOPOWER MP00205B 12V 1000mA Automatic Battery Charger, Battery Maintainer, 20 bucks each. They work good too.​

 

[Skookum]

We also have a Progressive Dynamics charger/converter, 9180 I think it is. That does the work for the house batteries. And no, we've never seen issues as described above.

For the 2 chassis batteries, I run a 4 amp Deltran Battery Tender. Does just fine.

I switch the tender between cars that don't get driven much, and the RV. About every two weeks.

 

[gwinger]

I've used the Battery Tender brand in the past to keep boat batteries fully charged. Unfortunately they are pricey and mine seem to fizzle out and stop working after 2 years or so. I want to put one on our Class C cranking battery and was wondering if there are any favorites among the RV fellowship.​

Thanks!

The Deltran Battery Tender has a 10 year warranty. I have used then for 20 years on my car, truck, motorcycle and TT batteries, and only had one fail. It was 12 years old. I don't think paying $70 or so expensive. These are the 1.25 amp ones. I plug them in and leave them connected until I need to use the battery.