I want to add some more insights. Don't just buy the largest amperage maintainer you find to try to shortcut time -- you gotta size the maintainer for the battery. Rule of thumb is to use a maintainer rated at 10-20% of the Ah (amp hours) of the battery. For a motorcycle/snowmobile battery rated at 8Ah, you should be in the range of 0.8-1.6 amp maintainer (1.5 amp maintainer being the sweet spot), definitely no more than 2 amps lest you risk damaging the battery because the charger/maintainer is overpowered for the battery being charged. A typical car battery is 40-65 amp hours (do not go by CCA, you need to know the Ah), so you'll need a maintainer in the 4-8 amp range -- best to stay in the low end of the acceptable range for the use case: a 4 amp rated maintainer is likely best for most car/SUV batteries. The goal with a maintainer is to make your battery last while not driving the vehicle -- don't over boost the battery with an overrated maintainer as that just defeats the entire purpose and may shorten the longevity.
I see where you're coming from, and you're providing great insight. I'm far from an electrical / battery / maintainer expert, very far from it...but I believe these Battery Tenders have an automatic trickle mode to maintain the battery when it's near fully charged in order to avoid the issues you've addressed. I'll have to look into this further, I researched it years ago when deciding on a maintainer but the info has gone gray and fuzzy by now.
@@TorqueAndTwisted same here (I'm no expert), hence why I was searching around for information and came across your video. From what I was able to gather, the issue with a too powerful of a charger (or maintainer) is that the battery can overheat and there is a risk of explosion. Best to consult with the manufacturer of your particular battery and they should be able to provide all the details on the charging rates for your exact battery size and type (and there are a lot of different types!). I just wanted to ensure there was a warning in these comments for people to not blindly grab a 10 amp charger -- though the one you showed looks to be "smart" and supports multiple different charging rates (2a, 6a, 10a) but I haven't read its manual to know if it automatically detected or if you need to set a switch manually.
To my knowledge, all of this brands tenders switch themselves to automatic trickle charging once the battery reaches a certain charge level. Here's what I got from Deltran's website about their 10 AMP Battery Tender: "The 10 AMP car battery charger automotive provides a full charge to your machine's battery before automatically switching to float mode to maintain proper voltage levels for your battery without overcharging." And here's the link to their manual for that model from their website. Hope this helps you along your journey, I've never had one single issue with any of this brand's products. www.batterytender.com/cdn/shop/files/392-0423-RC_Instruction_Manual_English_French_9-28-2023.pdf?v=10153968006130561883
The 10 amp has hardwired alligator clips, no option for rings. But the 4 AMP can, it has a cool feature where you simply remove the alligator connections and it converts to ring connections. If that's what you're after, here's the link to the 4 AMP on Amazon, 3rd or 4th pic shows the connection conversion. #ad amzn.to/4atk0nb
For a KTM 350 and a Polaris 570 newer models, was looking at the 1.25 amp tender that can switch between lithium and acid, but the only had a four amp available to purchase, will this still work or is it too much power?
It’ll work. The 4ah is only for the initial charge up, once the battery is charged it will automatically switch to a trickle charge to maintain the battery Tha advantage of the 4ah over the 1.25ah is that it’ll get a dead battery up to charged about 4X faster. So the 1.25ah might take all day, the 4ah might take half the morning.
I’ve never heard that. Both will “trickle” charge the same way once battery is charged. The biggest diffence is that the 4 amp will charge 3.2X faster than a 1.25 amp. This might be the difference between driving your car “today” or waiting until tomorrow if battery was dead when hooking up the charger.
The 1.25 amp will be good for that. I'd check out the prices on the 4 amp as well when you're shopping, in my opinion it's the best bang for the buck. I think mine was $20 more than the 1.25 amp
From dead to fully charged, somewhere between 8 to 12 hours. For the small price difference, I would suggest upgrading to the 4 amp if you’re concerned about long charge times
I want to add some more insights. Don't just buy the largest amperage maintainer you find to try to shortcut time -- you gotta size the maintainer for the battery. Rule of thumb is to use a maintainer rated at 10-20% of the Ah (amp hours) of the battery.
For a motorcycle/snowmobile battery rated at 8Ah, you should be in the range of 0.8-1.6 amp maintainer (1.5 amp maintainer being the sweet spot), definitely no more than 2 amps lest you risk damaging the battery because the charger/maintainer is overpowered for the battery being charged.
A typical car battery is 40-65 amp hours (do not go by CCA, you need to know the Ah), so you'll need a maintainer in the 4-8 amp range -- best to stay in the low end of the acceptable range for the use case: a 4 amp rated maintainer is likely best for most car/SUV batteries.
The goal with a maintainer is to make your battery last while not driving the vehicle -- don't over boost the battery with an overrated maintainer as that just defeats the entire purpose and may shorten the longevity.
I see where you're coming from, and you're providing great insight. I'm far from an electrical / battery / maintainer expert, very far from it...but I believe these Battery Tenders have an automatic trickle mode to maintain the battery when it's near fully charged in order to avoid the issues you've addressed. I'll have to look into this further, I researched it years ago when deciding on a maintainer but the info has gone gray and fuzzy by now.
@@TorqueAndTwisted same here (I'm no expert), hence why I was searching around for information and came across your video. From what I was able to gather, the issue with a too powerful of a charger (or maintainer) is that the battery can overheat and there is a risk of explosion. Best to consult with the manufacturer of your particular battery and they should be able to provide all the details on the charging rates for your exact battery size and type (and there are a lot of different types!).
I just wanted to ensure there was a warning in these comments for people to not blindly grab a 10 amp charger -- though the one you showed looks to be "smart" and supports multiple different charging rates (2a, 6a, 10a) but I haven't read its manual to know if it automatically detected or if you need to set a switch manually.
To my knowledge, all of this brands tenders switch themselves to automatic trickle charging once the battery reaches a certain charge level.
Here's what I got from Deltran's website about their 10 AMP Battery Tender:
"The 10 AMP car battery charger automotive provides a full charge to your machine's battery before automatically switching to float mode to maintain proper voltage levels for your battery without overcharging."
And here's the link to their manual for that model from their website. Hope this helps you along your journey, I've never had one single issue with any of this brand's products.
www.batterytender.com/cdn/shop/files/392-0423-RC_Instruction_Manual_English_French_9-28-2023.pdf?v=10153968006130561883
Does the 10 amp version have the SAE removable connectors? I am planning to use the ring connector for permanet connections
The 10 amp has hardwired alligator clips, no option for rings. But the 4 AMP can, it has a cool feature where you simply remove the alligator connections and it converts to ring connections. If that's what you're after, here's the link to the 4 AMP on Amazon, 3rd or 4th pic shows the connection conversion. #ad amzn.to/4atk0nb
@@TorqueAndTwistedwhat's the ring connectors for?
For a KTM 350 and a Polaris 570 newer models, was looking at the 1.25 amp tender that can switch between lithium and acid, but the only had a four amp available to purchase, will this still work or is it too much power?
It’ll work. The 4ah is only for the initial charge up, once the battery is charged it will automatically switch to a trickle charge to maintain the battery
Tha advantage of the 4ah over the 1.25ah is that it’ll get a dead battery up to charged about 4X faster. So the 1.25ah might take all day, the 4ah might take half the morning.
12v agm? What is the best to use?
The 4 amp will do just fine for that. If you want a faster charging from dead battery, go with the 10 amp as it’ll do it more than twice as fast.
Is it true that 1.25 will help hold longer than the 4? Or doesn't make a difference?
I’ve never heard that. Both will “trickle” charge the same way once battery is charged. The biggest diffence is that the 4 amp will charge 3.2X faster than a 1.25 amp. This might be the difference between driving your car “today” or waiting until tomorrow if battery was dead when hooking up the charger.
Can this work to charge a marine battery or 24 size from a honda gx390 or 630
Yes, I would go with the four amp hour that I show if you have multiple batteries of different types. That will have all the capabilities you need.
What you recommend for a bettery over winter in the house. 1.25
The 1.25 amp will be good for that. I'd check out the prices on the 4 amp as well when you're shopping, in my opinion it's the best bang for the buck. I think mine was $20 more than the 1.25 amp
@TorqueAndTwisted thank you ill get it.
How long does the 1.5 take to charge to 12v
From dead to fully charged, somewhere between 8 to 12 hours. For the small price difference, I would suggest upgrading to the 4 amp if you’re concerned about long charge times
Thanks bro
Hope it helped make your decision 👍
Can any one help my is agm 14.4 v 70ah car battery
What year/make/model?