A good fall car-care project involves battery maintenance.
As temperatures start growing colder, enthusiasts
store their Corvettes away and their batteries tend to sit
for months without being used. Under these conditions,
battery life tends to suffer. Its a good idea to keep a battery
at full charge as much as possible.
A product called Battery Tender is designed to keep
infrequently-used batteries up to snuff at all times. Unlike
the trickle charger that constantly puts juice into a battery
whether it needs it or not, Battery Tenders have a smart chip that monitors the batterys state of charge and puts
voltage in only when needed.
The idea of plugging in any electrical device and leaving
it on all the time is scary. A lot of weird things can
happen with electricity. While researching this topic
on the Internet, a newer product called Battery Tender
Junior turned up. It is a lightweight, compact version
of the Battery Tender that has most of the same features,
but is extremely convenient to use in vehicle-storage
situations. The Internet revealed a company that sells
the Battery Tender Junior at a very reasonable cost.
Remy Battery Co., Inc., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It seemed like a good idea to contact them about the
safety question.
I understand your concerns; too few people treat batteries
and battery-related products with the proper care
and the respect that they deserve, said company vice
president Michael E. Moeller. We believe in educating
customers on the proper way to handle and maintain batteries
and battery-related products and we have been in
business since 1931.
Moeller explained that the Battery Tender Junior
operates on a 3-step charging program. Step 1 is called
Qualification. In this step the tender insures safety by
verifying the status of the battery before charging it. Step
2 is called Bulk Charging. The bulk charge raises the batterys
voltage to 7.2 Vdc. Step 3 is Float
Charge. While float charging, the tender
maintains the fully-charged battery at 6.6
Vdc. If and when the battery voltage drops
below 6.3 Vdc, the battery tender resumes
charging until the battery is back to 7.2 Vdc.
Then it goes to float again. Of course, these
voltages are for a six-volt battery. There is
also a model with higher Vdc levels
designed for 12-volt batteries.
Moeller said that all Battery Tender
brand tenders (which are those made by
a Florida company named Deltran) are
totally spark proof and reverse-polarity
protected. He explained that they have
a fused, short-circuit-protected transformer.
There are also fused output leads on the
ring-terminal battery connectors. This is
the safest battery charger on the market
he said.
Should you require additional technical
information on the Battery Tender brand chargers from
Deltran, you are welcome to visit their web site
at batterytender.com said Moeller. Their
technical engineer Dan Williams can answer your
questions


|UPDATED|10/8/2004 2:00:25 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Thanks for the thorough explaination of how these black boxes work. Several guys in my area swear by them, but I never really knew the advantages over a trickle charger.
Good info.

Hi,
I used a float charger on my battery for the last two winters. So far, the battery seems to be holding up well. The only thing I do differently is to put the battery on a "fast" charger after removing it from the car. Once the battery is fully charged, I switch over to the float charger. I suppose if you just took your Vette for a nice long ride and you were sure the battery had a good charge, this step wouldn't be necessary.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Tom

I swear by the things...

I own & store 5 Corvettes and a Chevelle...

So my garage looks like a Christmas display every winter

Been using Battery tenders now for about 5-6 years and I have had to replace only one battery over that perios of time...before using battery tenders I had to replace at least 2 batteries every single spring...

Gotten to the point where I hook them up even
when I am not going to drive a car in over a week in the summer...

Bob Griffiths