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If you need an occasional conditioning-charge, to break-up sulfation, you will want to get a
charger that has the ability to push more current through the battery.
I also have a Battery Tender. I use it on my Corvette because it is my toy that only gets driven on a sunny weekend when I feel the urge. The battery will get to low to start it if I don't keep the Battery Tender on it. I bought the cigarette lighter adapter for mine. The battery tender sits in the floor right next to my driver side door and when I get in, I unplug the cable from the cigarette lighter, drop it on the floor out of the way, go smoke tires and get sideways and all that fun stuff and then pull back in its garage bay, plug the cable back in the cigarette lighter, shut the door and go on about my business.
Just disconnect negative lead if you're going to let it sit for awhile. You can leave it for at least a couple months this way and it will fire right up afterwards.
I like to use Battery Tenders on most of my rigs, on most American and European cars the cigarette lighter plug is "hot" regardless of the ignition switch, you can get a plug from whoever you buy the BT from, to charge through the cigarette lighter plug, avoids having to open the hood and attach clips. On some cars I put the BT itself on the driver's seat, thread the AC cord out the window to plug it in. This makes it harder to try to drive off with the BT still connected.
Some Japanese makes the cig lighter is switched so you may be better off installing a "dongle" on your battery, maybe zip tie the end of it somewhere on the grille, plug the BT into that.
I generally get like 8 to 10 years out of my batteries. I do usually get ones with "open" cells that I can add water to, I add distilled water.
BT on my cars is not, strictly speaking, "necessary". Neither is good wine with my dinner. But, I will be having both, thank you very much.
There's a reason Ferarri comes with a battery tender built in, they know the car will sit.
If you let your car sit, you need one. Inactivity will drastically reduce the life of the battery and you'll end up with the jump starting when you want to drive it.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Edvard
There's a reason Ferarri comes with a battery tender built in, they know the car will sit.
If you let your car sit, you need one. Inactivity will drastically reduce the life of the battery and you'll end up with the jump starting when you want to drive it.
I just got a used f430 and it has a factory battery tender. I don't trust it so I bought one at costco and will install it.
I have battery tenders on every vehicle in my garage, two cars and one motorcycle.
The battery tender brand is good, but there's better ones out there. I switched to CTEK, their 7002 model. It can "revive" a dead battery by "overcharging", can serve as a jump start connection if needed, etc. It's basically the most versatile and comprehensive battery tender you can get. Porsche uses them as their OEM battery tender. I've had the Battery Tender brand before, eventually they all failed me, though they did last me 5-10 years before going out. My Ducati has a different kind, a Foval charger designed for smaller batteries, 1000mA max charge. It was recommended by the local BMW/Ducati dealership, and has lots of good reviews on Amazon, but again, this would be suitable only for smaller capacity batteries like motorcycles, riding lawnmowers, etc.
My batteries last much longer than average, I have to think the chargers have something to do with it.
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