Need a Battery Tender/Charger
 

Can anyone recommend me a good battery tender/charger? I'm looking for something that I can just leave plugged in/hooked up for several months at a time.

Thanks in advance :)

CTek available at Crappy tire.. best battery tender I have used so far.

The Ctek is great. If you have a Lordco account with a good discount level, it might be cheaper than at CT. I have five chargers and the CTek is among the best. I also have one of those marine intelligent chargers from CT that does wonders with dead batteries, but it's flakey as a maintenance charger. I use it because it is a 30/10/2 amp charger. I recently bought a Motomaster charger that is pretty much the same as the CTek. It was 60% off the normal price and had the same features of the CTek (weatherproof). Since it is going to be used only as a maintenance charger, it will do the job with no problems. Both CT and CTek comes with different adapters (cigarette, ring, and clamps).

I have a CTEK as well. Got it at Crappy Tire for $79 on sale.

Lordco wanted $124 for it...didn't even bother asking what discount I could net.

wtf you guys are all looking at the wrong place.

Bike shops have Deltron Battery Tenders for around $40, price. $50 for the waterproof version. Once in a while they do have a sale in which case you can save $5-10 on top. These things are rated at 750mA so they're not meant for jumpstarting, but more for making sure your battery doesn't discharge over the winter. Pretty much every rider out there will have one of these.

Try Modern Motorcycling at 12 and Commercial, or Pacific Yamaha on Westminster past No9.

I got my CTek for just under 70 bucks. The weatherproof Motomaster was $24.95 on sale. Paid close to 10 bucks after redeeming the ever dreaded, CT money.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...B2A%252B4A.jsp

The CTek

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...%2BCharger.jsp

The beauty with the CTek is it has battery desulphation feature.

You can get CTek from Canadian Tire for 39 bucks, they go on sale every 3 months or so.

I had used Battery Tender and Battery Minder.. honestly build quality wise CTek beats them (I permanently connect the tenders to my cars, because I don't drive all of them that much, I find CTek more convenient because it is connected with a normal cord not a brick adaptor). Battery Tender doesn't desulphate.

To clarify, the Ctek that CT desulphates but it is not the heavy duty model, so it won't save batteries that are dead / neglected.

CTek OEs pretty much all battery tenders for Porsche etc now.

Which is another reason you should also check to see which model you are getting for whatever price.

http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/Buy-US-Charger.aspx

I think Soundworks has some from Interstate Battery that comes with quick connectors. It does a charge then floats when full designed for garaged vehicles for long periods of time. Not expensive I think around $50-$60

the Deltron Battery Tenders are really good, you can plug it in and leave it for as long as you want. I use the battery tender jr for my bike and it is awesome. You can use the same thing or the bigger one for the car. I bought my battery Jr for around $40 from Burnaby Kawasaki

I have 2 12v Battery Tenders as well. They work great but they are pretty basic against the CTek and Battery Minders, and the automotive versions are better suited for bench charging. I would go with the CTek, the desulfation feature is nice to have and it's cheaper.

are you just looking to keep a battery topped up?

at work, we just use a cheapo $10 trickle charger that's hooked up to a $5 timer. it's set up to top up the battery every now and then.

FYI if you're looking for a ctek they're on sale again for 53.99 (from 89.99) @ CT from now til December 24.

crappy tire motomaster eliminator ones were 20 bucks a week ago. I think they were on sale this week. not sure about today since it's new flyer day.

Just got back from Costco. They had a Stanley battery charger for $54.99. The charger had a conditioner built in (desulphate).

You can probably find it cheap on line, but shipping and whatnot would make it about the same.

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-BC1509-Amp-Battery-Charger/dp/B001U04MSU
I'll most likely pick one up soon. They're selling fast, BTW. Full skid last week is now down to less than 1/4 skid. Costco rule number one - get it now before it's gone. If it sucks, I can always return it.

I like how this thing stores the cables and clamps - nice and neat. It would be the best charger if it came with extra attachments like ring terminal and cigarette lighter style plugs.

For those looking to have the desulphate feature.. my experience is they do deplete the electrolyte.. sometimes significantly.. so only use that feature only when you absolutely have to.

Yep. I have a charger that automatically desulphates as it charges and cannot be turned off. It's a self contained plug type - looks like an adapter. I only take it out when one of my numerous batteries around the house needs it. Some spiral gel batteries (Optima) do not like certain types of desulphating chargers. You have to use ones that are specifically designed for them, IF you want to use that feature for extended periods of time.

The Stanley, mentioned above, has a button to activate/deactivate the conditioner. That's why I'm thinking of getting it for the one battery in my workshop/trailer - the battery is a bitch to get at. The LED readout comes in handy.

We use this one

http://federalbattery.com/product-xtremecharger12volt

Pricey unit though. Guarantee to never over charge

I picked up the ctek on sale today from CT. it's currently on my red top. I don't think there is anyway to turn it off? it has a redtop mode so it must be fine.