Trickle Charge WITH battery still connected?

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I saw an excellent trickle charger on Jay Leno's you tube show. It was described as even better than Battery Tender because of its "greater intelligence" but that's beside the point. IT was by CTEK company. VIDEO LINK

It got me to thinking...

My car which is a short tripper. I was thinking of trickling it once or twice a week to extend battery life and would the best practice be to keep the battery cables connected to the car/computer or is that a NO-NO.
 
I have a CTEK. It is connected to my Mustang all winter.

It has a quick release for a better term. CTEK cables stay on the car year around. Simply plug the unit into the jack on the car and plug into an outlet. Works flawlessly.
 
It's across the battery and the ability of the battery to absorb trickle current will prevent a dangerous voltage rise. The components in a car electrical system are designed to handle some over voltage. Look at the ratings on aftermarket stereo stuff, they typically sown 15.8 to 16 as a safe operating range. A fully charged battery will show 14.2 plus or minus as the alternator trickle charges it with the engine on. If you are worried about AC ripple getting into the system a battery in good shape acts as a very high value capacitor filter. However if you are going to charge a battery with one of those 100 amp arc welder "quick" chargers, better take the plus terminal off.
 
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
I have a CTEK. It is connected to my Mustang all winter.

It has a quick release for a better term. CTEK cables stay on the car year around. Simply plug the unit into the jack on the car and plug into an outlet. Works flawlessly.


So, just to be clear, you DON'T take and terminal off when charging?
Also, it sounds cool that you have some king of a quick connect for it. Pics?
 
No need to disconnect the battery from the car with these modern chargers/maintainers.

I use this one on my car and motorcycle...

DSC_4888.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
I have a CTEK. It is connected to my Mustang all winter.

It has a quick release for a better term. CTEK cables stay on the car year around. Simply plug the unit into the jack on the car and plug into an outlet. Works flawlessly.


So, just to be clear, you DON'T take and terminal off when charging?
Also, it sounds cool that you have some king of a quick connect for it. Pics?


Don't have any pics of it on the car, but here is the unit I have:

http://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-158-1-12-V...words=ctek+3300

If you look in the pics of the unit, you will see the cord with the eyelets (goes on the batt) and the plug on the other end which plugs on the unit. Very simple to hook up.
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
I have a CTEK. It is connected to my Mustang all winter.

It has a quick release for a better term. CTEK cables stay on the car year around. Simply plug the unit into the jack on the car and plug into an outlet. Works flawlessly.


So, just to be clear, you DON'T take and terminal off when charging?
Also, it sounds cool that you have some king of a quick connect for it. Pics?
No need with a low current trickle charger. DO remove it with anything which produces more current. Amazon has a nice B&D unit with three sets of interchangable connectors, ring terminal, ciggy plug, and Gator clamps. Had one on the AGM on my bike for a couple of years.
 
Hook your charger up and turn on an AM radio. If you hear a lot of 60 HZ buzz, that's bad, but not awful, news.

The battery *should* soak this all up.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
No need to disconnect the battery from the car with these modern chargers/maintainers.

I use this one on my car and motorcycle...

DSC_4888.jpg



+1

I have one of these and another on order. It has the normal features of a small smart charger/maintainer (multi phase), ALONG with desulfation, and high/low temp compensation.

Its not weatherproof, but thats OK for my uses.
 
We install battery tenders on all our trucks (400+ to date) so that when the truck is plugged in for cold temp starts, the batteries get a trickle charge, block heater is active and so is the oil pan heater.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Hook your charger up and turn on an AM radio. If you hear a lot of 60 HZ buzz, that's bad, but not awful, news.

The battery *should* soak this all up.
I like your idea, but a scope would be better. Some chargers intentionally produce a pulse output.
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Seems like the 3300 is the best according to reviews hey.


From my experience, I would tend to agree.
I figure if Porsche and Mercedes put their name on them and sell for primo bucks, they can't be bad.
NOCO also makes some good units. I went with the 3300 because I got a good price at the time.
For the budget conscious, Sears also has a similar Die Hard unit that has decent reviews and can be bought for $30 during the right sale.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
No need to disconnect the battery from the car with these modern chargers/maintainers.

I use this one on my car and motorcycle...

DSC_4888.jpg



That's my favorite.

Anything about ctek being magically better is likely marketing fluff.

You either perform the correct constant current/constant voltage charge or you don't. The other steps are part of standard checkouts and operations in a script. It's not rocket science and is all well defined and proven in literature. All the mainstream chargers use the standard SAE bullet connectors. Don't think Ctek does which means some proprietary thing. Yuck.

Not saying Ctek is bad, but I'd rather use the standard connectors.

A good charger will have a temp sensor and adapt float voltages to ambient to be best for the electrochemistry.

If a charger has an equalization mode where it goes much above 14.4v tempeerature compensated, I might consider removing it from a car for isolation purposes. Good Chargers will not go that high.
 
On my commercial trucks, I have used, and still do, Xantrex inverter / chargers. When the block heater, oil pan heater, etc are hooked up to shore power, the inverter is a charger for the batteries at the same time. They are hooked up permanently with 1/0 cables and inline 250 amp fuses. Even on my present semi, I have a frame mounted box with a Yamaha portable generator in it I use away from home for the same purpose. Generator keeps batteries charged up while I am using all the "hotel loads" in the truck like fridge, microwave, laptop, interior lighting, diesel fired bunk heater, etc. No need to cycle the batteries down so much, no need to run the main engine at 1 gallon of fuel per hour. The generator gets nearly 10 hrs on 1 gallon of fuel.
 
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
I just have one of the Schumacher trickle chargers on the CVLX since it is hibernating for the winter. Leave it all connected. No problems.


I have an Odyssey Ultimizer charger (the 25 amp version), which is made by Schumacher, but specifically for the Odyssey AGM construction/chemistry, and as far as I know it does have an ambient temp compensating sensor in it, as well as specific de-sulfating circuitry/chips.

It NEVER goes above 13.7 volts when on a maintenance charge, once it has brought the battery up to 100%, save for when it is in de-sulfating mode (infrequently), when it will hit 17 volts for brief periods.

I have dual terminals on my Die hard Platinum, and use the factory GM side terminals to connect to the car, so I just use the top positive terminal, and a good common ground to charge, while leaving everything hooked up.

NO problems so far, doing this once a week.
smile.gif
 
I'd love to have a definitive number, voltage wise, when 12 volt vehicular electronics enter their uncomfortable voltage zone. I think they are pretty robust. Look at all the people who remove a battery lead with engine running to "test" the alternator these days, and don't fry their engine computer with the voltage spikes from an alternator load dump.

I know in some RV's with absorption fridges, that 15.5V is the limit on the fridge's circuit board. Rv batteries can need voltage above this number when cycled deeply often, and problems can arise if the operator has a voltage source capable of 15.5V+.

I use an adjustable voltage Switching power supply capable of 41 amps as a Manual charger, and while it will got 19.23V, I never set it higher than 16V.
I do disconnect the battery from all loads when I apply this high Equalization voltage, and I dip my hydrometer every 10 minutes and Stop charging when Specific Gravity no longer rises, or it reaches ~1.285, temperature compensated or battery temperature approaches 120F.

I don't trust these well marketed 'one size fits all' automatic chargers. Perhaps on a starting battery every so often they are fine. But not a deep cycle battery cycled deeply, nightly.

Some of these chargers might get confused when they are charging, and you open the doors and 0.8amps worth of lights come on. The charger will need to increase current a bit to maintain the float voltage, and when the doors are shut, the 0.8 amp load removed, voltage will rise, and the charger will need to back off current trying to maintain a float voltage.

This might cause the unit to shut off as it thinks there is something wrong with the battery, rather than a load on the battery switching on and off.

I have a Schumacher sc2500A whose voltage would yoyo from 13.6 to 16.5v when a 2.7 amp load cycle on and off the battery. Often it would shut itself off. If it did not, then overcharging and positive plate degradation would occur.

It is good to get, and keep a lead acid battery at 100% charged. Many charging sources that indicate when a battery is fully charged, would have a hydrometer disagree.

Many smart chargers when first turned on, shortly after the car is driven, are fooled by Surface charge, and will go into low current, low voltage float mode, instead of bringing battery voltage upto the mid 14's where it absorbs the charge as current required to hold mid'14s tapers off.

Might want to leave those lights on after driving to take off the surface charge, before hooking up and starting the charger. An 80% charged battery will only need 0.3 amps to hold it at 13.6V, but it can take 14 amps to get that same battery at that same state of charge upto 14.5V . So 0.3 amps for 14 hours is not going to replenish what 14.5v could in 45 minutes.

I've done tests recently with voltage and on my Deep cycle battery. 5 days at 13.6v was not enough to max out Specific gravity, and I can accomplish this in a few hours with voltages upto 14.9v at amperages upto 41, initially.

'Trickle' gets a lot of hype. Low and slow charging is easier on a battery, but will it get the battery fully charged in time?

Often, not.
 
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