Originally Posted By: raytseng
i vote also for ctek 4.3 over batteryminder.
my batteryminder 12117 failed and either fried or drained a costco interstate battery that was only 3months old. It was attached for a few weeks so i dont know when it fried ir. I think its charge strategy is fine but dont trust it as a long term trickle. so disconnect once it hits maintenance mode.
The Ctek end state strategy of pulse charging where it charges only when voltage drops down versus other brands trickle charging seems safer.
That's similar to the way that lithium-ion batteries are charged. They're never trickle-charged per se once full. Charging should be shut completely off until the capacity drops below a certain level through self-discharge or just plain discharge. Of course with a car battery charger that has no idea what size or history of the battery, it's not quite the same thing.
I've used my various Schumacher (yeah I know some people don't like them) automatic chargers. My old one was pretty dumb (purely analog) although there might have been some sort of timing mechanism. The newer maintainers and automatic chargers in maintain mode will stop charging once it starts pulsing. I believe there's a timing mechanism that waits a certain amount of time before it evaluates the battery again for top off, or where a high enough voltage drop will result in the charge cycle restarting. I've been in the room when it was pulsing green (kind of a heartbeat) and then went back to the yellow light indicating it was charging again.
i vote also for ctek 4.3 over batteryminder.
my batteryminder 12117 failed and either fried or drained a costco interstate battery that was only 3months old. It was attached for a few weeks so i dont know when it fried ir. I think its charge strategy is fine but dont trust it as a long term trickle. so disconnect once it hits maintenance mode.
The Ctek end state strategy of pulse charging where it charges only when voltage drops down versus other brands trickle charging seems safer.
That's similar to the way that lithium-ion batteries are charged. They're never trickle-charged per se once full. Charging should be shut completely off until the capacity drops below a certain level through self-discharge or just plain discharge. Of course with a car battery charger that has no idea what size or history of the battery, it's not quite the same thing.
I've used my various Schumacher (yeah I know some people don't like them) automatic chargers. My old one was pretty dumb (purely analog) although there might have been some sort of timing mechanism. The newer maintainers and automatic chargers in maintain mode will stop charging once it starts pulsing. I believe there's a timing mechanism that waits a certain amount of time before it evaluates the battery again for top off, or where a high enough voltage drop will result in the charge cycle restarting. I've been in the room when it was pulsing green (kind of a heartbeat) and then went back to the yellow light indicating it was charging again.
