Battery Maintainer: Prologix vs Norco Genius

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I will have 2 and maybe three cars/SUV sitting in my garage this winter. The Norco has connections besides the clamps and battery ringlets being 12v cigarette plug can bus enabled and OCBD II to charge while Prologix has a 7 stage charge cycle including “exercising” the battery. Which one would you choose. The vehicles basically would sit from late November to March/April without being driven. Oil changed and tires filled to a little over spec’d pressures.
 
It's Noco, not Norco.
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I have both Noco G7200 and ProLogix 2320. As discussed in this earlier thread, Noco's charging logic makes me a bit perplexed. I guess I just don't fully understand what it's doing. What myself and others observe does not match up with what's described in user manual. For that reason, I've been using ProLogix instead.
 
Do you plan on leaving them connected the whole time or just charging them overnight once a month or so? If you're doing the latter, I'd just get a cheap Schumacher automatic charger and connect it with the alligator clips. I always worry about putting extra power through the obd plug.
 
I have the NOCO Genius 3500. It does what it says. It keeps my battery charged. Not sure layout how it works but it does. The only thing about it that disappoints me is the little eyelet things won’t fit on my battery cables and the clamps are a little small too. I have custom battery cables though on the truck so maybe they’re just bigger than most vehicles.
 
I have a car with a 1 year old battery that will sit outside from Christmas until mid-March while I'm in Florida.
I was thinking of connecting my 'Battery Tender Jr.' to it while I'm gone....Thoughts?
I don't mean to hijack this thread but it sounds like some guys think this is not a good idea?
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
I was thinking of connecting my 'Battery Tender Jr.' to it while I'm gone....Thoughts?

I would probably just remove the battery from the vehicle and store it indoors. Charge it up before you leave, and then charge it up again when you come back, before you put it back in the vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
I have a car with a 1 year old battery that will sit outside from Christmas until mid-March while I'm in Florida.
I was thinking of connecting my 'Battery Tender Jr.' to it while I'm gone....Thoughts?
I don't mean to hijack this thread but it sounds like some guys think this is not a good idea?


I have had a battery on the Battery tender for 3 months at a time with no issues. you can always set it on a timer that will turn it on for a few hours once a week.

I have had a lawnmower sit in the shed for 4 months with no tender (no electric out there)over an Indiana winter and it started right up. But a lawnmower has no draw while sitting vs a car.

You could always bring it in.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: pbm
I was thinking of connecting my 'Battery Tender Jr.' to it while I'm gone....Thoughts?

I would probably just remove the battery from the vehicle and store it indoors. Charge it up before you leave, and then charge it up again when you come back, before you put it back in the vehicle.


Thanks QP (and 5AaaF); I probably should just bring it indoors.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
BatteryMinder.

Hi/low temp compensation. Desulfation.



Could you explain that?....I'm not the brightest guy
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
Originally Posted By: Donald
BatteryMinder.

Hi/low temp compensation. Desulfation.



Could you explain that?....I'm not the brightest guy


The correct float voltage for the battery is dependent upon the temperature of the battery. Correct charging requires temperature compensation.

The CTEK has a cold temperature option, but that just ups the voltage, it doesn't follow the chemistry, which is what is really dictating the voltage selection.

For true long term storage maintaining, Id do for the battery minder for the temperature control.

For routine use, any of them are fine, though I greatly prefer to know battery voltage and so the big solar prologix are the best forthat.
 
it really comes down to what maintenance mode strategy you want.


The ctek seems to be the only one who uses the strategy of pulse charging, which I now think is the safest

Both the trickle/float charge and trickle with desulfate has the potential to accidentally kill batteries.


I have a batteryminder and was drinking the desulfating koolaid but switched over to ctek after a less than 1year old battery died under the batteryminder care. I would've been better off not using a charger at all.

cteks pulse gives gives up the "reward" of an absolutely 100% full charge. The risk of frying the battery just to squeeze those last few millivolts isn't worth that reward.
 
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I use a Battery Minder on the deep cycle battery in my trailer. Motorcycles get Harbor Freight cheapie maintainers. Will not use another Battery Tender after mine killed a battery it was attached to.
 
Sulfation is easy to get rid of on the positive by any regular charging and cannot be remove on the negative without physical intervention (such as adding cadmium sulphate), so you can ignore desulphation claims of chargers. Best way to avoid sulfation is to maintain battery charge.
 
All I can say is that the Battery Minder took a completely dead battery (you could charge it up, let it sit overnight, and the car wouldn't start the next morning) and made it serviceable again, at least for a few months until we scrapped the car.
 
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