Trickle charger recommendation for winter storage.

[Skye]

Anyone has a good recomended one let us all know.

Two companies I've consistently heard good things of: 1) Battery Tender and 2) CTEK.

https://www.batterytender.com/battery-chargers

https://smartercharger.com/

Ford Performance sells one which I have; it appears to be made by CTEK:

https://accessories.ford.com/ford-performance-5-0-smart-battery-charger-maintainer

While I've only been using mine for 18 months, it's been working great.

I do make a distinction between a traditional charger/trickle charger and a battery tender or conditioner. IMO, a charger applies a constant force (no intelligence) to the battery, while a tender exercises the battery; it "reads" the store and conditions appropriately.

When shopping for a tender, confirm it is sized for the correct battery or vehicle. There are motorcycle units, motorcycle/car units and car/truck-only units.

For those transitioning to a lithium battery, confirm the tender of interest supports that type.

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[Gregs24]

AccuMate 6V / 12V — OptiMate UK

I've used one of these for years - available in the US

As above I hard wired in and left the weatherproof connector poking out just near the wiper spindle

 

[jimgt2k24]

The S650 has an AGM battery. Make sure your charger can handle that.

 

[Gregs24]

The S650 has an AGM battery. Make sure your charger can handle that.

Does it? I imagine the Ecoboost engine S650 could with the stop/start system, but surely the V8 is just an SLI/EFB as before?

 

[Sofa King]

I have been using the Noco chargers (amazon) at work on some equipment and decided to try one on the new S650. They have the AGM setting as well.

 

[NightSurgeX2]

Bumping this thread. Is this old battery tender I used for my 2003 Mach 1 going to be ok/good enough for my Dark Horse?

I hooked it up yesterday, it read solid red, which means charging. I checked it again this morning after a good 12 hours and it was still solid red. Blinking green is 80%+ charged, so these batteries must really come from the factory low?

I've had one long drive with it, but the rest are usually 10-20 minute drives. I know the battery is constantly being used as I hear the car click on constantly when it's off, so maybe they just take a really long time to fully charge?

 

[Sofa King]

Bumping this thread. Is this old battery tender I used for my 2003 Mach 1 going to be ok/good enough for my Dark Horse?

I hooked it up yesterday, it read solid red, which means charging. I checked it again this morning after a good 12 hours and it was still solid red. Blinking green is 80%+ charged, so these batteries must really come from the factory low?

I've had one long drive with it, but the rest are usually 10-20 minute drives. I know the battery is constantly being used as I hear the car click on constantly when it's off, so maybe they just take a really long time to fully charge?

They are AGM batteries... you need an AGM capable charger.

 

[NightSurgeX2]

They are AGM batteries... you need an AGM capable charger.

That one is compatible with AGM. So the answer is yes, thanks!

Though after looking up my model, it's only built up maintain car batteries, not charge and maintain, so I might bump up to the bigger brother, 3Amp version.

 

[SAL-E]

It is 20 years old. I would get a new charger with a specific AGM mode. I personally use NOCO Genius chargers on my F150 and Mustang, and they work great.

 

[NightSurgeX2]

It is 20 years old. I would get a new charger with a specific AGM mode. I personally use NOCO Genius chargers on my F150 and Mustang, and they work great.

The charger is not 20 years old, just the mustang was haha. I bought it new in 2018.

Update, it is fully green/charged this morning so it looks to be working just fine.

If it seems to be causing any issues (which I doubt ) I'll upgrade to the one I posted above. Never had any issues with Battery Tender brand.

 

[Gregs24]

The charger is not 20 years old, just the mustang was haha. I bought it new in 2018.

Update, it is fully green/charged this morning so it looks to be working just fine.

If it seems to be causing any issues (which I doubt ) I'll upgrade to the one I posted above. Never had any issues with Battery Tender brand.

What you have experienced is a good thing! A slow charge (which a max of 1.5A is) is much better for the battery. Most cars batteries are maintained at about 80% charge by the car itself to prevent the risk of overcharging repeatedly.

 

[Vapor Blue GT]

I used a Sears trickle charger I bought back in ‘09. Used it every winter for 11 years 5 months at a time. The cars original battery lasted 14 years. I think I have $20 for it.

 

[24 vert]

The Noco brand seems to be quite good and I've used my two amp Noco Genius charger for years for my Aston Martin as well as my previous motorcycles. Quite easily available online. The noco genius chargers work for standard lead acid automotive batteries, and have a button to switch to different modes for AGM, as well as lithium ion batteries. If you're using it for storage/trickle charge, a higher amp rating is not needed and the smallest one will usually suffice. CTEK which manufactures the OEM ford charger also makes the charger for Ferrari / Lamborghini / Aston Martin / as well as multiple other OEMs so no doubt that their technology is solid and it's a great alternative option... From what I know, the battery tender brand chargers (which are widely available and well reviewed) do not have temperature compensation circuitry built in so if it's too hot or too cold, it can over or under charge the battery, respectively. Both will cause loss of battery capacity over timewhile in storage which defeats the purpose of having the charger in the first place though this effect is likely only to be exhibited over a course of years and not months. Noco and CTEK both have the built-in temperature compensation circuitry though they do use different strategies for the temperature compensation. I prefer the Noco temperature compensation strategy over the CTEK. The Noco chargers also have a desulfation mode to try and bring dead batteries back to life if they are not too far gone. I don't know if the other trickle/storage chargers do that though a lot of the larger table top battery chargers do have that functionality. Noco also has a 6 volt mode.(maybe for older motorcycles/electric start lawn mowers etc but I've never used it since I don't own anything that has a 6 volt battery) If you're buying a Noco genius charger from Amazon, I would wait for their prime day / Black Friday sales If you can because there was significant discounting on the Noco stuff at that time sometimes as high as 50% off. Also, the five amp version can be used to power small 12 volt devices as well. Also tons of accessories available, extensions/adapters/pigtails etc. and I think they're pigtails/connectors are probably the highest quality of the commonly available brands.

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