battery tenders

Nortoniggy said:

elefantrider said:

I always disconnect my batteries before putting the maintainer charger on. Something about having 12 volts constantly running through the 45 year old harness when I am not arround doesn't let me sleep well at night.

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Hate to burst your bubble but when you're battery is connected you do have 12 volts running through your wiring.

I wouldn't leave a charger connected to a lead acid battery for longer than a day. Lead acid batteries are not suited to float charging which is what these chargers do once they're done with the initial charging.

Ian

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I was talking about when I am storing my bikes or cars, I disconnect the the battery from the vehicle's old main harness. 12v through a new batt maintainer harness to battery does not worry me at all.

This subject was covered a few years ago:

how-you-keep-batteries-from-stranding-you-t15253.html

As I have several vehicles at two locations, I decided to keep smart tenders (Battery Tender Junior Plus) on all batteries all the time. I'm often away from my vehicles for 6 months or so, so routine checking on the state of charge is not possible for me. All batteries have pigtails with Harley-style quick-disconnect connectors, and I make it a habit of connecting the tender when I turn off the ignition and the petcock after a ride. I've been doing this for several years, and even the Harley battery remains sound and fully charged. As a note of caution, the output resistance of the tender is 100 kOhms or so, so a small leakage current will occur if the tender, while in use, is inadvertently turned off and left off for several months (i.e., do NOT use a GFI receptacle to power the tender if it is left unattended for a long time). Using conventional receptacles will allow the tenders to recover from power outages, just like the rest for your home appliances.

I just love my Joe Hunt maggie, no need to worry about my batteries.

Ashley