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Battery preferences

T-Bird

Sr. Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
938
Loc.
East TN
The last ten years I'v only had to buy 2 batteries for 8 different vehicles/garden tractors/motorcycles. I've learned to slowly charge each one to a trickle charger every couple of months to get each one fully charged. I've had to use battery packs a few times for the diesels to get started, or where I've left keys on, but I haven't used my regular fast charger in years. It may have been a sales gimmick at the time I bought my trickle charger, but they said fast chargers would kill a battery faster than a trickle charger. I need to start looking for a newer advanced trickle charger.
Anyone got suggestions on the new ones?
Sorry if this took a right turn from your post.
 

5001craig

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
1,180
The last ten years I'v only had to buy 2 batteries for 8 different vehicles/garden tractors/motorcycles. I've learned to slowly charge each one to a trickle charger every couple of months to get each one fully charged. I've had to use battery packs a few times for the diesels to get started, or where I've left keys on, but I haven't used my regular fast charger in years. It may have been a sales gimmick at the time I bought my trickle charger, but they said fast chargers would kill a battery faster than a trickle charger. I need to start looking for a newer advanced trickle charger.
Anyone got suggestions on the new ones?
Sorry if this took a right turn from your post.

NOCO Genius. .75 W. I must have ten of them and keep them on everything that's not running. Including my '53 Farmall Cub that's 6 V positive ground.

And for the record, I like my Odyssey I got for my EB.
 

T-Bird

Sr. Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
938
Loc.
East TN
NOCO Genius. .75 W. I must have ten of them and keep them on everything that's not running. Including my '53 Farmall Cub that's 6 V positive ground.

And for the record, I like my Odyssey I got for my EB.

Good info, thanks
 

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,226
Loc.
Upper SoKA
I beat the snot out of an Interstate battery in the dune buggy. When it finally wouldn't start it any more I pulled it and found that the reason that hold-down kept loosening was because the case was buckling. It had about 1/2 the electrolyte in each cell that it should have, and it was 3 years past the warranty date. The Interstate rep had no sympathy for me. :(

I think starting batteries would last a lot longer if the regulators weren't so stupid. In stationary applications with 'real' charge regulators a 3-5 years lifespan would be unacceptably short.

With all this talk about Batteries. Has anyone converted to the iron/lithium. Lots of choices out there and the batteries have much more amp hours per size than lead acid. No, I have not done any research. I bet the cost will be a drawback?
PaulW
My understanding is that they also require either a trick alternator regulator or a DC-DC charger, either of which isn't particularly cheap.
 

pbwcr

Sr. Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
623
.
My understanding is that they also require either a trick alternator regulator or a DC-DC charger, either of which isn't particularly cheap.
====== ===
Refering to Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)
I am not smart about these things, but they are going into off road race rigs with stock charging systems.
Quoting from https://www.powerstream.com/LLLF.htm
A LiFePO4 battery can be safely overcharged to 4.2 volts per cell, but higher voltages will start to break down the organic electrolytes. Nevertheless, it is common to charge a 12 volt a 4-cell series pack with a lead acid battery charger. The maximum voltage of these chargers, whether AC powered, or using a car's alternator, is 14.4 volts. This works fine, but lead acid chargers will lower their voltage to 13.8 volts for the float charge, and so will usually terminate before the LiFe pack is at 100%. For this reason a special LiFe charger is required to reliably get to 100% capacity.

PaulW
 

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,226
Loc.
Upper SoKA
Given their expense I wouldn't use a std. regulator with those batteries. Doing so sounds like a sure way to shorten their lifespan.

Race team budgets are a different reality altogether.
 

KyleQ

Bronco Guru
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
5,480
I like batteries with a warranty and I like buying them local in case I have to use it. I've had excellent luck with O'Riley batteries and have them in my entire fleet, including 2 diesels.

I had to replace my last battery due to my hold-down failing causing a leak, this time I went with a group 34 AGM setup, love it so far.
 

73azbronco

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
7,796
Always buy with a warranty in AZ.

Eat batteries? Used to get 5 years out of them back in the day, then 3, now down to I'm lucky to get 2 full years off a battery. Warranty has given me 5 new batteries stretching out the useful life of one purchase to around 4-5 years.


I saw the high dollar Optima battery charger/tender on sale at summit last year, pretty slick and has rescued two batteries. One being an Optima on the shelf for 5 years, brought it back to 100% life.

I think I may also get rid of the huge amp old school but really cool looking NAPA charger. One because the "start" option still doesn't throw enough juice to crank an engine, two, I'd like the floorspace back

Any questions on best oil?
 

69_Sport

Full Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
258
Your choice of battery brand is of much less importance than how you take care of it.
A Battery Tender used daily will extend the life of any brand you decide to buy. I routinely am seeing 7-8 years of battery life. I have several collector cars, a boat, motorcycles, etc., that are using a mix of Optima, Motorcraft, Interstate and Yuasa brands. All are on tenders daily. Only my daily driver pickup is not on a tender. Guess which one has the shortest life? Yep, the daily driver, 'cause it's inconvenient to plug it in every day.
Buy whatever brand you like, but take some advice and buy a $50 Battery Tender brand trickle charger and it'll more than pay for itself.
 

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,226
Loc.
Upper SoKA
Put one of these in instead of the automotive regulator and I suspect that you'd also see a significant increase in battery life w/o having to mess with battery tenders.

http://shop.pkys.com/Balmar-ARS-5-H-Regulator-12-Volts_p_1734.html

Its about to become reality as I've one waiting to go into our CTD. I am expecting it to do a much better job of charging than the OEM 'stupid' regulator.

For batteries that sit for long periods and then need to work I think one these is simpler than a tender:

https://www.pulsetech.net/store/solar-battery-chargers/12v-solar-chargers.html
 

pbwcr

Sr. Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
623
Yes, it is a good idea to not let a battery sit. The maintainers solve the issue for a very low cost. I have 6 of them in use all the time for various rigs. The 1.5 Amp Schumacher works on all except the house battery in the RV. The house battery uses a 3 stage like the various start batteries. A 4 stage maintainer charger is even better for the start batteries, because the extra stage is for de- sulphating. The high amp house battery should not need a the 4 stage. unit. The Schumacher like most Battery Tenders are 3 stage units.
When using a solar panel be sure it is used with a 3 stage unit.
Using the maintainer like I described will greatly extend the battery life for any seldom used battery.
 

5001craig

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
1,180
On the topic of solar charging panels I just got a couple. I have two old school stand-up jet ski's ('88 Superjet and a '93 750SX) that don't get ridden often enough. They are on lifts in the water. I thought I'd just run 110V to the lifts and put the 110V .75W Noco Genius chargers on them that I keep on them in the winter. But handling the 110V cord and charger seemed like a pain. So I got to looking at Noco's website and saw their solar chargers. I already have their cord hard-wired to the batteries and the same cord can work with all their chargers including the solar panels. So I just plugged the solar panels into the plugs already on the batteries and sat the panels in the footwells. It couldn't have been easier. Made me think these could have a lot of different uses. I also got the Flex Regulators (these) from Amazon. Not 100% sure you need them but I went with them.
 

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,226
Loc.
Upper SoKA
De-sulfation was Pulse Tech's sales angle long before any of the tender type products started talking about multi-step charging.
Pulse Technology reverses sulfate crystal buildup on the battery plates extending battery power and life up to 3 times.
 

bronconut73

Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
9,916
I think it happened before JC bought them.
They took production to Mexico but kept the full QC department.
Later they chipped away at the QC department as many companies tend to do, likely as an easy profit increase.

Quality took a nose dive....
But it seems to be much better for the last 5 or 6 years,...
 

bknbronco

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
4,378
Loc.
North Metro, MN
i bought interstate for many years and found that they last exactly 3 years. I since went back to the "best" walmart ones. Cheeper, and usually lasted 5 years.
 
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