battery maintainer

[kparkfan]

Was wondering if this would be good enough to use for maintaining my battery over the winter.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=99857

or even this one

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292

[salty_monk]

If you want to go cheap then why not this one?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42292

cycle gear has Yuasa ones down to 30 bucks right now too. Never used that harbour freight one but the yuasa is good.

[bmac]

Tenders

I bought 6 of these in October from HF @ $5.99 each. Of coarse I check them every couple of days with a volt meter to make sure that they are doing there job. Cheap is cheap, but...... as time goes on they are working fine with no problems. Bob



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42

[robertkreidler]

Absorbed Glass Mat batteries

Just a heads up, these batteries don't seem to lose voltage very quickly. I left the battery in my DR, haven't ridden it in over a month, and it still shows 12.80 VDC, just as it did when I check it a month ago. Wish I would have known this when I put a new battery in the GS. My Bandit came with one, new.
Bob K

[focus frenzy]

Just a heads up, these batteries don't seem to lose voltage very quickly. I left the battery in my DR, haven't ridden it in over a month, and it still shows 12.80 VDC, just as it did when I check it a month ago. Wish I would have known this when I put a new battery in the GS. My Bandit came with one, new.
Bob K

AGM is the way to go, I just last week replaced the factory original AGM in my 2003 SV1KN because it was starting to get weak by the meter. it still cranked the bike over nice and fast but the rest voltage was down to 12.3 and cranking voltage was dropping to 10.5.
almost seven years old and it had been run dead several times but always took a charge.

I replaced it with a cyclegear lifetime warranty AGM battery so in theory I will never have to buy anouther battery for it.

[Steve]

Kpark, for the same money, you can get the Shumacher Battery Companion at Wal-Mart. I have several of them and they do quite well.

If you don't like shopping at Wal-Mart, you can get the same unit with a Die Hard label at Sears, but it will cost you an additional $10.

.

[kparkfan]

hey i love to shop at wolly world lol. i'll check there. thanks for the heads up steve

[salty_monk]

I have the Schumacher 1.5a maintainer / charger. $30 from Kragen. It seems good but I did read a story on here of a guy who's garage burnt down due to a fault with one!

http://www.cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?L1=&L2=&L3=&L4=&item=DEL_021-0123

Seems they also have the battery tender on offer too..... I saw the Yuasa one at the store. It's essentially the same but 0.9a instead of 0.7a

Sometimes it's better to go with a known unit... $20 is not a lot of money for something you can trust

[kparkfan]

aybe i should go with a better one being as they will be hooked up in the basement of my house. dont need no house fires thats for sure.

[salty_monk]

$20 is pretty cheap peace of mind. I'm nervous about leaving mine on after hearing the story but I've done it a few times now which does give me some confidence in it.

Dan

[Skateguy50]

All these threads remind me to charge my batteries up... still sitting on the shelf.

[almarconi]

I'd rather go with a battery tender junior from deltran. I cooked a couple of batteries with the cheap ones from harbor freight.