Battery charger recommendations

[imiceman44]

I'm not sure I really buy the desulfating aspect of those maintainers. Is there actual evidence that they work? Not to argue, I just hadn't seen anything that showed results in testing.

Mine supposedly does that, we will see where my battery sits in a few years I guess.

I am a skeptic by nature and I am always willing to try things and find out.
My experience with multiple batteries shows that batteries that I had discarded as goners after trying everything, this charger did bring some back to life.
I am still going through my pile.
Yesterday 1 success and a failure from 2 batteries

 

[dyeager535]

What I've read is that they can simply be too far gone to save. Even the "flush/refill" process you can only do a few times apparently.

I've tried the maintainer/desulfator on a couple of my lawn tractor batteries but neither came back. I have a feeling both of those simply lost charge over the winter (my fault) and with no maintenance, went flat.

 

[imiceman44]

What I've read is that they can simply be too far gone to save. Even the "flush/refill" process you can only do a few times apparently.

I've tried the maintainer/desulfator on a couple of my lawn tractor batteries but neither came back. I have a feeling both of those simply lost charge over the winter (my fault) and with no maintenance, went flat.

The batteries I worked on have been dead, 0 volts for 2 years.
Again not all came back but a few did, and I had tried everything else before to try recharge them.
And I don't expect batteries to live forever, eventually the plates do disintegrate, but I found something that gave me back a few batteries which more than paid for the charger, I am happy with it

 

[dyeager535]

Wow, zero volts? Did you have to trick the charger into starting?

Mine won't even try if the voltage is too low. If I connect a good battery in parallel I can get it to start, but have to be very careful that the bad battery doesn't discharge the good one faster than the maintainer/conditioner can charge. Which I have seen before.

 

[imiceman44]

Wow, zero volts? Did you have to trick the charger into starting?

Mine won't even try if the voltage is too low. If I connect a good battery in parallel I can get it to start, but have to be very careful that the bad battery doesn't discharge the good one faster than the maintainer/conditioner can charge. Which I have seen before.

This one has a forced function, yes, you hold down the button for 3 seconds force it to repair.
Overnight it will build it up by spikes of hi charge

 

[Fordum]

I have always had good luck with a BatteryMINDer such as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D3SWXUA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Probably more than you need, and I'm sure there are cheaper versions that are just as good. I also own a NOCO Genius which is cheaper and probably just as good.
The BatteryMINDer is not waterproof or rainproof, so be careful. Found that out the hard way.

But for batteries, I only use two types. For some things, I will use the old style lead-acid wet cell. But for a boat, my tractor, and all my off-road equipment, I will only use an Odyssey AGM.
AGM, because its stupid to replace terminals and battery boxes every so often due to corrosion, and Odyssey, because that seems to be the best brand out there now.
I hear that they make batteries for other companies for maybe a lower price. I have heard that the top of the line NAPA AGM is an Odyssey, but not sure. And maybe one of the Diehards.
Of course they are very expensive, but if you take care of them, they will usually outlast a regular battery 3 or 4 to one. And they don't spill, leak, or emit corrosive vapors.
I used to have to work on my steel battery box in my F-250 almost every hunting season. I would clean it, paint it, and coat it with grease. And still it would rust out in a couple of seasons. I tend to drive my truck hard and fast through the swamps.

Put in a new box and filled it with an Odyssey about 6 years ago, and both are doing fine. Battery cranks good, and the box is rust free.
When I bought my new tractor, I was taking off covers and looking things over after I had had it about two weeks. Noticed there was already rust in the battery box.
Tractors have no suspension and bounce around a lot driving over plowed fields and things.
Immediately ordered an Odyssey for it, and gave the brand new wet cell to my friend for his big riding mower. My tractor is doing fine on that battery, and he just bought a new battery this mowing season to replace the one I gave him.

J.

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