Battery Tender/Charger
Pole Position
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,241
Likes: 63
From: MO
I have a Battery Tender Plus that I purchased from Amazon.com that quit working. It's under warranty, but not worth spending the money to ship it back. I'm now using a Yuasa battery charger that works much better. I keep a battery tender on my vehicle all the time. My LS 460 sits in my garage most of the time.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
From: VA
I use the battery tender plus for a couple cars for years now. They work fine and are pretty cheap. I just bought a couple extra leads to hook up and leave in the cars so it's really easy to connect.
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Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 813
Likes: 7
From: MO
Do the tenders you guys use have enough oomph so the battery won't discharge when all doors and trunk left open? My detailer shampooed my carpets and I wanted to let them dry so, I opened everything and put the car on a Sears (I think) battery tender. Batt was dead next morning. Tender went in the trash. So now what?
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Moderator
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,263
Likes: 15
From: Florida
Do the tenders you guys use have enough oomph so the battery won't discharge when all doors and trunk left open? My detailer shampooed my carpets and I wanted to let them dry so, I opened everything and put the car on a Sears (I think) battery tender. Batt was dead next morning. Tender went in the trash. So now what?
If you open the doors it is likely that a JR would not be able to keep up with the draw the lights etc suck out of the battery.
Even the Battery Tender Plus only puts out 1.25 amps and it also may not be able to keep up with the draw.
The way to check is to measure battery voltage after hooking up the Tender and checking it 10 minutes later. If second reading is less than the first it can't keep up. If I needed to let carpets dry and leave the doors open for many hours I'd pull the fuse that supplies the lights and verify via voltmeter that the Tender could keep up with the draw.
I've used a 24 volt maintainer version for years on expensive ($500) batteries in aircraft that were not flown frequently. They do a good job of keeping idle batteries topped off and ready to go and extend the useful life of these batteries.
JR
Last edited by FLYCT; Jan 8, 2013 at 08:47 PM.
Moderator
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 2,220
Likes: 310
From: TX
Do the tenders you guys use have enough oomph so the battery won't discharge when all doors and trunk left open? My detailer shampooed my carpets and I wanted to let them dry so, I opened everything and put the car on a Sears (I think) battery tender. Batt was dead next morning. Tender went in the trash. So now what?
Moderator
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,263
Likes: 15
From: Florida
Your battery was likely depleted by the exterior lights staying on. The exterior lights are extinguished 30 seconds (or set timeout) after all doors/trunk are closed when the ignition is off. The interior lights automatically extinguish after 20 minutes, even if the door/trunk is open - the parasitic load is the same as with the doors and trunk closed. As long as the exterior lights are extinguished, you should be able to leave the doors/trunk open and expect that your battery would support a normal start even after several weeks. You can just wait for the exterior lights to go off or you can turn them off with the stem on the steering column.
The good news is my car still started.
JR
Last edited by FLYCT; Jan 8, 2013 at 07:54 AM.
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 813
Likes: 7
From: MO
Yup, those were the dirty bastards that got me! I also managed to run down the battery when first moving my music onto the hard disk drive (ML). At home, I put car into Accessory mode and kept loading up the changer with six CDs, then playing/recording them with volume off (maybe in Fast mode, I forget). After a few cycles, I went out to change CDs and everything was dark - not a good sign. Batt was dead and I needed another jump. Arrgh! At least we have iPod interfaces now.
I use a cheap black and decker tender i got from target on my supra. Works pretty well.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-B.../dp/B0051D3MP6
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-B.../dp/B0051D3MP6
