For anyone with a lightly driven car or one that is stored for extended periods such as winter months, here is a great maintainer for the battery. My wife's late model car is lightly driven - 20k miles in 6 years. When the onboard vampires killed the battery and the dealer replaced it under warranty, they said either drive it more or get a maintainer. I bought this one and no more problems; the Z now has its own unit also. The multiple connectors are a really nice feature. This item is usually in stock at local Sears stores. (No affiliation with Sears).

http://www.sears.com/diehard-battery-charger-maintainer/p-02871219000P?prdNo=5&blockNo=5&blockType=G5

Yep, I have one, a very good device, it keeps my Vespa alive

Edited December 20, 201212 yr by 72 OJ

I have one called "Battery Tender" sold by O'Reilly's that has worked for a few years. The other charger I had kept overcharging which caused the electrolyte level to fall below the top of the plates which caused a permanently dead battery (sulfation).

I have a Battery Tender with two outlets that I use on my 1970 Road Runner and 2005 Lotus Elise. The RR is rarely driven and the tiny Braille (sp?) battery in the Lotus lasts 5 days without use/charge.

Chuck

I have been using these battery tender devices for decades. I am in my um-teenth and last one-I bought it two years ago after a warranty replacement of Shumaker died with fireworks! This one was more expensive, but it actually does what it advertises and that is more than sit there fat, dumb and happy feeding the slow discharge of storage...

http://www.saveabattery.com/All-In-One__Deep_Cycle_.html

It has rejuvenated several power Wheels batteries-they would last a couple of minutes, now they go a good 25, , two Jump Boxes-went from running an inverter for 10 minutes to just over an hour, a Red Top Ultima-my Lawnmower battery and the battery in my wifes Volvo after she left the lights on so long the battery was reading 0.

It came with a long ac cord several battery attachments(all polarized), (clips, Cigarette lighter, permanent Pigtail) and I just move the unit around...best one I have found, and in three calls to Tech support I have gotten outstanding service-direct from the OWNER of the company even when getting the dreaded ID-10T User error...handled well with no pride damage! I tried the other versions I have had on other batteries, and never had any favorable results on anything but keeping a stored battery charged. If a battery is wiped out it won't sort it out, but if a battery can be saved, it will actually do it.

i just use a kill switch and come spring the zed always starts up. never had to charge the battery. same thing with the wife's mustang.

hls30.com,

From reading that web site a fascinating aspect of the battery charger you are using is that it does pulse charging (these kinds of things fascinate me). I remember reading some years back that Cadillac was using pulse chargers in their cars though I never saw that independently documented and never heard it again. I also read that pulse charging is supposed to be able to reverse some of the sulfation in a battery (seems to be what you are experiencing?) thereby bringing it at least partially back to life something I understand an ordinary DC type of charger or alternator can not do.

Mike

People use too many gimmicks with cars today, from electronic anti-rust boxes to anti-theft GPS transmitters to battery tenders. the garages are filled with so much stuff there's no room for what belongs in the garage. An automobile with a correctly-functioning electrical system has no need for constant charging.

However, lead-acid batteries do lose a charge, naturally, in the freezing cold of winter.

I just take the battery out and keep in in the basement (with all the other car chemicals) where it's warm. Otherwise, it won't last more than a month in the Ohio cold. It's fine in the Spring when I need it. In the summer it'll be fine if I need a week later or a month later.

Edited December 21, 201212 yr by TomoHawk

hls30.com,

From reading that web site a fascinating aspect of the battery charger you are using is that it does pulse charging (these kinds of things fascinate me).

Mike

I'm with you Mike. I find the claims and the theory intriguing. Enough so that I built a desulfator a few years ago to try to resurrect my "not yet internally shorted, but low capacity" cycle battery. I charged the battery to what it would accept. measured the capacity, alternated hanging my desulator on it for a few days and recharging, and then measured the capacity again. In the end, there was no capacity increase and I had to replace the battery.

But... Before you go and throw in the towel on the technology, there are plenty of potential reasons why it did not work for me. Reasons ranging from the battery may have been too far gone to save, to I made some of my own theorized design improvements to the traditional desulfator design. :bulb:

Haven't thought about it since, but it's still sitting in the corner of the workshop! Thanks for the reminder!

I do have to say snake oil is not something I usually buy-but I had gone through the gambit of CHarger/tender/topper offers and had only one that lasted more than its warranty period. Before I bought the Battery Saver I researched it, called the company with questions-and spoke to the owner who was answering the Technical Support line(and has almost every time I have called) and found the best price in a Sale at Northern Tool.

I am impressed when the owner of the company knows enough about his products(he did actually design them) and wants to interact with his customers enough to man the customer support line-he hears and responds directly to every gripe, problem, and issue-what better way to improve a product is there?

This does seem to take care of Sulphation, if you have a conventional car battery(not the maintenance free) you can actually see a decrease on the buildup on the plates but peeking in the caps-or at least I did.

What really sold me was the Power Wheels batteries-the el cheapo charger that comes with the Power Wheels is just enough to do the job if you are paying attention to it-overcharging is typical, and ultimately deadly, add to that the charger uses higher voltage and current and the batteries heat up, shortening their life even more. With the Battery saver They might get slightly above ambient temperature, and they absolutely respond to the charger with improved performance-the batteries I used were 6 months old, they had seen service a time or two a week for most of that time-and were run down and allowed to cool before charging them, but the OEM charger just pushed a charge. The battery saver seems to sneak it in there! The battery does not know it performs better but my boys butt dyno and my watch tells me it does!

My mower battery was also a positive, even leaving it disconnected and tended between mowings, I have replaced it every second year and had to charge it after each winter(I would say cold spell, but here in Savannah we have about 10 days of 30ish lows, 20 days of 40ish lows and 30 days in the 50s, with a day maybe 3 in the 20s or below) The current battery was headed the same way, it was on it's second year due for replacement when I bought the battery saver. It is now 4 years old and still holding its own, I charge it one day every two weeks!

I had another red top optima that the battery saver would help but not repair. it would hold voltage until I put a load on it, then drop like a rock-the battery saver read it as dead from the get go, but still let me run the deep cycle option...as they say it wont fix a dead one, but a marginal can be brought back, and a new one kept useable longer... I use it on the battery in my 2003 Dodge Quadcab too-still on the original battery in it.

Edited December 21, 201212 yr by hls30.com

The Battery Saver guy was on My Classic Car once.

I hope you told him that it was a 280Z not a Lazy Boy recliner!

Edited December 21, 201212 yr by hls30.com