Battery Tender plus

[wormdunker]

I fished/ trolled for 6 hours last Friday. By the end of the day my interstate battery was very low. I plugged in my "battery tender plus" & the red light was on continously for over 48 hours & still not fully charged. The green light never did light up. The charger became very hot, so I unplugged it. The battery guage on my 55lb Minnkota showed 3/4 charge. Does this seem like an abnormal charging time? Does the "battery tender plus" normally get extremely hot? Please give advice. I should mention I recently moved the battery toward the stern of the boat due to too much weight up in the bow. I used 14' of 8 guage battery booster cables. The new cables did not get warm at all so I'm assuming they are the correct size. Comments & suggestions are much appreciated. Thanx for your help

Brian

[Fisherman]

Your battery tender plus puts out about 1.25 amps and even after 48 hours it has only supplied about 60 amps back to the battery. They will get hot because it's going like mad to trying to recharge. The battery tender plus is more of a maintenance charger after a regular sized 10-15 amp charger is done fully charging the battery.

[Terry]

Fisherman gave you the right answer

[vance]

I have one of those and it does get hot IF you try to charge a battery with.It is strictly for maintenance only not charging.

 

vance

[boombap]

I've used mine to charge my deep cell batteries, takes a while but it does the job. It won't harm your batteries or the charger itself.

[Dabluz]

The problem with low charge rates is the fact that the battery is a long time charging. The time the battery is not fully charged, it does get a bit damaged. Ideally, the battery should be recharged as fast as possible, without overheating and without too many bubbles on the plates. Usually, a good intelligent battery charger will start out at about 6 to 15 amps and the charge rate decreases as the battery recharges and causes more resistance to the charger. When the battery is charging, shake it every once in a while to remove the bubbles that the hydrogen gas has formed on the plates. Touching the battery will tell you if it is overheating.

 

Another thing that must be considered to keeping your battery in top shape is to not let the battery discharge past it's 50%. The number of times that you can recharge your battery will drop considerably if the battery is consistently discharged past it's 50% point. Battery voltage should always be above 12 volts. If the trolling battery is to be used a lot, consider buying another battery.

[wormdunker]

Thanx for your input guys. I'm definitely going to be getting a second battery. Going to use my regular charger for a couple hours, then switch it over to the battery tender plus.

[Terry]

not a couple of hours, you should charge with real charger if your eral charger is 5 amps and your 100 amp battery is down 50%, it will take 10 hours to charge it that is with a real charger

[Sinker]

The battery tender plus is just that, a battery tender. Its designed to keep. Your battery topped up while not in use, not as a dedicated charger.

 

If you want your batteries to last, get a good charger designed for deep cycle batteries.

 

Using the tender all the time to fully charge your battery will burn out the tender in time. Its constantly working at its peak to catch up to a drained deep cycle.

 

My charger starts at 10A charge, then at about 80% of full charge, it switches to 2A charge. A drained 31 series deep cycle takes about 10hrs to charge fully, so I could only imagine how long it would take with just the tender.

 

S.

[NANUK]

As mentioned above, a discharged deep cycle battery should be rapidly charged on highest recommended amp setting to its 75-80 % capacity, and then topped up with low amperage charge to 100%.

Constant current charge rate should not be higher than 20% of battery's amp hour rating, for example if the battery is rated @ 100 AH, the charging rate should not exceed more than 20 amps.

A battery tender is mostly used for off season battery maintenance,

If you have a fully automatic charger, it will drop down to " Float " mode when the charge is complete, you do not need the battery tender.

[wormdunker]

Thanx again. I'm definitely going to be purchasing an automatic charger

[Canuck]

Get an intelligent charger that has multiple charge rates. The good ones match charge rates to the type of battery. For deep cycles they will really help extend the life of the battery. The other charge rate and amp rating advice above is bang on as well. You want a charger big enough to charge at the proper rates.

 

In the off season, you can leave the battery tender on full time. Check it periodically and check batter water levels too.

[Sinker]

The nautilus intellegent charger is on sale this week for $50 at CT. They also have an onboard, 3 bank charger on sale for $150.

 

S.

[wormdunker]

Got rained out today at work (Fort McMurray AB) so I started searching intelligent chargers. Found this very appealling. Battery Minder Model BM 12248. Starts out charging at 12 amps, then slowly decreases amperage to 6 to 4 until fully charged. Also has a system whereby it decreases sulphating of the plates to help restore a well discharged battery to a new condition. Sulphating of the plates is nasty. I was impressed. $139 in the US with a 5 year warranty. I emailed Total Battery on Dunlop St.in Barrie. Warranty on their site is only 1 year. Waiting for their reply. Lots of reading but, check it out. www.batterystuff.com I suggest reading their tutorial on the different types of batteries & chargers. Very interesting.

[Moosebunk]

This question has totally been on the brain and I gotta say the advice given here is awesomely helpful.

 

Leave a charger in the boat that puts out 2.5 amps. I've been blaming cruddy batteries and then my MinnKota as to why the battery life of any deep cycle bought seems to suck out too quick. Will charge from now on at 8 or 12 amps on the Eliminator instead.

 

Thanks.

[NANUK]

This question has totally been on the brain and I gotta say the advice given here is awesomely helpful.

 

Leave a charger in the boat that puts out 2.5 amps. I've been blaming cruddy batteries and then my MinnKota as to why the battery life of any deep cycle bought seems to suck out too quick. Will charge from now on at 8 or 12 amps on the Eliminator instead.

 

Thanks.

Is the Eliminator an automatic charger ?

leaving a battery @ 8 or 12 amp on a manual charger will boil the battery.

check water level in each cell, all plates should be covered and water level just bellow the neck of filler hole. use distilled water.