which battery tender?

Question

should i get the battery tender plus or Jr. model? one is 1.25amps and the other is .75 so im guessing itll take one longer to charge a battery than the other? thx.

Answer 1

Personally, I would go with the 1.25 amps if it were me. But, they both will work fine for motorcycle batteries stored over winter.

Answer 2

Leevcavcu is dead on. Heat is a byproduct of the current being used. Look, a good rule of thumb on tenders is to use the absolute smallest amount of output you possibly can. Same for charging new batteries, and same for maintenance charging.

Here's why. Lets use the hydraulic model for electricity, yes? When you are charging your battery, you are including the battery in the electrical circuit being produced by the tender. Inside the battery, we are going to look at what that circuit is doing. There are 6 chunks of lead in that battery. Those lead chunks are actually capacitors. Let's observe some of the activity between these capacitors. Imagine 6 lead plates sticking out of the ground. Now imagine an electric current going from one to the next, sequentially down our line of 6 chunks of lead. As the current passes from one chunk to the next, some material from the first chunk of lead follows it. Between these chunks of lead a stalagmite, stalactite, thing starts to occur. The current is physically removing material and placing it on another plate. This process is measured by, not as, resistance.

The inherent resistance of this system is what produces friction. Friction of course is heat. Now, as you might imagine, the stronger, or in the hydro sense, the more current you pass through these chunks of lead, the more material is removed and redeposited. This is why it is always desirable to use the least amount of current you possibly can to charge a battery for any reason.

The system on your M/C that charges the battery while it is in service is very high output. See: very hard on your battery. Charging a dead battery by bump starting your motorcycle, and then letting the mag charge it, is about the worst thing you can do to a battery. Conversely, that little 3/4 amp trickle charger is about the most gentle you can be with a battery.

Back to our 6 lead chunks sticking out of the ground. So, you can easily picture a stalagmite, and a stalactite growing together. But what happens if they grow together until they touch? When this happens, the two cells in question can no longer act as capacitors, and you have a, "short", circuit being produced by these two cells. Now the capacity charge is simply dissipated into the neighboring chunk of lead, and then back to the original; and so on. These two cells will now produce huge amounts of resistance to having there capacitance filled, so to speak.

This is when a battery becomes, "bad", and should be replaced. So, the more electricity you use to charge a battery, the harder on the battery it is. Contrary to popular belief, while in operation, an engine is getting what electricity it needs, from the battery. The battery is then constantly checked, and, "topped off", by the charging system of the bike. As such, there is never a period of extended charging. These quick burst currents from the charging system don't do much, because of their short duration. This is the life of a healthy battery. Now if your battery does have significant resistance, it will be less, and less cooperative with attempts to recharge it. This causes the charging system to want to charge it all the time, negating its inherent protections from over charging.

Always use the least amount of current you can to tend a battery. Especially if you are storing for more than thirty days or so. And usually, the higher setting on the tender is for charging, not maintenance. So be sure to read your instructions.

Answer 3

Battery tenders don't work on heat. Heat is a result of using electricity. Without heat, the battery tender would be 100% efficient which would break the 1st Law of Thermodynamics.

Either tender will store your bike for the winter. Sometimes fast charges aren't as good as slow ones. But in this case, it doesn't matter.

Answer 4

1.75 or 2amp.
Most folks do not realize this but ........ Battery Chargers work on the principle of heat and producing heat. Heat excites battery acid and makes it active. So the bigger charger will work best. I have owned 5 motorcycles and have attached a trickle charger to each one. The ones i used were the type where you attach +=Red to + post and -=Neg to the black or -
post. And leave the wires attached. The bundle up reall nice and a rubber band will hold them just fine snuggled into the battery compartment. Leave the power supply at home and in Winter hook it up and just leave it alone.
The ones i use comes frpom Dennis Kirk Inc they have a great web site so drop in and look around they have a little of everthing for all bikes.

Answer 5

If your battery is not the sealed, maintenance free type, check the water level every couple of days.
The acid will get hot and boil out the overflow tube.
I had a customer that left a battery tender on his battery all winter.
When he went to install it in the summer, it was bone dry and fried.

Answer 6

alot depends on how often you plan on charging and discharging your battery.

if you are merely putting a charger on the battery for a long period of time to keep it fresh when you need it, go with the lower amp charger ... where if you need to recharge it quicker, go for the higher amp charger...

Deltran is the manufacturer of both models you are referring to and have a selection guide on their website ~~> http://batterytender.com/selection_guide.php