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battery tender

Biggest retailer in America (the world?), virtually everything they sell which isn't a name brand is crap, yet people keep buying from them because its cheap. I don't get it.

Pardon the thread derail.

You can't even trust the brand names without careful checking. I was working an insurance claim where the suspected cause was a Magic Chef appliance. I wrote Magic Chef to put them on notice. They wrote me back to inform me that they had sold the name to Walmart who put in on an appliance made in China. I contacted Walmart and they confirmed the information and told me who in China supplied. I was thankful that the fire was operator error rather than eqipment failure so I didn't have to fight the battle of Walmart and China.

I also discovered a 26" RCA TV I bought from Walmart was not made by RCA when the Dish remote would not program for the TV. I discovered it was made by an unknown company when I read the warranty.
 
Per their ad "Perfect for all lead-acid, flooded or sealed maintenance free batteries (AGM and gel cell)"

You usually find that on the packaging of chargers, except instead of the word "Perfect for" (which is a lie), they use "Charges" which is sort of true, but they fail to tell you that it'll affect the life of your battery.

But since your average Joe is happy with five-year battery life (talk about a short life for a battery), nobody bothers to get into the details of battery chargers.

Sorry to say, most of them are worth what you pay for them...no more.
 
Over the years on motorcycle forums, I always read about people plugging their bikes into battery tenders or chargers when not in use, the correct chargers you MUST use, etc.

I've never done it on any motorcycle I've ever owned. Maybe I just ride them all frequently enough so that it's never been an issue?

I got 9 years out of my Yuasa lead acid battery. It was still functional, but I replaced it because I was going on a weekend trip. So far, on my sealed battery, I'm on year 6 with no signs of slowing down.

I use my cheap charger twice a year; in the late fall when putting the girls away for the winter, and in the spring, when waking them up. In between I just ride, and frankly, I'm very satisfied with the life of the batteries I use. My motorcycles usually are idle the months of December, January, and February here in Minnesota, and usually get "woken up" some time in middle or late March.

Honestly, it works just fine for me, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
;)
 
I always read about people plugging their bikes into battery tenders or chargers when not in use...

In fact, a better charger is one that does not go into "float mode", instead, one that properly tops up a battery in the absorbtion mode and then switches off till battery voltage drops down to ~12.7V where it switches back on again and the cycle repeats.

Both of my CTEK 3300 chargers do that even though they are advertized to do 3-stage charging...all the better.

My factory Exide battery in my oilhead GS would sit at 12.9V for at least 3 weeks till my voltmeter display would show 12.8V.

I just walk by my GS now and then and check the reading on the dash...
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My motorcycles usually are idle the months of December, January, and February.

Its a good idea to at least monitor battery voltage while it is parked, even if the battery is disconnected. If you have any standby current draw, then disconnecting the battery is a must.
 
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