Battery Tender Plus Review

MarkD51 said:
Thank you Dave for this advice. I will try this tomorrow, and see what results I get?

I did contact my local Viper Dealer today, the people who installed the Alarm, and gave them the code readings from the Valet Device-Remote Start Antenna on the Windshield.

I was getting two flashes, and then a pause,, over and over endlessly. Could have stood there all day watching the two flashes, then a pause.

He said this code was related to the Micro-Sensor that detects Bumps, or hits to the vehicle? Hmm, that sounds awful strange to me, but he said he would make a call to his factory techs tuesday, and get back to me ASAP.

In the meantime, I'll try your little tip, and it sure would be really sweet if your little tip cures this issue once and for all!

Everytime a seem to turn around, Batteries seem to skyrocket in price. And those Optimas, which is what I'm using aren't getting any cheaper either. Mark
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Hope it solves the problem

Dave
 
Nice review Ray!

I faithfully use a Battery Tender on my Z06 when I put it to bed for the winter...

My Z06 Corvette is a 2004 and it still has the original battery so I think you have some idea of the importance of having one of these little babies!! :props:
 
BobbyG said:
Nice review Ray!

I faithfully use a Battery Tender on my Z06 when I put it to bed for the winter...

My Z06 Corvette is a 2004 and it still has the original battery so I think you have some idea of the importance of having one of these little babies!! :props:
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Bobby,

Any chance you would throw together a check list of your storage prep for your car? I have never stored a vehicle. I have been reading a lot and have a plan but more info is good. I just bought this battery tender from AG, be here Monday...of course with some other goodies I DON'T NEED as Michigan's winter approaches!

Thanks
 
While I have privately PM'd our great forum member David about some really great news, I also wanted to share this news with all you folks, so this information was made public, and will reside here for a long time to come, just in case some future member can possibly benefit from such information down the road.

I did this morning as David had suggested, I again hooked up my Battery Tender, the positive Alligator Clip to the Positive Terminal of my Optima Red Top Battery, and hooked the Negative Alligator Clip to a Bolt on the Exhaust Manifold.

All works flawlessly now, no more tripping of my Viper 5701 Alarm while it is armed. Thus, I can now leave the Battery Tender hooked up indefinitely, without the PITA need of unhooking the Battery from the Truck to charge.

Bravo David, and again, a great big thanks! I am one very happy man right now!

Now, I got another little problem with my Tahoe. Seems my 1 month old Covercraft NOAH Cover is turning into a pissing-spraying post, and a scratching post for the neighborhood Cats.

I just cleaned-wiped the cover with a solution of Woolite, and warm water, and am going to go around the cover with a little Febreeze.

I'm also going to check the local Petsmart for what they have, to perhaps spray a repellent product around the ground perimeter.

If that doesn't work, next plan of attack, I'll spray gasoline around the ground of the truck, and if that fails, out comes the Browning .22 Rifle as a last resort! LOL

No, not really, just kidding, too big an animal lover I'm afraid,but I just cannot continue to tolerate these cats slowly destroying this expensive Car Cover. Last resort might be calling animal control here. Mark
 
MarkD51 said:
Now, I got another little problem with my Tahoe. Seems my 1 month old Covercraft NOAH Cover is turning into a pissing-spraying post, and a scratching post for the neighborhood Cats.

No, not really, just kidding, too big an animal lover I'm afraid,but I just cannot continue to tolerate these cats slowly destroying this expensive Car Cover. Last resort might be calling animal control here. Mark
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You must realize that rightfully, your Tahoe's-Noah-Cover no longer belongs to you. :eek:

Animal lover or not...
The owners of these cat-pests, evidently, are not!!

I would take whatever actions I deemed necessary to be rid of (and to paraphrase Sheldon):

"Soft Kitty; Once-Warm Kitty.
Little ball of Dead-Cold-Fur"

Bob
 
MarkD51 said:
Now, I got another little problem with my Tahoe. Seems my 1 month old Covercraft NOAH Cover is turning into a pissing-spraying post, and a scratching post for the neighborhood Cats.

I just cleaned-wiped the cover with a solution of Woolite, and warm water, and am going to go around the cover with a little Febreeze.

I'm also going to check the local Petsmart for what they have, to perhaps spray a repellent product around the ground perimeter.

If that doesn't work, next plan of attack, I'll spray gasoline around the ground of the truck, and if that fails, out comes the Browning .22 Rifle as a last resort! LOL

No, not really, just kidding, too big an animal lover I'm afraid,but I just cannot continue to tolerate these cats slowly destroying this expensive Car Cover. Last resort might be calling animal control here. Mark
Click to expand...

If you come up with a solution let us know. I get putty prints on both the Wife's and Daughter's vehicles now and then. Being an electrician by trade I have often thought of buying some metal screening (2 pieces) and putting it around the vehicle with an extension cord. The hot on one screen and the neutral on the other. When you cross the two, well you know the rest. If people would contain cats like dog owners have to it would not come to these ideas and I don't want to hear anything about free roaming crap. When something starts destroying my property something is going to change. Mark, glad to have helped with your dilemma.

Dave
 
Ray@Autogeek said:
I realized I had an underlying problem in my charging system.
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That is why I have a voltmeter installed in my car and on my motorcycle. It tells me what state my battery is in while parked and what my charging system is doing while running.

As for Battery Tender products, they are not very forthcoming in their specifications. I've tested quite a few battery chargers/maintainers in our lab at work and most of them are substandard. The best charger we tested, and it is damn good, is the Xantrex TrueCharge 2, available in a various amp outputs (10, 20, 40, 60). Unfortunately they do not go for $59.99 and start at about $130. They are a charger that can be set to the actual battery type, temperature, etc.

And another thing, I have found batteries to last much longer using the two-stage algorithm (does not have a float mode).
 
I customarily get 6 years out of a Harley (Ultra Classic) battery by keeping it hooked up to a Battery Tender. I put the quick disconnects on the battery comming out just in front of the seat. Just hook up the tender each night and never worry about it again. My buddies would normally only get 3 years out of their battery without using a charger.
 
rmagnus said:
I customarily get 6 years out of a Harley (Ultra Classic) battery by keeping it hooked up to a Battery Tender. My buddies would normally only get 3 years out of their battery without using a charger.
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I get 8 full years out of my motorcycle batteries with them quitting somewhere in the 9th. This on a motorcycle with no or little electrical drain on the battery. It gets no additional charging during the riding season. During winter storage, the battery is removed and charged using a manual charger that gets disconnected when the battery reaches into the upper 14 V range. When battery voltage drops back down to the mid 12s (usually 2 months later), I'll charge it again.

On my other motorcycles that have electrical drain due to their on-board electronics, I'll use either my Optimate III or CTEK 3300. But even those have not been connected during the riding season and I'll lose 0.1V (12.90 V to 12.80 V) in battery voltage in 3 weeks.

The trick is to measure your battery voltage while the motorcycle is cruising. You hope to see 14.2 V to 14.4 V at 25C or 77F. Lower if hotter and higher if colder.

My car battery is now into its 14th year being charged solely by the car's alternator that is spot on voltage regulator-wise. Its also a maintenance battery (luckily) that I can top up every couple of years. The battery in the last car was 16 years old when the car was sold.

Its all about the correct voltages for the particular type of battery.

There are some good easy to understand technical manuals on battery care if anyone is interested.

YUASA Technical Manual

East Penn Technical Manual (discusses GEL and AGM batteries)

As for the "well my battery charger works". Of course it does, but some do a better job of charging/maintaining a battery. Its sort of like comparing an adjustable wrench to using a 6-point socket; they both loosen or tighten a nut, but the socket does a better job.
 
I had a Battery Tender installed on my HD V-Rod and it worked really well. The battery was always ready to go when I needed it. If I am fortunate enough to get a garage queen car or bike again, it will have one. They are cheap insurance.
 
I have the single and the 4 bank Tenders and they have worked flawlessly. My wife's 04 R1 still has the original battery in it and starts every time. All of our vehicles that sit for any length of time have the quick connectors on the batteries and get plugged in as soon as they are parked.
 
I spotted an auction for a "case" of them on E-bay so I grabbed them. How can you go wrong for a per unit price of $22.00
I have them on everything I own. Plus, I use them to keep my UPS batteries in top notch condition.
I have never had any of them fail. And some have been in use for seven years now.
 
MarkD51 said:
While I have privately PM'd our great forum member David about some really great news, I also wanted to share this news with all you folks, so this information was made public, and will reside here for a long time to come, just in case some future member can possibly benefit from such information down the road.

I did this morning as David had suggested, I again hooked up my Battery Tender, the positive Alligator Clip to the Positive Terminal of my Optima Red Top Battery, and hooked the Negative Alligator Clip to a Bolt on the Exhaust Manifold.

All works flawlessly now, no more tripping of my Viper 5701 Alarm while it is armed. Thus, I can now leave the Battery Tender hooked up indefinitely, without the PITA need of unhooking the Battery from the Truck to charge.

Bravo David, and again, a great big thanks! I am one very happy man right now!

Now, I got another little problem with my Tahoe. Seems my 1 month old Covercraft NOAH Cover is turning into a pissing-spraying post, and a scratching post for the neighborhood Cats.

I just cleaned-wiped the cover with a solution of Woolite, and warm water, and am going to go around the cover with a little Febreeze.

I'm also going to check the local Petsmart for what they have, to perhaps spray a repellent product around the ground perimeter.

If that doesn't work, next plan of attack, I'll spray gasoline around the ground of the truck, and if that fails, out comes the Browning .22 Rifle as a last resort! LOL

No, not really, just kidding, too big an animal lover I'm afraid,but I just cannot continue to tolerate these cats slowly destroying this expensive Car Cover. Last resort might be calling animal control here. Mark
Click to expand...

Here's an update. Sadly, I ultimately got no joy from the Battery Tender, and my Viper 5701 Alarm living together.

The Battery Tender (Mine is called the Power Tender, more money than the Plus Unit) will not be able to remain hooked to my Tahoe to maintain a maintainence charge while the Alarm is activated-armed.

I discovered a few days ago, a dead Optima Red Top Battery, as I went to open the hood, disconnect the Charger, start the truck, and nothing.

This ongoing problem is apparently uncurable. Neither Viper, or Deltran has an answer.

A 2-1/2 year old Red Top Optima is essentially shot, before the 3 year warrantee is up, and I cannot find the bill for it.

Went and bought a brand new Optima Yellow Top Battery yesterday, fully charged it off the Truck with the Power Tender, all went fine, after 8 hours it went from absorbtion mode, to float, installed it back in the truck, armed the Alarm, and again the same BS with the Alarm tripping.

So, I basically have one of two choices. I either arm the Alarm, don't use the Battery Tender, and again wind up with a dead Battery every 2-3 weeks, and kick the total #### out of yet another $200 Battery, or leave the Alarm in a permanent Valet Mode while I keep the Battery Tender on the Vehicle.

I see no other alternatives. No matter how I hooled the Battery Tender on the vehicle, this problem will exist. Mark
 
MarkD51 said:
I see no other alternatives. No matter how I hooled the Battery Tender on the vehicle, this problem will exist. Mark
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Mark, I can't see what one has to do with the other.

Why not connect the charging harness that usually comes with a charger/maintainer to the battery directly.

Next, monitor the battery voltage with a Digital Multimeter. What is causing your battery to drain? Do you have faulty alternator with a bad diode?

Why is your alarm tripping. Does it monitor battery voltage and look for voltage spikes? If so, what is the battery tender doing ripple-wise?

Measure your current drains with and without the alarm.
 
My Battery Tender Jr. and Viper 3303 with Smart Start are also at odds with each other... When the charger finishes charging and goes into its maintenance mode it causes my alarm to go off... Very annoying to say the least
 
Mirror Finish said:
Mark, I can't see what one has to do with the other.

Why not connect the charging harness that usually comes with a charger/maintainer to the battery directly.

Next, monitor the battery voltage with a Digital Multimeter. What is causing your battery to drain? Do you have faulty alternator with a bad diode?

Why is your alarm tripping. Does it monitor battery voltage and look for voltage spikes? If so, what is the battery tender doing ripple-wise?

Measure your current drains with and without the alarm.
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Hi, I'm very sorry to not know you had personally responded to me on this thread, and topic, forgive me.

Alternator is good. The particular Battery Tenders (2) I have are specifically called (Power Tenders), actually a more expensive model than the Battery Tender Plus, and when I bought them, both actually came with Ring Terminals, and I simply snipped these, and installed Alligator Clips, thus making them a bit more versatile.

I suspect without the Alarm, there would of course be less parasitic draw from the Battery. The problems are, the major Alarm Components of this Viper 5701 Alarm-Remote Start reside buried inside the Dashboard.

The Viper Dealer did state that without driving the vehicle, and thus charging the battery in the process, one can expect 2-3 weeks, and full discharge of the battery will occur, no matter the brand-capacity.

In any case, defeating, or disabling the Alarm in any manner sort of defeats its purpose of having one.

Again, the Alarm was professionally installed by a authorized Viper Dealer, and they did an impeccable, and totally professional installation, the Alarm works perfectly in every regard.

As a side note, my earlier Clifford Concept 20 Alarm did the exact same thing in regards to not being compatible with these Deltran Power Tenders, or the Battery Tender Plus. (I've tried the Tender Plus with both Alarms, to no avail)

I suspect these Alarms may have some sensing circuitry, in that if voltage suddenly varies, the Alarm system perhaps triggers as a safeguard, that thr Vehicle is being tampered with. I know some Alarms would trigger when voltage drops too low, as many thieves used to Ice Pick a Battery, draining the Battery, and thus disabling the Alarm.

I understand this was once a common prodecure-tactic with some Corvettes, that Thieves would Ice Pick the Battery, and thus, there were aftermarket Steel Battery Cases-Guards that would prevent this.

I'm guessing that with the Battery Tender in the mix, that vehicle system Voltage is changing, and gong up, the exact opposite of Voltage dropping.

The funny thing is, that when the Viper Alarm trips after a moment for itself to arm the Code on the Blue Valet Light indicates that a shaker-vibration sensor is the cause. And that's wierd.

One day I will get into the Viper Dealer again, and see of they can either lessen the sensitivity of this Sensor, or perhaps disconnect-disable it from the main computer brain of the Alarm?
Mark
 
Good to know! I just got my grandfather two of these for his boat batteries. Was a bit iffy about it, but you corrected all my worries.. Great review !:xyxthumbs:
 
Drunken Yak inc said:
My Battery Tender Jr. and Viper 3303 with Smart Start are also at odds with each other... When the charger finishes charging and goes into its maintenance mode it causes my alarm to go off... Very annoying to say the least
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At some point in the near future I will be getting my vehicle to the Viper Alarm Dealer, and let them have a look see, and see if they can find resolution to these issues.

If I come up with some answers, I will of course post them here.

If you should learn anything, please do notify myself and the group as well.
Thank you. Mark
 
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