What do you guys use for a decent battery charger maintainer? I have an older carquest charger that is not a maintainer and just kicked the bucket on me (over 10 years old). I used it to charge my rv battery and my kids electric motorcycle batteries and the cars when they needed it.

I would like to get a 12v charger / maintainer instead of just a manual charger. I would like it to charge a car battery at a somewhat decent charge time. The smaller charger / maintainers I seen take over a day to charge a car battery.

Any advise?

I use the NOCO 7.2 amp version and installed a quick disconnect in my front bumper so I don't have to pop the hood...



They have different sizes/models available...
https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G7200-Ul.../dp/B004LWTHP2

I have grown found of the 5A supply mode too... for those times I want to test or power small 12v items.

I could have went smaller, but 7.2 amps is enough to keep both batteries topped off and my ARB fridge running when its parked in the garage.

No issues to report to date... I like how it supports other battery types and voltages but I haven't used those modes yet.

I also have a couple of those Battery Tender Junior units that only do 0.75 amps, but I have them on other things around the house. One being a small ham radio setup to keep a 12v SLA topped off and one on my ATV. Slow chargers, but good maintainers.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tende...Battery+Tender

i use a ctek multi us 25000
CTEK Multi US 25000 - CTEK Battery ChargersCTEK Battery Chargers
i usually use this when i havent really drive my truck much and have my music full tilt most of the time. i like to keep the batteries topped off with this. charges both my group 31 batteries with no problems.

http://a.co/cUbgCA3

$14.62

i dont hate it. i have two. one on my 4runner with a big @ss 2150 stinger battery and one on my dual battery setup volvo c70 convertible (real real big system). 1750 stinger up front and another 2150 in the rear for the music

And "I" use BatteryMINDER 128CEC1.
All the ones here are "good". I did a lot of research and read reviews on Amazon and ended up with the above. Not disappointed. I keep a few of my batteries hooked up to it for "desulfating". But have no hard data to say it real make a difference.

The BatteryMINDER was high on my list as well when comparing to the NOCO...

I did an exhausting amount of research on desulfating and think its really interesting. My only concerns was hooking it up to a battery that is also connected to sensitive electronics...

From what I understand the desulfating process requires a very very short pulse of a higher voltage to accomplish and I wasn't sure if that was going to be a concern or not.

I guess none of my batteries are really that far gone, but it might be worth looking into depending on how you use those cells.

i was looking at the noco as an option as well. how fast would you say it could recharge an almost dead battery(lights left on overnight) back to full?

thats what i was looking at as well since it can recharge gel batteries. i remembering buying an optima red top when they first came out and being seriously burnt when i could not charge it. but the recharge times using it are super slow from what i have read.

A little off topic but pertaining to batteries.

I recently purchased several 4Runners. A couple of them had dead as door nail batteries. The vehicle could be jump started but if you shut it off you got nothing. Batteries were dead.

I took them out and cleaned them off. Took off the caps and put 4 heaping teaspoons of Epsom salt in each cell and topped the cells to cover the plates.

Put a charger on them and now they both hold a charge and will crank the vehicle even if left for a couple of weeks.

Recharge times are recharge times... its simple to calculate... no magic behind it.

If you have a 100 amp hour battery, and a 10 amp charger, it takes about 10 hours to charge it...

If you have a 100 amp hour battery, and a 20 amp charger, it takes about 5 hours to charge it...

If I need to fast charge car batteries, I do the bulk charge using a DC to DC converter, and then do the absorption stage using something like these maintainers.

It goes a lot faster than you might think...

I use a NOCO charger as well but I forgot which one I have. It charges 12/24v, AGM, desulfates, and has a maintenance setting along with a power supply setting. Very easy to use and seems to work quite well. It also looks kinda cool as well so it has that going for it too