Need suggestions on a battery charger/maintainer

[Jeff V.]

The HF Viking charger I have brought the VR4 battery back from the dead. It's a maintainer and charger. The car had sat outside for several months without being touched. I opened the door and there wasn't even a dying glow from the dome lights. I didn't check the battery with my meter, but it had no visible life in it at all. The Viking brought it back and the car has started just fine in the couple times we've driven it over the last few days.

One example isn't a good sample size, but it's worked well for me so far.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]The HF Viking charger I have brought the VR4 battery back from the dead. It's a maintainer and charger. The car had sat outside for several months without being touched. I opened the door and there wasn't even a dying glow from the dome lights. I didn't check the battery with my meter, but it had no visible life in it at all. The Viking brought it back and the car has started just fine in the couple times we've driven it over the last few days.

One example isn't a good sample size, but it's worked well for me so far.[/quote]

I would be interested in seeing what your internal battery resistance is and what % of life is left. HF does sell a decent battery tester/life meter to test that with.

My problem is that HF tends to cut corners on products but for me its been the battery chargers and quite consistently. I just checked a few reviews online and several were complaining of charging once and then not again, another said his voltage was too low for it to kick in (Schumacher also guilty), and another said that if his house looses power for just a few seconds the charger shuts off and has to be manually reset to work again.

Viking might be decent but I’ve just bought too many junk or so so units that fail me sooner or later. Quality units exist for not much more.

[Duck Vader]

I need to disconnect the jeep battery and put it on a maintainer now that I barely drive it.

[tabasco122]

One trick with the low voltage is to wire one in parallel. I would do that with the optimas to get them to charge.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""tabasco122""]One trick with the low voltage is to wire one in parallel. I would do that with the optimas to get them to charge.[/quote]

What happens when you only have the one battery around?

[tabasco122]

Then ya fucked

[ChargerX3]

Yea...no thanks.

[vr4]

[quote=""tabasco122""]One trick with the low voltage is to wire one in parallel. I would do that with the optimas to get them to charge.[/quote]

This is why I have a dumb charger sitting around. Puts a surface charge on it so the smart chargers can get working.


Schumacher still makes good chargers but nobody is gonna buy a $900 charger when they also make one that's "the same thing" for $329.

[DCIV]

[quote=""vr4""]This is why I have a dumb charger sitting around. Puts a surface charge on it so the smart chargers can get working.


Schumacher still makes good chargers but nobody is gonna buy a $900 charger when they also make one that's "the same thing" for $329.[/quote]

I have this huge roll around old craftsman charger, I love that thing for just this purpose. It’s gonna charge that battery with no errors or anything.


Coop

[tabasco122]

[quote=""vr4""]This is why I have a dumb charger sitting around. Puts a surface charge on it so the smart chargers can get working.


Schumacher still makes good chargers but nobody is gonna buy a $900 charger when they also make one that's "the same thing" for $329.[/quote]

My dumb 1 amp charger wouldn’t charge unless it detected voltage.

[DCIV]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073Z73TB5/re ... 7EbKT9BSH9

Went with this. I liked a couple things about it. One, when the power goes out it automatically starts back where it was and power goes out here often. Two, it was 1.5amp instead of just 1 that I’ve seen some others.

I bought an extension and an extra set of leads. I put leads on my 4 wheeler, mower, and I use just the clamps on the vr4. So far it was on the 4 wheeler for a day, lawn mower 15 hours, and now on the car. The 4 wheeler battery was new, and the lawn mower has been being used so I didn’t expect it to take long. The vr4 has been run a couple times too and I put the big charger on it often so I don’t expect a problem there either. Hoping to just get a couple more years out of the batteries and not have to change them.

So, so far I’m happy with it, but it hasn’t even been used for 72 hours yet so time will tell.


Coop

[DCIV]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4050715

Printed these today to hold the ends on the 4 wheeler and mower.


Coop

[DCIV]

Just adding that I found out there are some magnetic hook ups to charge. They are hard to find as they are sold out or discontinued. But in the future I want them.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Magnetic hook ups?

[DCIV]

[quote=""mjannusch""]Magnetic hook ups?[/quote]

Instead of plug in, it’s magnetic. Like Apple laptop safe charger.


Coop

[ChargerX3]

Say what???

[Jeff V.]

Yeah. Magnetic hookups. Like so:

https://www.ls2.com/forums/showthread.p ... ht=battery

Apparently it's also standard equipment on some newer Mercedes like the AMG GT.

[ChargerX3]

So still metal to metal contact. The last one pictured looks badly worn out and oxidized on the contact.

I would rather install the pigtails that come with these and use the supplied coupler for easy access.

[Jeff V.]

I just use the cigarette style connector that's in the trunk on my car. I leave the hatch cracked and just run the cord down the side.

It'd be nice to have a little magnetic nub on the outside, but I'd worry about corrosion. It might not be bad if you could keep it in some out of the way spot that was somewhat protected.

[mjannusch]

I don't think I'd cut up my grille like that Corvette guy did, but I guess I could see using that if you think you might forget to unplug the charger before driving. Trickle charger only, I would assume - the magnetic disc doesn't look like it is set up for any sort of real amperage.