Battery Tender – trickle charger for your car

When my dad died, we had troubles keeping the battery in his car working, because we just didn’t drive it enough. After needing a jump from a friend, they recommended we get a trickle charger.

I did some research, and found the Battery Tender line of products from Deltran.  You just put the clips on the battery, plugged it in to the wall, and when the green light was solid, you had a full charge.  Of course, this required opening the hood to get to the battery.  What if I wanted to be able to quickly put the battery on and off the charger?  Deltran thought of this, they created the Ring Terminal Harness, which attaches to the battery posts and has a quick connect attachment to the charger itself.  I put one on my mom’s car, as she started driving less and less, and we just leave it attached all the time except when we are driving her car.  I put one on the truck, as we drive it infrequently, and it would be nice to boost it easily… but then the battery died.  The quick connect was not capped, and we could not figure out if this was the problem, or if it was just that the battery was old and at end of life.

So then I got their Digital Voltage Display accessory.  You attach this to the end of the cable and it will tell you what charge the battery has.  What we figured out is that the truck needs a fairly high voltage, definitely above 12V, in order to start.

They have several other accessories, including a USB port, a wireless battery monitor, a DC power connector and an ODBII connector. All can be seen here: http://products.batterytender.com/Accessories/