Dr.Jeff
True Classic
I finally remembered where the previous discussion was about battery maintainers, and it was on another forum. So I reviewed that discussion again, here are some highlights.
A couple other members had similar experiences as me with Schumacher brand products (not good). But I also respect the good experience that @MikeHynes has had with their products. So perhaps it depends on the specific model or such? I realized I actually still have a maintainer from them in a box. It was one I was given as the replacement for a failed one a long time ago. By that point I had already given up on their products so it went into storage without ever being opened. Maybe I'll dig it out and given them one more try?
There were SEVERAL bad experiences like mine with "Battery Tenders" (Deltran), all failed in a similar fashion as I described above. Jay Leno may be biased in his opinion favoring them; I suppose if they gave me free units and endless free replacements when those failed then I'd also say good things.
The ones that were recommended by a couple people on that forum were C-Tec, Noco, and something called "IOTA". The C-Tec and Noco items are very expensive and honestly I wonder if a lot of their loyalty is due more to price than actual quality/performance. What I mean by that is the psychological tendency to believe that the more you pay for something the better it is, and the related tendency to want to believe that you got something better after spending a lot of money on it. I've never seen any actual evidence that they are in fact better products. Has anyone seen any quality testing, scientific evidence, or other factual support for them? I'd love to find a reason to justify spending the money, if indeed it really works.
That other item, "IOTA" appears to be products from a company called DLS. They make power converters and such for things like RV's, industrial applications, etc. Among their listings are several "battery chargers", or what they call "charge controllers". I recall having something like this on my RV years ago. In that application it managed several functions; converting 12V to 110V, regulating the solar panel input, maintaining the batteries (multiple), and sensing when the vehicle was plugged into a landline 110V source. The products I see on their site are not the battery maintainers we know. They are "black box" items intended to be hardwired into a system. I'm not sure if this is a good option for our intended use.
Otherwise there were no other recommendations for a good maintainer. In fact a couple commented that they just buy new batteries every few years and not bother with maintainers. But at the price of batteries these days, and especially with their incredibly short lives here, that isn't a good option for me.
A couple other members had similar experiences as me with Schumacher brand products (not good). But I also respect the good experience that @MikeHynes has had with their products. So perhaps it depends on the specific model or such? I realized I actually still have a maintainer from them in a box. It was one I was given as the replacement for a failed one a long time ago. By that point I had already given up on their products so it went into storage without ever being opened. Maybe I'll dig it out and given them one more try?
There were SEVERAL bad experiences like mine with "Battery Tenders" (Deltran), all failed in a similar fashion as I described above. Jay Leno may be biased in his opinion favoring them; I suppose if they gave me free units and endless free replacements when those failed then I'd also say good things.
The ones that were recommended by a couple people on that forum were C-Tec, Noco, and something called "IOTA". The C-Tec and Noco items are very expensive and honestly I wonder if a lot of their loyalty is due more to price than actual quality/performance. What I mean by that is the psychological tendency to believe that the more you pay for something the better it is, and the related tendency to want to believe that you got something better after spending a lot of money on it. I've never seen any actual evidence that they are in fact better products. Has anyone seen any quality testing, scientific evidence, or other factual support for them? I'd love to find a reason to justify spending the money, if indeed it really works.
That other item, "IOTA" appears to be products from a company called DLS. They make power converters and such for things like RV's, industrial applications, etc. Among their listings are several "battery chargers", or what they call "charge controllers". I recall having something like this on my RV years ago. In that application it managed several functions; converting 12V to 110V, regulating the solar panel input, maintaining the batteries (multiple), and sensing when the vehicle was plugged into a landline 110V source. The products I see on their site are not the battery maintainers we know. They are "black box" items intended to be hardwired into a system. I'm not sure if this is a good option for our intended use.
Otherwise there were no other recommendations for a good maintainer. In fact a couple commented that they just buy new batteries every few years and not bother with maintainers. But at the price of batteries these days, and especially with their incredibly short lives here, that isn't a good option for me.