[sjpaq]

I have my quad outside this winter and won't get to use it much due to an injury. I would like to make sure that the battery will start it in February and would like to know more about options for keeping it charged.

What is a tender and can people recommend a few models / prices?

I have a charger that I use for my motorcycle, but I have to remove the battery, which is a pain.

Can a tender plug in more directly (cigarette lighter?)? Or do I have to remove the battery?

I have a XP850 HO, where is the battery (just got the quad in late fall)

Thanks in advance to all

 

[Fastaggie]

I bought a battery tender Jr from Walmart. I used the short quick connect that comes with it. You put one side onto the battery terminals, then run your quick connection somewhere easily accessible on your ATV. Then you just plug and unplug quickly and plug into wall. Works great.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Battery Tender JR. can be had for about $40. I have one, it works well. You are further north than me (MT), I have less than 1 hour of solar potential this time of year. I don;t think a solar charger would work for you in the winter. Summer is a different story. You can hard wire a pig tail (comes with the tender) to your battery so you don't have to remove it. Not sure on the cig lighter, I don't think it gets power unless the ignition is on.

 

[GaleHawkins]

If you have 120v handy that is the best route for most of us due to shade and winter sun angle. If you get one with the Desulf feature that is even better

 

[SVTCobra]

I have a schumacher battery maintainer from wal mart. It comes with two different connectors; clamps and a ring connector. I took the screws out of my 550 battery and added the ring conector to the ones all ready on the battery. It is a short connector that hooks to the longer chord on the tender. When not in use the ring connector stays on the battery and has a cover that protects the end that hooks to the tender. I have two of them one for my Cobra and antoher for the 550 and had no problem with them.

 

[Kme743]

Another vote for the Tender Jr. Have two of them. Work great and the quick connect plugs are nice

 

[Clinebo]

I have a Battery Tender. I wired the pigtail to the battery. BUT! I also have a winch and an extra set of lights so I needed longer bolts for the battery terminals. Once you add a couple of extra connectors to the equation the stock bolts become too short.
I'd avoid the cheap Harbor Freight tenders. I bought 2 when they were on sale. They both were overcharging the batteries. Just a solid red LED that shows you it's on. The Battery Tender has green and red to show you when it's charging and when it's 'floating'.

 

[hatzie]

I have two CTEK 3300 and one CTEK 7200 smart charger/maintainers.
The 3300's are permanently mounted on my summer-only cars that stay plugged in all winter. They all have the original batteries. The 09 Impala SS and my 04 Marauder.
The 7200 is the one that I swap between the bench, ATV, & sled. I bought an extra ring terminal pigtail for the ATV.

 

[canamkayaker]

Been using the battery tender JR for quite some time now. Walmart carries them now. They were $34 last week. I gave 1 for Christmas present today to a riding buddy. I have never replaced a battery since using 1.

 

[jhsellers]

Battery Tender Junior here too. They're supposed to operate at the correct voltage for maintenance. Some other models (cheap/Chinese) have shown incorrect voltage (either too high or too low), and this will cause problems with long-term battery storage. You may want to check the voltage with any "tender" you use - correct voltage for float maintenance (12V nominal battery) should be right around 13.5-13.8 volts.

Some models are set up to maintain multiple batteries, but it seems that they're usually priced a lot higher than using multiple units of the Battery Tender Junior.

Amazon has the lowest price I've found for the Battery Tender Junior by Deltran - $23 and you can get free shipping with Amazon Prime, or by placing an order over $35.

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger: Automotive


Hope this helps,
John

 

[tekrsq]

If it's outside, I would remove the battery and take it inside for the winter.

Having said that, all mine stay in an unheated garage on tenders, without any problems. I've used "Battery Minders" for years without any issues.

 

[larrya112]

Not one person mentioned a maintainer by Harbor Freight. Sure, right now you're saying oh those things don't work. I'd beg to differ with you. I have been using them on batteries ( I currently have 13 of them plugged in right now on various vehicles) and have had several of them for as long as 12 years. I just keep adding to the numbers of them. So far I haven't had to replace any of them and some of them are plugged in year around. I mounted one permanently on my 850 XP Touring. I forgot to plug it in one time this past year and after about three weeks, my battery was so dead it wouldn't turn the engine over. I thought, well that battery's shot but I plugged it in and it has been fine every since. And they don't cost near what the Tender's do. I've paid as little as $3.99 for them. But just like everything else, over time, they have gone up in price. You can still get them for $5.99 though. I wish I would have thought ahead back when they were $3.99 as I would have bought 20 of them. If I ever have one of them fail, then I would have replacements but so far as I've mentioned none of them have. I could name all the vehicles and other things I have them on right at this moment but this would be a pretty long post. So just suffice it to say, they work and work very well, just like they're supposed to. They keep the battery charged but not over charged. I've never ruined a battery yet. I bought an "03" Dodge pickup with a diesel new in "03". It has 2 batteries. I don't use the pickup much unless I need it to pull our 34' fifth wheel or haul the wheeler around. I don't use it as a daily commuter so it sits a lot. I only have 33,000 miles on it. I keep it in my shop and it still smells like new on the inside and looks like it's new on both the inside and outside. I keep the Harbor Freight chargers on it when it's in the shop. It's still got the 2 original batteries. I don't know how much longer they're going to last, but that's a long time for 84 month batteries. I'll put my $5.99 maintainers up against your $40 tenders any day.

 

[Clinebo]

Not one person mentioned a maintainer by Harbor Freight. Sure, right now you're saying oh those things don't work. I'd beg to differ with you. I have been using them on batteries ( I currently have 13 of them plugged in right now on various vehicles) and have had several of them for as long as 12 years. I just keep adding to the numbers of them. So far I haven't had to replace any of them and some of them are plugged in year around. I mounted one permanently on my 850 XP Touring. I forgot to plug it in one time this past year and after about three weeks, my battery was so dead it wouldn't turn the engine over. I thought, well that battery's shot but I plugged it in and it has been fine every since. And they don't cost near what the Tender's do. I've paid as little as $3.99 for them. But just like everything else, over time, they have gone up in price. You can still get them for $5.99 though. I wish I would have thought ahead back when they were $3.99 as I would have bought 20 of them. If I ever have one of them fail, then I would have replacements but so far as I've mentioned none of them have. I could name all the vehicles and other things I have them on right at this moment but this would be a pretty long post. So just suffice it to say, they work and work very well, just like they're supposed to. They keep the battery charged but not over charged. I've never ruined a battery yet. I bought an "03" Dodge pickup with a diesel new in "03". It has 2 batteries. I don't use the pickup much unless I need it to pull our 34' fifth wheel or haul the wheeler around. I don't use it as a daily commuter so it sits a lot. I only have 33,000 miles on it. I keep it in my shop and it still smells like new on the inside and looks like it's new on both the inside and outside. I keep the Harbor Freight chargers on it when it's in the shop. It's still got the 2 original batteries. I don't know how much longer they're going to last, but that's a long time for 84 month batteries. I'll put my $5.99 maintainers up against your $40 tenders any day.

I bought 2 of the tenders from them a couple of years ago. An extra for me and one for my Mom's garage. Both of them were overcharging the batteries. I've never had my Battery Tender brand do that.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Not one person mentioned a maintainer by Harbor Freight. Sure, right now you're saying oh those things don't work. I'd beg to differ with you. I have been using them on batteries ( I currently have 13 of them plugged in right now on various vehicles) and have had several of them for as long as 12 years. I just keep adding to the numbers of them. So far I haven't had to replace any of them and some of them are plugged in year around. I mounted one permanently on my 850 XP Touring. I forgot to plug it in one time this past year and after about three weeks, my battery was so dead it wouldn't turn the engine over. I thought, well that battery's shot but I plugged it in and it has been fine every since. And they don't cost near what the Tender's do. I've paid as little as $3.99 for them. But just like everything else, over time, they have gone up in price. You can still get them for $5.99 though. I wish I would have thought ahead back when they were $3.99 as I would have bought 20 of them. If I ever have one of them fail, then I would have replacements but so far as I've mentioned none of them have. I could name all the vehicles and other things I have them on right at this moment but this would be a pretty long post. So just suffice it to say, they work and work very well, just like they're supposed to. They keep the battery charged but not over charged. I've never ruined a battery yet. I bought an "03" Dodge pickup with a diesel new in "03". It has 2 batteries. I don't use the pickup much unless I need it to pull our 34' fifth wheel or haul the wheeler around. I don't use it as a daily commuter so it sits a lot. I only have 33,000 miles on it. I keep it in my shop and it still smells like new on the inside and looks like it's new on both the inside and outside. I keep the Harbor Freight chargers on it when it's in the shop. It's still got the 2 original batteries. I don't know how much longer they're going to last, but that's a long time for 84 month batteries. I'll put my $5.99 maintainers up against your $40 tenders any day.

My friend had one, it fried his battery. I'm always leery buying anything with a cord from HF.

 

[canamkayaker]

"I'm always leery buying anything with a cord from HF."

My thoughts exactly. I bought their version of a dremel tool. You could literally stop the blade with your finger. I own a set of their stubby wrenches and all my impact sockets are Pittsburgh. I've had good luck with them

Get you a tender JR, and don't worry about it.

 

[Clinebo]

The HF unit just has a red LED to show that it's on. My Tender has red and green to show when it's charging and when it's 'floating'. The HF stays red all the time even when you unplug the power cord. Feeds the LED off the battery.
I tested to see how the voltage was, and found it was way over the specs. The battery at my Moms was the same - overcharged.
I still use them....but don't leave them on all the time like my Tender. The Tender I can plug in and not worry about.

 

[Vandal]

Ordered 2 Battery tender Jrs from Sportsman Guide for 26.99 each

 

[larrya112]

You guys may have had some bad maintainers from HF but I never have. Mine must have been from a different batch. As I said in my earlier post, I've never ruined a battery using them. Pickup batteries with them 10 years. Boat batteries 5 years. Garden tractor 5 years. Atv battery 8 years. Bet your tender won't make one last that long. I had 2 camper batteries on them for 4 years before I sold the camper. As I said, I've had some of these HF maintainers for 12 years and they are still charging batteries. No fires or over charging. And I've got quite a few HF tools with cords. the only thing I've had problems with are their bigger battery chargers and recently the chargers for the cordless drills. The batteries and the bases are still good as are the drills but the chargers/adapters don't last more than a couple of years but then I've had problems with batteries from Makita and Craftsman too so I can't fault HF adapters. I can buy another whole drill with an adapter for $20. But I won't as I got a Hatchi Litium Ion drill set for Christmas. but I'll keep on using the HF maintainers until they start crappen out on me. I've felt the batteries which I have them on and they're not hot. Neither are the clamps or the wires or the small boxes with the red lights yet when I check the voltage in the batteries time to time, they always show around 13.4 volts. Normal.

 

[Clinebo]

You guys may have had some bad maintainers from HF but I never have. Mine must have been from a different batch. As I said in my earlier post, I've never ruined a battery using them. Pickup batteries with them 10 years. Boat batteries 5 years. Garden tractor 5 years. Atv battery 8 years. Bet your tender won't make one last that long. I had 2 camper batteries on them for 4 years before I sold the camper. As I said, I've had some of these HF maintainers for 12 years and they are still charging batteries. No fires or over charging. And I've got quite a few HF tools with cords. the only thing I've had problems with are their bigger battery chargers and recently the chargers for the cordless drills. The batteries and the bases are still good as are the drills but the chargers/adapters don't last more than a couple of years but then I've had problems with batteries from Makita and Craftsman too so I can't fault HF adapters. I can buy another whole drill with an adapter for $20. But I won't as I got a Hatchi Litium Ion drill set for Christmas. but I'll keep on using the HF maintainers until they start crappen out on me. I've felt the batteries which I have them on and they're not hot. Neither are the clamps or the wires or the small boxes with the red lights yet when I check the voltage in the batteries time to time, they always show around 13.4 volts. Normal.

Is it the Cen-Tech brand? That's the one I got on the special and they both run the voltage over 18 volts.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Looks like you have had some luck with them Larry. But again for me, if it has a plug and it stays running when I walk out of the garage, I won't buy it from HF. I have too many asset in my shop to gamble. That said, I bought a oscillating spindle sander from HF. It had excellent reviews, so I bought it. I've used the hell out of it and it is still running strong. When this one craps out I will buy another.