That Does It! Battery Maintenance

Jeepwalker · Dec 12, 2022

The NOCO battery charger/maintainer (the wall plug-in unit), looks a lot like the Battery Minder unit (that has the desulfator) -- which I really like. The desulfator feature seems nice but probably doesn't do much in reality if a battery becomes heavily desulfated. But it makes me 'feel good' though LOL. Best is to try not to let the battery sit (low) in the first place, or charge up a 'dead' battery right away. But I know how things go sometimes.

I have the Battery Minder 1500 which I move between vehicles every so often (those which don't get driven that much) to keep the batteries up. It's a good idea to shake or vigorously wiggle the battery too every once in a while, if you can, to mix the electrolyte, and then put the charger/maintainer on.

Jeepwalker · Dec 12, 2022

Guys, don't get rid of yer old analog Schumacher (or other old school) chargers.

If/when a battery goes really flat, like dead dead ...discharged overnight or for a couple days, most of these new 'smart' chargers suddenly won't charge them. They'll indicate a 'bad' battery. But 15-30 min on an old-school trickle charger (on "trickle"), will bring the battery up enough so a 'smart charger' can take over and fully charge it up*.

*Assuming it was only low in the first place, not damaged inside.

JW2 Innovations · Dec 12, 2022

BossHogg said:
That isn't necessary for low amp recharging since the batteries are wired in parallel. It is however suggested to wire positive on one battery and negative on the other battery for high current loads, for example, a winch.

Battery Tender has interesting reading in their FAQ

FAQ

www.batterytender.com

Yes, that will work for low amp trickle chargers going to one battery in a two battery parallel setup, like our Ram's have. But what I discovered on my F250 diesel that I worked a TON on is that if you wire the positive to one battery and negative to the second battery you can use any charger on that setup (with correct gauge of wire and correct size fuse near the positive terminal). Why? If troubleshooting a no start issue you're going to get only a few attempts before you have to recharge your batteries back up to try again, or have another source of 12v to keep going. So I prefer to wire my cables split between the two batteries so it solve both the trickle charger need, and if I ever need to do several charges for a no start issue I can charge to the capability of the charger and cabling faster, which is in my case using the Noco 5amp and 10amp chargers I have on hand - thus reducing my charge time. It's not really that much more wire/work to put the solution in to cover both. I do also have a battery tender 1.25amp charger I use for my Kubota tractor as well and it works great (when it does die though, I'm going all Noco TBH). I just use Noco on all my vehicles since it has more features for taking care of my batteries which I prefer. And for other needs outside of this conversation Noco supports charging Lithium batteries as well as some models can bring a very low voltage battery back to life as well (* as long as not damaged - just low voltage issue).

JW2 Innovations · Dec 12, 2022

Jeepwalker said:
Guys, don't get rid of yer old analog Schumacher (or other old school) chargers.

If/when a battery goes really flat, like dead dead ...discharged overnight or for a couple days, most of these new 'smart' chargers suddenly won't charge them. They'll indicate a 'bad' battery. But 15-30 min on an old-school trickle charger (on "trickle"), will bring the battery up enough so a 'smart charger' can take over and fully charge it up*.

*Assuming it was only low in the first place, not damaged inside.

Take a look at Noco, some of the models have a solution built in for this as well.

PoconoJoe · Dec 12, 2022

Jeepwalker said:
Guys, don't get rid of yer old analog Schumacher (or other old school) chargers.

If/when a battery goes really flat, like dead dead ...discharged overnight or for a couple days, most of these new 'smart' chargers suddenly won't charge them. They'll indicate a 'bad' battery. But 15-30 min on an old-school trickle charger (on "trickle"), will bring the battery up enough so a 'smart charger' can take over and fully charge it up*.

*Assuming it was only low in the first place, not damaged inside.

Yes, this is true. The Noco maintainers won't charge if the battery is too low. If I remember correctly they won't charge if its below 9 volts. That's when the old school charger comes in handy. I've done this where i give it a couple hours on the old school Craftsman 2amp/10amp charger, then switch to the Noco to recondition the battery. I've surprisingly brought back to life a couple of batteries that way.

JW2 Innovations · Dec 12, 2022

PoconoJoe said:
Yes, this is true. The Noco maintainers won't charge if the battery is too low. If I remember correctly they won't charge if its below 9 volts. That's when the old school charger comes in handy. I've done this where i give it a couple hours on the old school Craftsman 2amp/10amp charger, then switch to the Noco to recondition the battery. I've surprisingly brought back to life a couple of batteries that way.

Not sure when this update happened, but is now better for really dead batteries.

Noco Genius series now charges down to 1 volt, and have manual turn on force mode as well: "The all-new start-voltage sensor allows the Genius to detect and charge dead batteries as low as 1-volt. For extremely dead batteries lower than 1-volt, manually turn on force mode to detect and charge batteries all the way down to zero volts."

NOCO - Genius Multi-Purpose Battery Chargers

Our most advanced battery charger yet. Its a charger, maintainer, and desulfator. And it's incredibly powerful and compact.

no.co

NETim · Dec 12, 2022

I kinda miss the 60 Hz hum of the old Schumacher chargers though. You KNEW something was going on. It might not be good, but SOMETHING was happening.

BossHogg · Dec 13, 2022

TJW961 said:
Yes, that will work for low amp trickle chargers going to one battery in a two battery parallel setup, like our Ram's have. But what I discovered on my F250 diesel that I worked a TON on is that if you wire the positive to one battery and negative to the second battery you can use any charger on that setup (with correct gauge of wire and correct size fuse near the positive terminal). Why? If troubleshooting a no start issue you're going to get only a few attempts before you have to recharge your batteries back up to try again, or have another source of 12v to keep going. So I prefer to wire my cables split between the two batteries so it solve both the trickle charger need, and if I ever need to do several charges for a no start issue I can charge to the capability of the charger and cabling faster, which is in my case using the Noco 5amp and 10amp chargers I have on hand - thus reducing my charge time. It's not really that much more wire/work to put the solution in to cover both. I do also have a battery tender 1.25amp charger I use for my Kubota tractor as well and it works great (when it does die though, I'm going all Noco TBH). I just use Noco on all my vehicles since it has more features for taking care of my batteries which I prefer. And for other needs outside of this conversation Noco supports charging Lithium batteries as well as some models can bring a very low voltage battery back to life as well (* as long as not damaged - just low voltage issue).

Low amp trickle chargers, that isn't what is important in deciding how to wire battery charging, it is the voltage drop versus the wire gauge with respect to current flow.

The more current that flows, the greater the voltage drop thus creating the possibility the voltage drop could exceed battery potential thus causing a no-charge result. To mitigate this, use a larger wire gauge.

In your scenario, the heavy-duty battery chargers used, in your example, have direct-to-battery clamps that can provide a power level to crank a diesel engine. So I'm kind of lost as to what you have directly wired in and what the need is that you have a high occurrence of no-crank issues.

Jeepwalker · Dec 13, 2022

Not sure when this update happened, but is now better for really dead batteries.

TJW... thanks, that's good to know :waytogo:

turkeybird56 · Dec 13, 2022

I still also have one of these in the garage. Charges great, when needed.

https://www.searshometownstores.com/product/DieHard-71222-Automatic-Battery-Charger-10250-amp

huntergreen · Dec 13, 2022

NETim said:
It seems like you can't swing a cat here or on just about any car related forum w/o hitting a "battery issues" post of some kind.

Therefore, I've taken to keeping a maintenance charger on my truck 365 days a year now. (A NOCO, which I think is a good charger/maintainer.)

There are times I won't drive the truck for 2-3 weeks, particularly in the winter, so keeping the battery topped off won't hurt anything to begin with IMHO.

I haven't had any issues with my rig to spur this decision. I just think I see an all too common not at all unusual issue with these new vehicles and their multiple power hungry modules that don't always behave. (Software developers can't foresee all circumstances and situations.)

If nothing else, keeping the battery on a charger should extend the life of the battery a little anyway.

HDRam · Dec 14, 2022

Keep mine on a maintainer too. Have a hook up wired directly to battery, quick connect and good to go. Mine sits for weeks at a time.

Spoon · Feb 14, 2023

I just installed a NOCO GEN5x1 and noticed that when I plug it in to mains power, that my dashboard lights up and cycles. I have the + and - connected directly to the battery and wonder if I should connect the - to the chassis instead of the battery? Has anyone seen this before? Is it to do with the IBS?

HEMIMANN · Feb 14, 2023

I confess when I hooked up my C-Tek battery maintainer I didn't look at the dashboard - I attached to both battery terminals also.

But I will say it fully charges my AGM battery. Engine about leaps out of the hood when I hit the starter now! I leave the maintainer hooked up during periods when I don't expect to be using the truck much. Which is most of the time these days.

That Does It! Battery Maintenance

Jeepwalker

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Jeepwalker

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JW2 Innovations

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FAQ

JW2 Innovations

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PoconoJoe

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JW2 Innovations

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NOCO - Genius Multi-Purpose Battery Chargers

NETim

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BossHogg

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Jeepwalker

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turkeybird56

Military Vet 1976-1996 Retired US Army

huntergreen

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HDRam

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Spoon

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HEMIMANN

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