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Battery Float Charger

W

White Ghost

New member
A battery float charger is a simple electronic device that connects to your battery post and a 110 volt AC outlet. All it does is to keep the battery at its current level.
It is mainly for a vehicle that sits for long periods and will have the ECM drain the battery: possibly to the point of not being able to recharge it and having to buy a new battery.
I currently use a float charger on mione as it will sit for a week to a month at a time. If you drive everyday, then you probably would not need one, but it could keep your battery living longer by no discharging and then recharging overnight.
Also, for people in frigid climates, it could make a world of difference going from overnight to the morning. NOTE- I always unplug the AC first then disconnect the battery clamps before driving. It is unknown to me if you need to disconnect the battery clamps: I do it for extra protection. They run from $4 on special at Harbor Frieght to ???. Next to an engine block heater, these are a great way to protect your investment.
 




Dan GTP seems to of gotten what the thread was about. The rest of you must still be in high school not to be able to recognize a helpful suggestion. You might ask the administrator to remove your reply as your reply seems to be more on the ignorant side than the intellectual. Please don't rant back on this thread as it just makes it harder for people to utilize it thinking they have to read through it all of the crap.
 
you've also got to realize that most of the time when someone is advertising a product on here it is normally a spammer and normally they disappear via me. they are just pointing out the obvious and in all seriousness i would never leave my car hooked up to a trickle charger. if the battery cannot maintain itself (so long as the rest of the charging system is up to par) then you should not need it. if it sits for a while, sure (like my bike).

however, this post seems like it's copied and pasted straight from an advertisement or an informative post on a general automotive forum. that is the only reason we called you out like that. take it with a grain of salt, it is the internet afterall..
 
A "trickle charger" and a "float maintainer (charger)" are two different items.

The trickle charger will keep charging even once the battery reaches full charge
and will fry a battery. I found this out the hard way, when I forgot to unplug it once
and left it on for a week.
A maintainer will bring a battery to full charge and shut down, but will also restart,
for lack of a better wording, when it senses the voltage has drained below a certain
level. They are not for charging of a dead battery, but maintaining the charge of a good battery.
I don't know if the one from HF works as well as the more expensive ones, but it does
work.
(haven't been to the site for a while and thought I'd add my 2 penneys worth).
 
all good chargers stop charging once the battery is charged. i know the difference, but most new chargers should do both.
 


It's some good info but whatever happened to just disconnecting the battery if you aren't going to use you vehicle for an extended period of time?
 
On some vehicles when you disconnect the battery, the computer has to relearn,
making for a bad running car for a couple hundred miles.
 
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