Battery Trickle Charging

[jtharris]

Does anyone know if attaching a trickle charger to the battery for extended storage periods is a good idea? Can damage be done to the electronics? Where is the best place to make the connection?

Or, is pulling the main fuse, suggested in the Owner's Manual, a better idea? Would this stop all drain on the battery?

 

[TJPark01]

How long is "extended storage periods"? The best place to make the connection is at the battery in the trunk. Pulling the main fuse or disconnecting the battery is going to reset a lot of things that you don't want, like all your preset XM radio stations, memory seat, mirrors, etc, etc.
Deltran Battery Tender Plus.
This thing is great, and you don't need to pull the battery out to use it.

 

[sherrod]

How long is "extended storage periods"? The best place to make the connection is at the battery in the trunk. Pulling the main fuse or disconnecting the battery is going to reset a lot of things that you don't want, like all your preset XM radio stations, memory seat, mirrors, etc, etc.
Deltran Battery Tender Plus.
This thing is great, and you don't need to pull the battery out to use it.

I endorse that suggestion. The Battery Tender Plus is a great product. I've heard of people who had batteries on them for 8 years, and they were still fully charged and in good shape.

 

[TJPark01]

A lot of people don't deal with their battery until it's dead. It's like anything else, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The thing pays for itself, and gives you piece of mind. Last thing you want to do is get stranded some where shady. The Genesis is probably too new to worry about the battery, but after say 3 years or so, it's worth thinking about. Also, if you don't drive the car daily and let the car sit for long periods of time.

 

[ctrcbob]

The Battery Tender works great, but is costly. Whenever I go to Europe for three to seven weeks, I take the cheap way out. I set up a:

Half Amp Trickle Charger, plugged into a wall timer for an hour a day. This is the type of timer that you would use to turn the inside house lights, on and off, when you are not home. When I could not find a Half Amp Trickle Charger, I used a One Amp Trickle Charger and set the timer for a half hour a day.

One word to the wise. I once used a trickle charger that had a small red lamp that shows that it is charging. Big mistake. Only use a trickle charger that DOES NOT have a lamp that shows if it is on or not. Reason is that when connected to the battery, but not charging, the lamp DRAINS power from the battery. It will drain more power from the battery in 23 or 23 and a half hours, than goes into the battery in one hour of a half hour of charging.

Lastly, I vacationed last October with the Continental. We were away for 16 days and DID NOT use any kind of charger on the Genesis. Started just fine when we returned. On the next trip to France (perhaps next year), I will set the trickle charger as shown above, as we will probably be gone for four or five weeks.

 

[Lowblow]

Does anyone know if attaching a trickle charger to the battery for extended storage periods is a good idea? Can damage be done to the electronics? Where is the best place to make the connection?

Or, is pulling the main fuse, suggested in the Owner's Manual, a better idea? Would this stop all drain on the battery?

I also recommend the Tender chargers. I have the Tender Junior, which is the same thing (same electronics and logic board) as the Plus, but it's just not as powerful - thus charging will take longer. However, it still is a multi-stage smart charger, which is what you want (it will stop charging when the battery is full).

If I am forced to sit in the car for 30min to an hour watching DVDs, then I hook up my Genesis to the Tender overnight and it's good to go in the morning. No ill effects so far.

BTW: The stock battery in the Genesis is truly massive. I once went to the best stereo people in my city and inquired about upgrading my battery to a deep cycle unit (can discharge completely without damage). They took some photos of my battery and told me they'd research it and would get back to me. After two days, they called me and said they looked up the OEM unit and said they didn't have an after market battery that could beat it unless I wanted to create a custom rig. Nothing Optima made could beat it in its size range.

They told me the stock battery's reserve capacity is 196mins (realistically about 2 hours+ with all the toys in the Genesis). They said the recommended after-market replacement (Interstate MTP-H8) has a reserve of only 176mins. The MTP-H8 is a $225 battery. They said an Optima boat battery could give me the ability to deep-cycle, but would force me to accept a less powerful battery with a lower reserve capacity. I thanked them for their honesty and left my battery alone.

 

[scottdk]

Does anyone know if attaching a trickle charger to the battery for extended storage periods is a good idea? Can damage be done to the electronics? Where is the best place to make the connection?

Or, is pulling the main fuse, suggested in the Owner's Manual, a better idea? Would this stop all drain on the battery?

I stored my call last winter (with no charger) and only started the car once during the storage period.

I started the car last month when I took it out of storage (my garage) and the engine fired right up with no problems. I do have a small trickle charger that I have used on other cars that I have stored, and will use this starting next winter and so on.

I like the charger. It has a red LED telling you if your conection to the battery is correct and also a green LED when it's actually on and charging. Love it. LED's consume next to nothing for power, so the LED lights are a great feature.