Need Your Experience Please

[Kurt B.]

Those of you who have Battery Maintainers:
Which is the better brand to buy; "Battery Tender" or "Battery Minder" by VDC Corporation ?
I have read all the websites by the respective manufaturers and Battery Tender only maintains the battery while VDC Battery Minder allegedly de-sulphates the battery.
What has been your experience and which one would you recommend and why?
Thank you,
Kurt
NCRS 26406

[Tom H.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Hi Kurt:

I use the Battery Minder Plus on all of my cars and bikes. I also sell them at the dealership. I have very good success with them.

[Joe L.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Hi Kurt:

I use the Battery Minder Plus on all of my cars and bikes. I also sell them at the dealership. I have very good success with them.

Tom and Kurt------


I have both Battery Tender and Battery Minder. I much prefer the Battery Minder. If I purchase any additional units, it will be the Battery Minder.

[Todd L.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Do you normally move this one between autos/bikes, buy seperate ones for each battery, or can you link several batteries on one Minder?

I have numerous (2 motorcycles, 1 corvette and usually a boat and RV) batteries that I would like to use a tender on but have never made the move. Any suggestions because I am going to either set up a charging station or start loading up on battery minders!

Note: Just saw on the picture where it says it can handle 5 batteries but cannot read what the asteriks ** beside the comment states.

[Tom H.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Hi Todd !

The the multiple battery deal is if you have multiple batteries in parallel, like a golf cart or airplane or any vehicle that has more than one battery.

I have a couple minders and rotate them from car to car and bike to bike every day. I have a pig tail that hangs out of each car and just plug it into a different one when I get home at night.

Get one, you'll be glad you did !

[Todd L.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Thanks Tom,

I did not think that I could use one to handle several vehicles, oh well, I tried!

Dumb question but can you describe the pigtails? Is it something as simple as aligator clips, etc.? Just looking to make this as painless as possible.

Thanks for your help,
Todd

[Tom H.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Hi Todd

The Minder comes with a set of aligator style clips with a plug for easy switching between batteries. It also comes with a hard wire connector to make a permanent lead on the battery. Here's what comes with it. Hard wire one to one car and use the other as you please.

[Phil D.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

I've got a couple of Battery Tenders which have worked flawlessly for a couple of years now. I've also got a very old Sears Diehard unit shaped like a brick (and weighed as much as a brick too) that has been going for over a decade. But I do not recommend the new Sears units. My old one was great so I tried a two more Sears units and wound up exchanging both and finally returning both for a refund. That's when I bought the two Battery Tenders. The Sears units scared me, besides they would quit charging, they'd start making noises and I thought better of leaving my Corvette and other cars plugged into a noisy battery charger while I was away. I feel much safer with the Battery Tenders.

[John H.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

I've used "Battery Tenders" for many years; both of my cars have ten-year-old Delco batteries, and they're just as strong as they were when they were new.

You can buy the hard-wire cords with polarized quick-connect plugs separately, and they're handy for cars with difficult or inconvenient battery access; if you think Corvette batteries are buried, you should see where they put Ferrari batteries (open the front trunk, remove the washer bottle, remove the spare tire, remove 8 screws on the access panel, and finally, there's the battery). The hard-wire cord solves that problem instantly - put one on every car that needs it, and use one Battery Minder.

[Anthony M.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

I purchased the "Battery Butler" 2 years ago. It worked fine but now the wires have come loose from the adapter and it is not repairable. Looks like I will be ordering The Battery Minder for next winter.

[Todd L.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

[Gary N.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

I purchased the "Battery Butler" 2 years ago. It worked fine but now the wires have come loose from the adapter and it is not repairable. Looks like I will be ordering The Battery Minder for next winter.

I have two battery tenders and both quite working after a short period. I have tried them on different batteries and thinking maybe it was a battery problem, but that wasn't the case. The green light would come on and never go off. I was afraid they might overcharge the battery. I even sent one back and they sent me a reconditioned one which did the same thing.

[Tom H.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

I have two battery tenders and both quite working after a short period. I have tried them on different batteries and thinking maybe it was a battery problem, but that wasn't the case. The green light would come on and never go off. I was afraid they might overcharge the battery. I even sent one back and they sent me a reconditioned one which did the same thing.

Might be a battery issue.

If the green indicator light does not start
blinking within 72 hours, the unit was not
able to bring the battery to full charge.
The unit is designed to automatically go
into the maintenance mode when it

reached 14 volts.

[Gary N.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

Might be a battery issue.

If the green indicator light does not start
blinking within 72 hours, the unit was not
able to bring the battery to full charge.
The unit is designed to automatically go
into the maintenance mode when it

reached 14 volts.

Tom,
That's why I tried them on different batteries. I even tried them on a new battery with the same results. I wasn't about to leave them on with the chance of a fire of explosion. I wouldn't buy another battery tender.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Need Your Experience Please

...I have read all the websites by the respective manufaturers and Battery Tender only maintains the battery while VDC Battery Minder allegedly de-sulphates the battery.
...

Sulfation is the "plating" of sulfur from the sulfuric acid electrolye onto the plates due to heavy discharge without recharging or from low electrolyte levels. The best strategy is to avoid heavy sulfation in the first place by maintaining a good charging system, using a battery minder or tender, and maintaining the electrolyte level.

Some maintenance chargers claim to use a "reverse pulse" techology to send sufur atoms (ions?) back into the electrolye. I'm not sure how "reverse pulse" techology works, but it seems to me that the very fact that the battery is being recharged would be drawing sulfur back into the electrolyte solution...if it can be drawn back. John's experience of getting ten years on Delco batteries should call the need for the "de-sulphation" technology into question. Basically, I'm saying I don't know if this is a real, significant improvement, or it is an advertising sales gimmick like "IT".

I have two Battery Tenders that I bought last year, primarily from advice from the same individuals that responded to this thread. In fact, I intended to buy only one, but learned that a "double click" can not be reversed when dealing with ebay sellers. This has been an unusally cold winter in Texas...I was glad I had both of them. I swapped one Battery Tender back and forth between my JD lawn mower and my old SUV...the other one remained on my 2006 Corvette. They performed well. Except during the swaps, the control lights indicating full charge stayed green the entire winter...No frozen batteries this year from lack of use, and everything cranked hard from the first key turn.