I use the deltran battery tender on the Duster and my Truck which I don't use so much in the winter.

The Duster's battery is 10 years old this month (Autocraft Silver) and tested at 535cca (525cca rated)

My Truck's battery is 7 years old (autocraft gold) and tests at 618cca (625cca spec).

I can't complain. I also use it on my lawnmower battery.

That's pretty much what I do. Disconnect the battery and charge it once or twice over winter.

My late father always used tenders on the four batteries on his houseboat and funny thing just the opposite occurred, he was always replacing them. Seemed to never last more than 3-4 years at most so I have no faith in battery tenders not to mention the fire hazard. I just start my cars if not driven or occasionally put a charge on them and I get good life. Same thing for my other equipment. The battery in my Kubota tractor lasted about ten years and most of the time that machine sat. It’s just more over rated BS just like a lot of things marketed to brain wash us. Another example is synthetic oil. My cars get conventional oil and my work vans always last me many years and well over 200k miles before replacement. It’s just all part of the feel good thing doing all the extra unnecessary BS. But this is my experience and opinion and of course other results may vary and are open to debate

I have a battery disconnect that I use when not driving the car to avoid any draw. Winter time it goes into a boat storage bin in the closet. Check the voltage once a month and see if it needs charged. Brand new battery, so trying this vs leaving it in the storage unit all winter.

Then you lose the whole purpose of those devices.

That is what I used to do was disconnect the cable, then got a shutoff switch, but battery life was horrible. Sulfate sets in being dormant. This is leaving it in my car in the garage. Could be in other climates your battery life can be longer by just disconnecting. Zero draw does not work for me. I live in WA state, and don't know why I had terrible batt life until I got the Batt Tender. My current batt has lasted 8 yrs strong. That's the longest ever for me.

Thanks all,

Good info to absorb. I'm chucking the tenders. I still won't leave my batteries in the cars over the winter, but it's easy to check voltage thru the winter, and use a light 2A charge only if needed.

Only one car has significant parasitic draw to maintain memory functions, but it has its own dedicated tender. The rest are old and I only lose the radio presets in a complete power-off.

All my batteries have lasted me over 5 years, one is 8, with minimal maintenance, just a quick freshen-up charge in the spring.

One of the reasons I tried the tenders was because my one, expensive, vintage red-cap sulfated in less than 4 years. That one I treated the same as the others, taking it out and leaving it alone all winter.. but it was a true cap battery, needed to have distilled water level checked and charged and filled, specific gravity checked, etc.. and I kept after it real good too.

I bought two yellow-cap maintenance-free vintage repops, and they have been OK. One is 6 years and getting weak.. but neither one cooked any acid out on the battery tenders this winter.

Cheers,
- Art

Wasn't it a charger or tender that caused the unfortunate incident in Rhinos garage?