mcamp001

iTrader: (1)

ok, so the SS doesn't see much driving, especially now that winter is here. I have noticed recently that my Optima (red) frequently goes low in voltage. It's about 4 years old and has been flawless up until now, so my question is: What type of device should I place on it to keep it at the correct voltage?

I have heard of trickle and flow chargers, but do not know which is the correct device for the gel type batteries.

Does anyone use a device to keep these things changed?

1 FMF

iTrader: (1)

the optima is an AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery, not a gel.
read up here for some battery info first,

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html
http://www.batteryfaq.org/

for an optima red and any typical lead-acid car battery, you want a float charger that will maintain the battery at 13.0 to 13.8 volts and output a maximum current of 1 amp. Any voltage higher than that will cook the battery by boiling off the electrolyte.
Now if all you get is a float charger that's limited to 1 amp output, it will charge a battery back to 100% but will take a very long time. You can get a simple float charger for as little as $10, harbor freight has them.
If you want to spend a little more money, up around $50, to get a real battery charger/maintainer then get a batterytender or batteryminder, do a google to find the best place to buy from, northerntool has them, probably summit and jegs too. If you read the links above, it will explain the 4 charging steps- bulk, absorption, float, and equalization. The batterytender and batteryminder chargers will do the first 3 steps which is all you should be concerned about, as opposed to just the float step which is all the cheap float chargers do. Maintain your battery and if it doesn't see severe operating conditions you should get 5+ years out of it.

and here's a list of chargers/maintainers provided by batteryfaq.org, you will eventually come to it if you read thru the site
http://jgdarden.com/batteryfaq/batli...float_chargers

mcamp001

iTrader: (1)

thanks, i found this right after i posted

91RS383

I bought my battery charger at Home Depot.

Husky Fully Automatic battery Charger

It is a fully capable charger, float charger, and it even runs basic batery and charging system checks. I leave it hooked up to the SS whenever she's going to be parked for more than a week. It even reconditioned my "dead" red top. When I first bought the charger, I was getting a bad cell error code over and over. I kept restarting the charger whenever I walked into the garage and after several days the battery was back to normal and accepting a charge again.

mcamp001

iTrader: (1)

ok, thanks guys for the input. I just ordered a battery tender, should do the job.

John02Hawk

iTrader: (4)

Sorry to bring this post back from the dead but thanks all for this post and especially for this post above.. Very helpful and great information especially for Red top optima owners. Going to try to do some more research on which other models are the best bang for the buck since Home Depot (nor anyone else really) no longer carries that Husky "HSK1085HD" model.

I also found these other few links to be very helpful:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=448374

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=240684