Suggestions for a Good Battery Charger?

[North Woody]

I’m looking for good suggestion for a decently-priced battery charger for charging the battery on my Pier Pleasure boat hoist that I can use on our cars as well our boats and snowmobiles. Towards the end of the boating season, my battery (a heavy duty Intersate battery) peters out and I don’t want to get caught with a fully dead battery. For now, I just use my battery jump box to drive the lift, but I’d like to pull it and charge it while we’re back home this week so it’s fully charged for when we’re back at the lake again for Labor Day weekend.

I’m not looking for a battery tender/trickle charger or a jump box, but a decently-priced charger . TIA for any suggestions

[MLA]

Am i understanding correct, that this is a boat lift with no AC to the dock, so you run it on a battery that has to be carried up, charged and returned?

[Sp8]

Seems like a lot of folks use the solar panel that attaches right to the boat lift and keeps the battery charged.


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[North Woody]

Am i understanding correct, that this is a boat lift with no AC to the dock, so you run it on a battery that has to be carried up, charged and returned?

Yup, it’s a stand-alone electric Pier Pleasure hoist that runs on a single (car) battery. We’re on a seepage lake where permanent boat houses are not allowed, so we don’t have AC down to the end of our dock. Normally, the battery lasts all summer so we don’t have a problem, but we’ve been up to the lake a lot this summer and had the boat out a ton, so this is a first-world problem or me

Here’s a pic of our set up where you can see the electric winch and battery tray on the left side of the hoist on the dock side:



Sp8 is right that you can attach a solar charging panel to keep the charge up al summer, but I never got around to installing one and I’m looking for a quick solution for when we’re up over Labor Day weekend.


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[North Woody]

Seems like a lot of folks use the solar panel that attaches right to the boat lift and keeps the battery charged.


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Yup, that’s definitely the sensible thing to do but I’m lazy and haven’t gotten around to it since we installed this set up back in 2014 (but I’ll definitely have a solar panel installed in the Spring for all of next year for this hoist). In the meantine, the reality is that I actually probably should have a proper battery charger at the lake home anyway for the combination of our LSV, any of the various cars that may be up there at any point in time (particularly in the winter), our 2 snowmobiles and/or the second boat that we just bought ... I’ve been lucky so far that we haven’t needed one, but I’ll take this as a sign that I need to be better prepared

[MLA]

A solar setup would be the least amount of work for you, as it would maintain the battery in place, in between uses.

Otherwise, you would want a smart charger if you are going to haul the battery up to the source of AC and recharge battery in between. You dont want to leave a battery charging on any standard charger. You want one that is going to go into a float type mode. Basically, it stops charging when the battery is full and wont go back into a charge mode until the battery level drops.

[North Woody]

A solar setup would be the least amount of work for you, as it would maintain the battery in place, in between uses.

Otherwise, you would want a smart charger if you are going to haul the battery up to the source of AC and recharge battery in between. You dont want to leave a battery charging on any standard charger. You want one that is going to go into a float type mode. Basically, it stops charging when the battery is full and wont go back into a charge mode until the battery level drops.

Yup, makes sense. I use a set of Battery Tender Jr’s on our 2 snowmobiles to keep them charged year-round (which have worked flawlessly for 4 years), so I’m a fan of their stuff and will likely grab a Battery Tender Plus for a sub-$50 solution for our hoist and look at finally installing the solar panel in the Spring

[zabooda]

Battery Tenders are a good choice. Remember, the federal taxes allow you a credit of 30% so keep that receipt. I have a $150 complete solar unit from Home Depot on my shed connected to a battery to run Battery Tenders and 120V LED lights.

[dewey.elsik]

Do Not Leave a battery tender on your battery. It will ruin it!


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[zabooda]

Do Not Leave a battery tender on your battery. It will ruin it!


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Wrong. Having a POS battery tender will ruin it. The Battery Tender brand is one that is designed correctly. Use your Kill-A-Watt device to confirm.