Battery Charger | Battery Maintenance Basics

Battery Maintenance Basics



What is a Battery Maintainer?


A battery maintainer is essentially an automated battery charger that keeps the battery in a constant state of charge while not in use. The battery maintainer will take a periodic reading of the batteries voltage level to determine its state of charge and apply a trickle charge or remain in standby mode depending on the reading received.

Once a battery maintainer is connected to a battery, it will immediately take a reading of the batteries voltage to asses the batteries current level of charge. If the battery maintainer pulls a voltage reading that is below par, then it will immediately switch to its automated charge mode until the battery is brought up to its proper (charged) voltage level and switch into standby mode once the optimal voltage level has been reached. If upon connection to the battery the voltage level falls into the category of fully charged, the battery maintainer will then switch to a standby mode and monitor the voltage level until a charge is needed.


Why Is A Battery Maintainer Important?


A battery maintainer is a great way to help extend the life of your battery. One of the number one killers of batteries of all types is sitting around not being used for long durations of time. When a battery sits in an application for a period of time without being used, it will slowly start to discharge from lack of use and/or from small drains due to various electrical components that the application (motorcycle, car, jet-ski ect...) is equipped with.

As soon as a battery falls into a state of discharge, the process of sulphation begins. Sulphation (in a nut shell) is the internal buildup of crystalline deposits on the negative plate of the battery. These deposits will reduce the battery’s active material required for high-capacity and low resistance operation - meaning that it will diminish the capacity of the battery as well as lower the batteries charge acceptance.


What Type of Maintainers are Available?


We have several different lines of battery maintainers available for use with a wide variety of different applications. The most common battery maintainer that we currently sell is the NOCO GENIUS1 charger for power-sport applications and the CTEK US MXS 5.0 charger for use with larger applications (cars, boats, trailers ect..).
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