"Smart" trickle chargers are the worst things ever invented

[transam]

2 minutes ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

And what would you do if you went on holidays for a week and something drained your daily driver battery in that time ? Or if your wife left the lights on all night ? Do you have an older trickle charger for those times ?

 

Most people just jump start. Then they might get enough power to get their "smart" charger to work. I have seen people fry computers jump starting. I was always told growing up to just throw a drained battery on the trickle charger overnight. And avoid jump starting and bull<deleted> if possible. But with this new garbage, you just cant. Unless you trick them with a 9 volt battery or another car. 

I don't think you know what you are talking about. Try calming down when you talk to us........🤗

[Harsh Jones]

8 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I have a CTEK trickle charger (battery tender)...   my battery is dead !... 

 

Why ?...    I have a fixed dash-cam (forward and rear facing) on my Motorcycle that I suspect places a very small drain on the battery even when turned off and I haven't used the motorcycle for a long time. 

Perhaps this drain is required to keep the CMOS battery from dying.

 

Last year I was away for 3 months...   the trickle charger remained on, but the 1.5 year old battery died, I replaced it with a new one.

 

This year, I've been away and then injured so didn't use the motorcycle for 3 months... the trickle charger remained on, I went to use the motorccycle last week, it powered up but it seems there was not sufficient charge in the battery to for the starter motor to engage and start the bike.

 

On both occasions I should have just disconnected the battery... I'll do that in future, but I thought the trickle charger was supposed to take care of this stuff.

 

The "smart" charger probably found a reason to deny you a charge. Probably because it was hooked up. Completely unhook it and try again. 

 

This is an appropriate application for a "smart" charger but you never know what that thing is going to do. You could just get a dumb charger and put it on overnight every once and awhile. 

[Harsh Jones]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

I don't think you know what you are talking about. Try calming down when you talk to us........🤗

 

 What would you do if the battery drained on your daily driver ?  It hasn't happened in awhile has it .... 

Edited April 20 by Harsh Jones

[Harsh Jones]

9 minutes ago, transam said:

Mrs.T near new Yamahs Grand Filano Hybrid battery died, she did not make sure the thing was turned off, it doesn't use a key.

 

Took the battery back to dealer, they said it was finished.

 

 

Nevermind. That answers my question.  

 

And you unintentionally tricked the smart  charger into working. But somehow you couldn't understand that this is what I was explaining in my post 

Edited April 20 by Harsh Jones

[malathione]

My wrench didn't work as a screwdriver so I tossed it out and threw a hissy fit as well.

[Bill97]

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

And I have done it a million times.

If you are 70 years old and have charged every day then you did about 40 charges a day.  Who do you think will believe that? 

 

[richard_smith237]

16 minutes ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

The "smart" charger probably found a reason to deny you a charge. Probably because it was hooked up. Completely unhook it and try again. 

 

This is an appropriate application for a "smart" charger but you never know what that thing is going to do. You could just get a dumb charger and put it on overnight every once and awhile. 

 

Not really ideal when away for 3 months...     

 

It is also my understanding that once a battery is fully drained and has been for a while, it will not charge properly again.

 

 

The convenience of a battery tender is 'the plug and play' function, rather than having to go through the hassle of disconnecting a battery every time I go away...     The tender does the job for a month to six weeks, any longer than that and the battery is allowed to drain.

 

I suspect something could be up with the tender itself (it about 7 or 8 years old).

 

 

[jvs]

6 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

Long story short, these pieces of scrap will not recognize therefore not even attempt to charge your battery if was fully drained. So if something was slowly drawing power from your battery as your vehicle was parked for a week+, and the battery is dead, hooking up one of these pieces of useless garbage will do nothing. With the old normal trickle chargers, if you drain your battery, you throw the trickle on for 24 hours or so, and your battery will come back to life. You plugged them in, struck the leads to each other to make sure there was power, and clipped them on. 

 

But but... you can trick your "smart" charger into doing what a charger is supposed to do a couple different ways, with a small 9 volt battery or with another car battery. Anyway I already threw my "smart" charger in the garbage (after smashing it to pieces on the concrete, very satisfying) and got a real charger. 

 

 

That's a little harsh my friend.

[richard_smith237]

2 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

And I have done it a million times.

If you are 70 years old and have charged every day then you did about 40 charges a day.  Who do you think will believe that? 

 

 

Jaysus H.....  Some people get hung up on on irrelevant semantics....  Its clear the 'million' number quoted is an obvious exaggeration and he meant he's done it a lot...  does it really need to be debated ?

[spidermike007]

Perhaps the issue is not spending real money, on a high quality charger? Devices like this are meant to tackle a variety of jobs. Worth the 4,000 baht.

[scottiejohn]

6 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

If you are 70 years old and have charged every day then you did about 40 charges a day.  Who do you think will believe that? 

 

I agree!

IMO if a post starts with an obvious lie/exaggeration then the veracity of the rest of the post is immediately called into question!

[Will B Good]

Third world and developing nations just don't appreciate how hard life can be in the west.

[transam]

44 minutes ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

 What would you do if the battery drained on your daily driver ?  It hasn't happened in awhile has it .... 

Never mind.....

[transam]

1 hour ago, brianthainess said:

First you should have disconnected the battery before charging.

I got one of these 'Smart chargers' for about 250b from Lazada, it automatically goes into 'repair mode' a completely flat battery was charged enough in 3 hrs. to start the car. Edit; it also has an internal fan that starts when it gets hot.

I have one of those, if anyone buys one be sure to buy the 7 amp one.

They only work on a battery that has at least 7 volts, but that can be got over by my previous post info...

[Negita43]

I have two - they work fine BUT always if I am going away for a longish period I disconnect the battery - also you can buy a solar based trickle charger that will keep the battery topped up used to have one in my camper van.

[Dan O]

7 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

A trickle charger should be able to charge a drained battery. A battery in a car who's lights were left on all night. All of the dumb trickle chargers will do this. 

 

Are you seriously saying you would throw out a car battery because someone left the lights on all night ?

Not sure where you got that i said i would throw out a car battery? I just explained that you were blaming a trickle charger when it didn't do what you thought it would do. If you have a dead car battery have it tested and you'll know if it can be recharged or not but a trickle charger probably isn't gonna do it in any short amount if time as they aren't designed for that

[Harsh Jones]

8 hours ago, malathione said:

My wrench didn't work as a screwdriver so I tossed it out and threw a hissy fit as well.

Useless analogy. Goes to show you haven't wrenched on anything in your life 

Edited April 20 by Harsh Jones

[Harsh Jones]

1 hour ago, Dan O said:

Not sure where you got that i said i would throw out a car battery? I just explained that you were blaming a trickle charger when it didn't do what you thought it would do. If you have a dead car battery have it tested and you'll know if it can be recharged or not but a trickle charger probably isn't gonna do it in any short amount if time as they aren't designed for that

If you get a drained battery tested , they are going to say to throw it out. So you are saying by default that you would throw away a good battery that just needs a charge.

 

I have charged drain batteries a million times with old style constant voltage trickle chargers. And nobody said anything about a short amount of time. It takes at minimum a full night or all day. 

 

 

[Harsh Jones]

7 hours ago, Negita43 said:

I have two - they work fine BUT always if I am going away for a longish period I disconnect the battery - also you can buy a solar based trickle charger that will keep the battery topped up used to have one in my camper van.

I was going to disconnect the battery but the car was parked out front. Disconnecting the battery disables all the security features. So anyone can break into my vehicle while I'm away. 

[richard_smith237]

58 minutes ago, Harsh Jones said:

I was going to disconnect the battery but the car was parked out front. Disconnecting the battery disables all the security features. So anyone can break into my vehicle while I'm away. 

 

I've heard that a 'battery tender' is perfect for this kind of situation... !!! 

[Harsh Jones]

For those who don't know , "repair mode" on a "smart charger" is not some high tech thing. It is just like having a dumb charger hooked on in the first place.

 

From Hagarty  https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/wrenchin-wednesday-outsmarting-the-smart-battery-charger/

 

 While you’ll often find that the battery is as dead as Zed and will need to be replaced, there’s an off-chance that the sulfate layer on the battery’s lead plates can be removed with a long recharge. If your “smart” charger doesn’t already have a desulfate mode, which bypasses some of these safety measures and charges the battery in waves to attempt to break-off and dissolve the lead-sulfur crust that have built up on the battery’s plates, you can use a helper battery to trick the charger into activating and providing its full juice — which will hopefully start the desulfation process inside the battery. 

 In other words, a dumb charger is doing the exact same thing that a "smart" charger does when it in "repair" or "desulfate" mode. And is why dumb chargers can revive dead batteries 

Edited April 20 by Harsh Jones

[lemonjelly]

I bought a smart charger off Lazada. It’s not great tbh, is their battery electricity different? I’m pretty sure they drive on the wrong side of the road. 

[Harsh Jones]

1 hour ago, lemonjelly said:

I bought a smart charger off Lazada. It’s not great tbh, is their battery electricity different? I’m pretty sure they drive on the wrong side of the road. 

The problem with your "smart" charger is , if your battery is drained too much , it will refuse to charge it and mark it as defective. When there's nothing wrong with the battery at all. You will be throwing away a functioning battery. And the owners manual of your charger will instruct you to do this.

 

But a "dumb" charger could just bring it back up to charge. But that's not a problem. You can trick your "smart" charger into being a dumb charger so that you can avoid throwing away your perfectly ok battery. 

Edited April 20 by Harsh Jones

[malathione]

4 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

Useless analogy. Goes to show you haven't wrenched on anything in your life 

Your response shows that you still delight in using the wrong tool for the job and then blaming the tool rather than admitting that one might, in fact, be a tool.

[Harsh Jones]

9 minutes ago, malathione said:

Your response shows that you still delight in using the wrong tool for the job and then blaming the tool rather than admitting that one might, in fact, be a tool.

So a battery charger is the wrong tool to charge a battery. Got it. 

 

Anyway, you should be glad you learned something in this thread so you can stop throwing away functional batteries. Because that's what the owners manual of your charger says to do.

[Harsh Jones]

If an old charger or a tricked "smart" charger fails, you can always try this

 

 

[malathione]

3 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

So a battery charger is the wrong tool to charge a battery. Got it. 

 

Anyway, you should be glad you learned something in this thread so you can stop throwing away functional batteries. Because that's what the owners manual of your charger says to do.

Depends on the charger type being chosen for the task at hand, does it not? Your argument is both facile and infantile. As expected.

[Dan O]

8 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

If you get a drained battery tested , they are going to say to throw it out. So you are saying by default that you would throw away a good battery that just needs a charge.

 

I have charged drain batteries a million times with old style constant voltage trickle chargers. And nobody said anything about a short amount of time. It takes at minimum a full night or all day. 

 

 

You are making unfounded moronic statements and claiming that I said them. You are apparently used to being a 4 year old throwing tantrums and expecting to get a candy bar at the end. Its not happening.

 

The thing you need to take the hammer to is not the trickle charger but your head. Im done with this discussion and with you. Have your mom charge your diaper and then better day.

[Ralf001]

Hahahahaha, using a trickle charger on a dead flat battery !

[Harsh Jones]

46 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

Hahahahaha, using a trickle charger on a dead flat battery !

 

It was a drained battery genius. Not a dead flat battery genius. Understand that genius ? Or should I draw a picture.

Edited April 21 by Harsh Jones