Trickle Chargers?

[Duff]

"Many battery manufacturers do not recommend long term ( months at a time) trickle charging. If trickle charging is used then the charge rate should be very low or only intermittent. The best smart chargers will only send an occasional pulse charge to the battery once it is charged. They do not apply a continuous low rate of charge. Some battery resellers state that applying a continuous trickle charge of about 1/10th the battery's capacity is not harmful. However, we have not seen any battery manufacturer condone the practice." per all-battery site.

I'd like to start using those cheap solar units to keep my fence charger and my vehicles that I don't drive much charged up. Anyone use them?

[gpsman]

Used to, to keep the old pickemup charged while I was on the road for

4-12 weeks at a time. No problems to report. -----

- gpsman

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

My lawn tractor's battery used to go dead when it hadn't been used for a while. I bought a battery tender for about $5 from Harbor Freight which has been a very pleasant surprise. Last week I pulled it out for the first time since September and it cranked right up.

Unfortunately for your purposes it's not a solar unit; you have to plug it in. But for $5, it's a cheap way to keep a battery charged without any apparent damage.