Well weather here has been great so I was doing some cleaning up that I did not get to with building my son's house. I was sweeping out the garage and noticed some water about where the overflow tube is for the wiper fluid and smelled it. Boy I was surprised -- battery fluid acid. The car had a battery tender on it since December 2. I removed battery and cleaned up. Good news no real damage but still need to wash with baking soda in the AM. Thanks to 180 it had a drain on the front of the battery which was full. It is the orginial Varta battery in a 2007. I am going to put in a new battery. The battery tender was a good one but it may have gone south. I'll call them in the AM too. Just thought I'd pass this on so others will watch for same thing. Battery tender was a new from Wal-Mart about $40.

 

Does your Walmart Battery Charger, actually say "Battery Tender" on it. The name "Battery Tender" is a brand, and will not "cook" a battery like I think yours did. Many times the wording that manufacturers put on their packaging and in their manuals are very misleading, and usually done on purpose (can't prove that), to make their inexpensive product seem to perform duties that it really isn't capable of. If your Walmart charger says it will keep a battery on a "float" charge as the Battery Tender does, then it is a fault of the charger. Get a new one. If it doesn't say it will, only use it for quick charging a battery, don't use it for storage. Look on eBay or Amazon for the "Battery Tender plus". This will act as a "Charger" and then a "Float Charger", This type will stop down automatically when the battery has reached a full charge. As the charge drops on the battery, the "Tender" kicks in till it needs to shut down again and recycles, on and on. Wet Cell batteries can be kept in full charge like this for years, and years. Most other Battery Chargers will charge the battery, and then apply a continuous "trickle charge" to the battery. Result ... cooked battery. Just my $.02

 

+1 on comments by IBLUBU. I'd return the old one to Walmart and spend a few more $'s on a Deltran (http://www.batterytender.com/). They've been the leader in this area for many years and have a pretty good reputation for their products. I have three of them on various vehicles and motorcycles.

 

Deltran is the vendor for the Battery Tender, I believe they own the name as it is splashed all over their unit (The regular and the junior model).

See Deltran link for reference:

Battery Tender - Home of the Battery Tender Jr. - Batterytender.com

Whatever unit you end up with, as stated above, make sure it switches to a float charge after battery reaches full power, or you will cook the battery (and it ain't a pretty sight)...

 

I had done due deligence in reading the manual before I purchased it. It was a microprocessor controlled system that had a float mode. It was not cheap; cost was about $45.00. The charger/maintainer is a Schumacher. The manual said that "the charger is supposed to go between charge and Float-Mode montoring automatically" based on the charge in the battery in Maintain mode. I had it in Maintain mode function. My other Xfire is on the same type charger with the same setting and that one is OK.

It is a 2005 with a new MOPAR (6 months old) maintenance free battery. Oh well I'll report what Schumaker has to say in the AM. They are closed now for tech support.

 

Maybe the battery was going south and never got to a full charge so the tender kept on charging.

 

Valid point ....... +1

 

I beleive the best tenders/maintainers also have a "de-sulphating" mode.

 

A What Mode ??? Whats That Do ??????

 

Well, I'm a bit confused and I'd appreciate your thoughts. I bought one of those Schumacher float chargers at WalMart the other week and it is waiting for me under the tree. Meanwhile, I have read a couple if places on these forums where the writer believes that the unit was faulty. And so, I wonder about deploying mine.

That said, is there a way to confirm the performance of the charger? That it is in fact - performing in its "float" capacity (pardon the pun)? I'd hate to cook an otherwise good battery or to slag what might be a good charger something went wrong.

In the end, is it just a leap of faith ('tis the season!) or can the average guy dazzle himself with scientific proof?

I'd love to have been able to figure out who was who at Norm's place last week. I'm sure that one or more of my respected forum colleagues were there!

Best of the season to all,
John

 

I'm no electrical engineer and cannot comment on how these puppies work, but I bought a bunch of "battery float chargers" (mfr by Chicago Electric, which is probably in China) from Harbor Freight for $6-7 each and use them on my stored cars, m/c battery, lawn mower battery. They seem to work well and the price beats the $45 you guys paid at Wallyworld.

I think the only proof that these work is a car that starts during the winter storage or in the spring, and a battery that survives a reasonable time. I'm still running the oem battery in my 05 roadster with no apparent problems. Cannot speak for the SRT6 as the battery was replaced before I bought it three years ago.

 

180 you are the man. After talking with Schumacher Electric this AM, they confirmed that it was a battery problem. If one of the cells is going south there will be resistance and the charger will attempt to keep the battery charged and this resistance will cause heat which in turn will cause the boil over. As a side note this is the battery that was using excess water. This model charger has a Aborted Charge mode which turns the system off. This happened with mine and saved the car and the battery from some real damage rather then just some clean up.

I guess the lessons learned here is check your float system or better make sure you have one with an automatic shut off or better yet don't put one on a suspect battery.

Someone asked about battery sulfacation. This system also has a Desulfation Mode. If the battery is left discharged for extended period of time, it could become sulfated and not accept a normal charge. Desulfation can take up to 8 hours or the system will shut down to prevent damage if this can not be done safely.

Based on what I learned, I am thankful for all the safety features incorporated into the Schumacher charger/float charger. Battery went south in 3 years. I had not driven this car in over a year. I only started it once in a while. I mostly drive the roadster in the Spring and Summer.