I use a pair of Schumacher maintainers at home to keep the Coug and my F150 charged.

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SE...tainer/dp/B0009IBJAS?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00


I have both maintainers mounted to a wall on the garage, with a 25' lead routed to each vehicle's parking space:

Amazon.com: Schumacher EC-25 25' Cable Connector Extension Cord: Automotive


Lastly, I have these leads installed on the battery of both vehicles, as well as my riding mower, to make hookup quick and easy. I don't even need to pop the hood on my F150, as the lead is routed through the grill.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tende...connect/dp/B000NCOKZQ?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

 

X2 on the 1562-CA , Had one on the bird for many years worked like a charm gave up the ghost this year, Replaced with same .:wink2:

 

I use the new Optima. It works great.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/shop/charger/digital-1200/

I bought it elsewhere. I can't remember where off the top of my head and my purchase records are at home.

Shop around for the best price.

 

I'm sure the Optima is a great charger, but that's awfully overpriced.

 

I bought a Stanley battery maintainer at my local hardware/home improvement store for $20. It comes with three removable charging options, one for charging through the cigar lighter, one that mounts to the battery leads, and a set of alligator clips.

I have the terminal set attached to my cables, and plugged it in all winter. It charges the battery to 12V via slow trickle, then goes to a super low trickle to just keep it there. Worked fine all winter long, and was cheap. 1.5 Amp Battery Maintainer - BC209 | Stanley Tools

 

I have this one that I've used for my tbird track car for 2 years now; it's a schumacher unit that has worked pretty well.
Sears.com

I bought it because it was the cheapest one I could find that supports a desulfation mode (from the manual).
"Desulfation Mode
If the battery is left discharged for an extended period of time, it could
become sulfated and not accept a normal charge. If the charger
detects a sulfated battery, the charger will switch to a special mode of
operation designed for such batteries. If successful, normal charging
will resume after the battery is desulfated. Desulfation could take up
to 8 hours. If desulfation fails, charging will abort and the CHARGING
(yellow) LED will blink."

Sears has a bunch of deals with their shopyourway.com program so you should easily be able to get $5-10 off this price if you wait for a deal.

I also have a 40A/200A starter I use to jump the car at the racetrack if needed I picked up on sale from Sears for $35. Between the two, I'm pretty well squared away.
-g

 

I use an old wall wart, seriously :zwall:

 

A 50 or 100mA unregulated 12VDC wall wart will work fine with a car battery.

I wouldn't go bigger, but it will just use more water.

You don't want the peak voltage to go over 16-18V, or it can cause hard sulfation, an even worse kind.

You do need to add water regularly to any unsealed wet cell battery, anyway.

The new tenders have some fancy desulfation modes, but if you take care of it, it won't ever sulfate to begin with.

If you keep one long enough, it will fall apart internally.

I've only seen that happen once; no it wasn't my battery, but an older neighbor.

 

I've heard that Trickle chargers are bad for batteries as they constantly keep a flow of energy through the battery from an outside source which can eventually break it down. What you want is a battery TENDER, which will keep the battery at its proper charge and will stop charging the battery once it is where it needs to be, and restarts the process as necessary.

 

Ordinarily, a trickle charger is one that you manually hook up when the battery gets a little low, not one that stays hooked up all the time.

The Craftsman one I have has 2A, 5A and 10A settings. The 2A is considered the trickle setting as it take several hours to take it from a hair under 12v to fully charged.

Al

 

The stanley I posted is listed as a battery maintainer. It stops charging once it's fully charged, and then goes to trickle mode once the voltage drops to a certain point (11.8V I believe).

Otherwise, you really can't go wrong with the good old "Battery Tender". They're pretty much the standard, designed to be permanently installed and left plugged in all winter.

 

I've been using the Ctek Multi US 7002 for a few years now..

I bought it initially to try, and brink back my Optima Yellow Tops..It has a *recondition mode for that purpose..

I was able to bring back one of them..Not to 100% though..

Overall a great charger..Nice, and Compact..
With lots of useable features, and the option to keep it permanently mounted discretely in the engine bay for a non-daily driver..






Rayo..

 

I have this: NOCO G3500

Mine is the older version without the lithium, but it's pretty sweet. It has 'smart' technology and interchangeable ends so you can use the clamps and leave the leads on your car and just plug it up. I have also recovered some long dead AGM batteries with it as well as some that I killed by leaving my lights on . I found it at Goodwill for $30 BNIB.

Doing some research on this with the tech on their site also netted me a discount so I definitely recommend looking at them and asking questions. It is a very nice charger.

 

The one I linked does 6v and 12v. It charges either at .9v or 3.5v. It does standard flooded type batteries, AGM and now Lithium ION as well (3.5v). It also has a 12v 'repair' mode. It does recovery/charge/trickle all on it's own. It's modular like the one Rod linked to with all the same type connectors, cords and accessories.

I did find that the discount they offered me comes out to about the same price as their products listed on Amazon. For less than $60, I'd definitely recommend it.

 

I have 4 of these: CTEK Multi US 3300 - CTEK Battery ChargersCTEK Battery Chargers that I use on all my toys to maintain them while in storage as well as one of these I use to de-sulfate and bring old ones back to a usable state. https://www.batterystuff.com/battery-products/g7200.html