Woody
MegaDork
1/15/20 2:11 p.m.
I have three Battery Tender Jr.s hooked up in the garage right now, but I was thinking about getting one of the 4-Bank Battery Tenders, mainly to eliminate some of the clutter and to free up a couple of outlets.
Is there any downside to using one of the multi bank tenders?
Not a Battery Tender, but I use a 4 bank NOCO Genius G4 often at work.
We use a lot of deep cycle marine batteries, and they're often super dead by the time we figure out there's a charging issue. The Genius is pretty impressive, and has revived some batteries that our big Shumachers told us were dead.
Only downsides I can think of are the cables often get tangled, and it's on the pricey end of battery chargers.
I like the G4 so much that I bought myself a G3500 for home.
I have a few 4 bank battery tenders here in the shop. I can't see a downside to them.
I doubt there would actually be less clutter if you account for the longer cord runs to the car, but there would be fewer outlets used.
I have two 4 bank battery tender. 0 issues. Love them.
some longer wires to get to the cars further away, but isn't a big deal imho
We run a slew of NOCO multi battery units at work to keep big-rig batteries up to snuff and they seem to do a great job. I've never seen an issue with the charger and rarely a battery problem too. I purchased a single battery NOCO Genius for home use and it has served me well and brought back a few I thought were dead.
Used to use these at work to keep the batteries on the shelf fresh and ready to go. The only issue is when you forget to turn the tender back on after removing a battery. That's a human error issue and not a device issue.
I've got that exact Battery Tender for my motorcycles. Very happy with it. I'd recommend buying a few of the extension cables with it so you have more leeway in placing the charger unless you liking tripping over it...
Woody
MegaDork
1/16/20 7:46 a.m.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
If you are not using one bank, is there still a live cord coming off of it?
NOCO Genius G4's cables unplug if you don't need all of them.
Woody said:
In reply to BoxheadTim :
If you are not using one bank, is there still a live cord coming off of it?
The tender senses that there is nothing plugged in and shuts off that bank. When you do plug in a car it will wait a few seconds then you will hear a relay click and the light turns green. I don't think is just leaving the line live
Woody
MegaDork
1/16/20 10:39 a.m.
In reply to Jumper K Balls (Trent) :
Thank you.
Woody
MegaDork
1/16/20 10:39 a.m.
In reply to bigdaddylee82 :
Thank you.
Woody said:
In reply to BoxheadTim :
If you are not using one bank, is there still a live cord coming off of it?
Late to the party - I've only got three out of the four banks hooked up right now and it does detect that the fourth one isn't connected to anything. Haven't checked if it also turns off that bank as the indicator light keeps flashing.
If they are anything like the NAPA unit, they don't send a constant voltage out. They monitor voltage on the line and then send a little burp of current every five seconds or so.
Another option to free up outlets if you already have several tenders is to use a 6 outlet surge protector. I have three tenders(of various brands) plugged in that way with a SxS, quad, and dual sport plugged on them.
We have a 10 bank Battery tender at work, used it about four month snow with no problems. I am also pretty sure the wires no attached to a battery are not live. I may have accidentally touched the leads and had no ill effects.
Cotton
PowerDork
1/19/20 7:44 p.m.
I have a 10 bank battery tender. Works great.