magnatic

I picked up a 2A battery tender for use during the winter storage season and it came with an end that is apparently made to charge through the accessory outlet, but there is no mention of it in the owners manual for the charger. It also came with regular removable clips for the battery posts and another attachment for permanent mounting to the posts.

Does anyone have any experience with the using a similar charger through the accessory plug?

Thanks.

Ltngdrvr

If you plug it into the accessory outlet just remember that there is a fuse in the circuit and if for some reason the fuse blew or failed then it wouldn't be charging the battery any more. If it were me, I would use the terminal clips.

Bert

Since it's only 2 amps that shouldn't present any danger of blowing the fuse, I think the fuse is 10 or 15 amps?

But clamping directly to the battery is better, if that doesn't cause a problem with leaving the hood open.

Big Poppa

I would use the terminals. Too much could go wrong using the outlet. Keep in mind it was designed as an "outlet" to deliver power and not to receive it. Hope it works out for you.

4x4xFord

I've put my car into storage for the winter, and I'm charging through the accessory outlet. Keeps the hood down so that the car cover can go on and makes it easy to unplug and pull the car out when I go by to drive it every few weeks. My excuse for the drive is that I have to keep the tires from flat spotting, and warming the fluids up is good for it. But I also just love the way it sounds when the engine fires.

WhiteBird00

I have used the accessory outlet adapter for short term battery maintenance and it works quite well. But I would not use it for long term storage - not because the it's a problem for the outlet but because it could be a problem for the charger. Those battery maintainers have circuitry that adjusts the charging current based on battery voltage and resistance. Connecting directly to the battery terminals ensures that the charger gets accurate readings and prevents over or undercharging.

You can get pigtails that attach to the battery permanently and have a flat (trailer style) 2-pin connector that can be routed through the grille. That way you can close the hood and also disconnect easily when you want to drive the car.

fossy207

Chris, sounds like you got the same charger I bought...the Motomaster Eliminator charger/maintainer. I was just trying to figure out how to install this thing this morning when I got a little confused and decided to come online to see if anyone else knows how to set it up properly.

I plan on firing up the engine every 2-3 weeks and letting it run for 10 minutes or so to warm up the fluids, just as the owners manual recommends, so I decided to install the charger just with the cigarette lighter adapter. I cracked the window about 1 inch so I could feed the AC chord through to plug it in to the outlet. I'd rather not keep the hood open and have to touch the battery if I don't need to.

Is this an okay approach? Thoughts?

magnatic

Chris - I must have bought the same one. They were on sale so I also put one on my tractor, bike and truck. For those ones I used the pigtail attachment that came with that Whitebird mentioned in his post because the accessory outlets on those vehicles don't transmit power when the ignition is switched off. The Mustang does and it's already on the lift for the winter so it would be easier to use the accessory plug. If Whitebird is correct, I'll be using the pigtail attachment as well and making sure it's unplugged before starting the car every couple of weeks.

07Pony

I've been using a Battery Tender Plus with 12v receptical adapter for 3 years now. Works great. No issues at all. I'm still on my original OEM battery from Jan, 2007.