Battery Tender

[Monty]

Interested to know if people leave a battery tender always plugged in or if there is a downside to this other than the hassle of plugging and unplugging which I have a work around for.
Thank you

[Shadowrider]

What kind of battery and what kind of battery tender?

[jiott]

Use the EarthX battery and you don't need a trickle charger to hassle with. It will lose almost no charge over many, many months-even a year. One of the big advantages of the lithium-iron battery, other than weight and power.

[efwd]

Just Fly More Often. ;)

My EarthX didn't survive a year on the shelf for me. They did not recommend not tending to the battery periodically as I had done. They were very good on the customer service too. They sent me a new one. Kitfox no longer ships the kits with a battery and John, as I recall, said that this is the reason why. Debra also was great on the subject. She assured me that if EarthX for some reason wouldn't work with me that KF would for sure.
Back to the subject. I do not use my battery tender as I fly one to three times a week. Not braggin, but I am having fun!:cool:

[Monty]

Use the EarthX battery and you don't need a trickle charger to hassle with. It will lose almost no charge over many, many months-even a year. One of the big advantages of the lithium-iron battery, other than weight and power.
Thank you very much

[Monty]

Just Fly More Often. ;)

My EarthX didn't survive a year on the shelf for me. They did not recommend not tending to the battery periodically as I had done. They were very good on the customer service too. They sent me a new one. Kitfox no longer ships the kits with a battery and John, as I recall, said that this is the reason why. Debra also was great on the subject. She assured me that if EarthX for some reason wouldn't work with me that KF would for sure.
Back to the subject. I do not use my battery tender as I fly one to three times a week. Not braggin, but I am having fun!:cool:
Wish I could. Weather and work get in the way during the winter :)

[109JB]

I have several battery tender type charger/maintainer that I use on SLA and AGM type batteries in everything from motorcycles, lawn mowers, skid loaders, and my airplanes. On my Sonerai I used a SLA garden tractor battery that I used a battery maintainer when I knew it could be some time between flights, and for winter storage (no cabin heat). I never had an issue when the maintainer was hooked up, only when I let it sit without the maintainer connected did I have problems. On my Kitfox, it has a small AGM battery and the airplane resides in an unheated hangar. I have a maintainer hooked to it right now and it has been hooked to it since my last flight about a week ago. I have no reservations about doing so. I use a couple different brands of maintainers, with the majority of them being Battery Tender brand. None that I currently have are compatible with LiFePO4 batteries.

That said, the LiFePO4 are very attractive and when it comes time to replace my Kitfox battery it will likely be replaced with a LiFePO4 battery. However, when that happens I will get a compatible maintainer and still hook it up. and the reason is:

I have been into RC airplanes for a long time and have used NiCd, NiMH, dry cell, LiPo, etc. Also having many seasonal use pieces of equipment, I have never had any battery that did poorly when being maintained. Some batteries can take a deep discharge and be charged back up, but the LiPo batteries I have for my RC stuff are basically ruined if they are allowed to discharge too much just one time. I go through a monthly ritual with my RC batteries and make sure they are fully charged. I do this because in the past I wasn't so particular and had LiPo batteries that were ruined from not being maintained.

[Monty]

Some very good feedback here. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond here.

[Monty]

What kind of battery and what kind of battery tender? I have the EarthX battery

[efwd]

I recommend giving EarthX a call and they will point to the charger/power supply you will require for the battery you use. They will tell you not to use a lead acid battery charger on the LiFePO4 battery if you are not aware of that already.

[Monty]

thank you Eddie I'm going with the Optimate from EarthX on their recommendations and desertfox4 (Steve) as well.

[n85ae]

If you fly somewhat regularly, and you have "any" of the batteries commonly in use in a Kitfox,
you will never need a battery tender unless your battery is ready to be replaced ....

I'm using a Scorpion currently, but previously used the Skystar provided original battery, and then
later an Odyssey PC-680. So far the Scorpion is the best performer. It only gets charged when
the airplane is flying ...

Jeff

[Monty]

Thank you Jeff. I appreciate the response

[copythat]

Not much experience with aircraft battery tender, but I have a small fleet of boats and I have a Noco Genius connect to every one - the Noco is marine grade so it is weather rated. Every boat and jet ski I own has a dedicated tender bolted to each battery. The charger easily pays for itself in longer life of each connected battery.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G3500-UltraSafe-Battery-Charger/dp/B004LWVEKS
Look at those ratings - over 4 stars with over 4000 reviews - pretty solid.

Just remove the clips to bolt lead direct to terminal.

[Monty]

Not much experience with aircraft battery tender, but I have a small fleet of boats and I have a Noco Genius connect to every one - the Noco is marine grade so it is weather rated. Every boat and jet ski I own has a dedicated tender bolted to each battery. The charger easily pays for itself in longer life of each connected battery.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G3500-UltraSafe-Battery-Charger/dp/B004LWVEKS
Look at those ratings - over 4 stars with over 4000 reviews - pretty solid.

Just remove the clips to bolt lead direct to terminal. Thank you for the insight

[desertdave]

Not much experience with aircraft battery tender, but I have a small fleet of boats and I have a Noco Genius connect to every one - the Noco is marine grade so it is weather rated. Every boat and jet ski I own has a dedicated tender bolted to each battery. The charger easily pays for itself in longer life of each connected battery.

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G3500-UltraSafe-Battery-Charger/dp/B004LWVEKS
Look at those ratings - over 4 stars with over 4000 reviews - pretty solid.

Just remove the clips to bolt lead direct to terminal.

I have used the same charger for several years. It works great and I highly recommend it.