Battery & Charger ?'s

SWSportsman · Post by **SWSportsman** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:50 pm

63 Beetle, stock 1600 DP, converted to 12 volt. Want to go with an Odyssey type battery. Any recommendations? Will the 680 crank my 1600 okay?

BTW, are the Harbor Freight Battery Maintainers ($6 to $10) just as good at the $50 Battery Tenders? The product claims and description seems to be about the same.

Thanks.

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:38 am

Thanks for your post.. this battery should be sufficient.

MedicTed · Post by **MedicTed** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:44 pm

Harbor Freight stuff is OK. But I would not trust one of their tenders on my car. If it fails and overcharges the battery, it could cause a fire.

SWSportsman · Post by **SWSportsman** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:54 am

I understand that Ted, but how is that different from a Battery Tender failing and over charging?

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:52 am

I own tons of Harbor Freight stuff.. I always have the expectation that it needs to be repaired from the box.

A good quality battery charger has autoshutoff and is about $35 or so.

CopperBaja · Post by **CopperBaja** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:34 am

Are you talking about this one?

"The floating circuit maintains a full charge without overcharging. Includes automatic safety shut off." & 10ft leads.

I've had good experience with Chicago Electric.

Looks like a decent unit, without all the bells and whistles from "Battery Tender" brand.

SWSportsman · Post by **SWSportsman** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 3:14 pm

Yep, that's the one. Just bought two of them on sale for $4.99 ea. less the 20% off coupon. Seems to good to be true.

sideshow · Post by **sideshow** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:36 pm

I really like harbor freight tools. This is not one of the good ones, the little square box tends to melt down ( 4 failures, not a good value).

72bajaben · Post by **72bajaben** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:17 pm

i almost bought one of those. im thinking that i should have, now that im having problems with my charging system.

so does anyone have a spare alternator that they want to get rid of really cheap. lol

CopperBaja · Post by **CopperBaja** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:31 pm

sideshow wrote:I really like harbor freight tools. This is not one of the good ones, the little square box tends to melt down ( 4 failures, not a good value).

Meaning that you have had 4 failures with this unit???

sideshow · Post by **sideshow** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:16 pm

Yup 4 failures.
The first one melted down, the second quit, the third melted down, and with that many going bad I used the fourth one once or twice and bough a conventional charger for near 75$,

So the fourth one probably still works, but is in a drawer somewhere not to be trusted.

CopperBaja · Post by **CopperBaja** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:06 pm

Thanks. Great to know. I guess the polls are in on this one.

Not recommended.